malc-c

yup !

Just some observations: The Onestep is fully open source by the looks of things. The design and firmware for whatever off the shelf computer board (tensey , mega wemos etc) is available for download. This is needed to make the project work The firmware for the AstroEQ is not open source, but the compiled hex file does seem available via GitHub, but with so many supporting files and bootloaders installation doesn't appear straight forward and you may still find you have to purchase the firmware (that was what I was told when I asked for the firmware a year or two ago). A pre-programmed Atmel chip on a custom PCB has been made for the AstroEQ project, but you can't purchase one, technically this with the point above makes the AstroEQ a non runner as without the firmware it won't work The schematics for the AstroEQ have nee made available as PDFs and appear to have been drawn in Eagle. You can download Eagle for free, but are limited to a small board size that is smaller than a mega, so designing a plug in "shield" wouldn't be an option without purchasing the software. Regardless of which Schematic and PCB layout software you opt for it will need manually drawing as AstroEQ don't appear to make the Eagle files available for import. Likewise their PCB files are not publicly available. The Onestep project uses off the shelf modules making construction easy - lets face it an EQ mount is no different to a 3D printer or CNC machine just with different firmware. The concept is the same - controlling two stepper motors I've designed PCBs for my own projects, the most recent is a 4 layer PCB that plugs into a Mega and provides 8 independent thermostats for control of the heating elements in my reptile enclosures. It's a long process and can take two or three redesigns before you get it right. The AstroEQ schematic isn't complicated, but matching components to the BOM listed would take some time and may require custom designing of parts if they have used parts that are not available in all countries. Once the schematic is drawn and checked you then design the PCB from the schematic, again this can take some time as you are often moving parts around to make for easier routing of the tracks. Cost... Well lets assume you could purchase a pre-programmed Atment chip and you have designed your PCB. you have checked it over and feel confident it has no errors, and a printed paper mock up fits the case or mount. China is the place to have them made. PCBWAY or JLCPCB are the two popular options. The minimum order is 5 boards, so you could be looking at $50-70 for the order shipped by DHL. Not sure about now, but pre pandemic I've uploaded designs on a Sunday and received the PCBs the following Saturday and that wasn't on a premium 24 hrs service... You will get charged customs duty and VAT so you could end up with five boards costing you £50 - £80. Lets say the board works and no revisions are required. What do you do with the other four boards? You could sell them if you can find four other people in a similar situation as yourself, but typically you end up putting the surplus boards away in a draw never to see the light of day again. In my case I have used three of the thermostat builds in three units, and I could always sell the two remaining boards with the compiled code as there are a lot of people wanting them (but due to legislation and the fact it switches mains voltages I'm not doing that). So basically you've probably spent more than it might have cost to purchase a ready made PCB form AstroEQ, assuming the shop reopens. But have also spent hours, days or weeks getting there. On the other hand, designing a PCB to accept the Onesep design would probably take an afternoon... and basically only consists of header pins or sockets. I did something like that for a DIY project to motorise a photographic slider. An arduino nano and a stepper driver board. A small PCB with rows of pin headers and the two just plug in.... simples ! Anyway... that's my 2p worth.

Have a read of this thread - if you have access to a PIC programmer and a soldering iron your HEQ5 motor board could see another lease of life

As others have mentioned, it all runs on the one computer. Depending on the operating system, you run the software to control the mount, software to navigate around the sky, such as CdC, your imaging software such as APT or sharpcap, and PHD2 for guiding all from the one device.

It's amazing what you find by typing in "skywatcher version 3.0 firmware uploader download" into a search engine like Google.... a few minutes later you find a site that hosts it Second item on the Skywatcher India page here But to save you the time - file attached 😉 V3.0 Firmware update app .zip

Yes, basically that adapter should be compatible with the TTL 5v logic levels that the motorboard is expecting, but officially there is no driver support for Windows 8 or 10, and whilst drivers form Prolific and other 3rd party sites are available there is no guarantee that they won't play up. Nearly every post on the EQMOD user group about missing comports, or EQMOD timing out are related to people using Prolific 230x based cables. Personally, I would just order an EQDIR cable from FLO and then you don't have to worry about things...

The clue is in the description This is not the true definition, but RS232 is a protocol. That means that how data is transmitted and received in terms of the 1's and 0s by pulse widths etc is the standard. Initially when serial was used between two devices the data was sent over log distances and operated at +/- 12v due to the distances. When it was required to interface to devices that ran at 5v and the TTL logic levels were established you had to use MAX232 chips and four capacitors as charge pumps to take the 5v TTL serial data and translate that to true RS232 +/- 12v levels (and vice-versa at the other end if the other device used 5v TTL chips). Then along came USB. A true "standard" USB to serial converter does a similar thing. They basically take the 5V TTL level USB serial protocol convert it to RS232 serial, and then raise the voltages in the same way as the MAX232 chips to output at true standard. Then the RS232-5VTTL standard was developed and this done away with the voltage leveller, so now the chipset in the adapter simply took the USB protocol and converted it to RS232 protocol, but the voltages remains the same at 5v. The only disadvantage was distance, but then most of these were for use over 2-3 metres so that wasn't a problem. Most devices these days are RS232-TTL convertors, but you can still get standard RS232 convertors - hence my comment. Regards to the FTDI and other devices. FTDI devices work well with Skywatcher mounts. You'll notice that the supported operating systems listed in the webpage you linked to lists every operating system up to and including Windows 7. In 2012 when Windows 10 was in development MS opted to completely rewrite the kernal, the core of windows, and as such a lot of legacy drivers would not work and new drivers needed to be written by 3rd party vendors. Prolific had developed the PC230x series of USB to 232TTL chipset and didn't want to invest in news drivers so since 2012 has technically not been supported un windows 10. (In fact that device doesn't even have windows 8 support, and requires a late build of windows 7 to work). However in recent years legacy drivers have appeared for the 230x chipsets and whilst windows 7 drivers can be made to function on windows 10 it's often hit and miss. If I had £1 for every post I see on forums and user groups where people are experience problems communicating to a SW mount using a prolific chipset I could retire tomorrow - The strange thing is that in some of the recent versions of handsets, and some mounts with USB ports, SW have used prolific chipsets in them, like a built in EQDIR cable ! For the past 10 years I've had a home made EQDIR cable which is basically a 2m FTDI- 2325V ready made cable with an RJ45 connector crimped in to the RX/TX and GND wires as per the diagram on EQMOD's website - It's worked without issue for the whole time. Yes it costs a little more initially, but it last and it works. FTDI produce up-to-date drivers, and they are windows 10 compliant. Hope that helps....

The wiring of an EQDIR connector is different from a standard USB to serial adaptor. True RS232 also operates at +/- 12v rather than 0-5v TTL levels, so even if you do wire up the pins as per the EQMOD website you end up shoving 12v or more into the PIC microcontroller and it blows. That's why I gave you the manufactures part number from the FTDI website.

And then risk blowing the motor board... If you want to make your own EQDIR cable purchase a genuine FTDI 232-5V cable from the manufactures - cost will be around £18 ( don't get the 3.3v version as you may have communication issues as the TTL logic levels are too low for the mount to detect them). Then identify the TX, RX and GND wires, and remove the others. Terminate the three wires with an RJ45 as per the prerequisite page on the EQMOD website. However for another £15 you can purchase a ready made and tested cable that is three or four times the length and without the hassle. You also have some form of comeback if it fails anytime in the 12 months after. Do not use a standard USB to serial adaptor... that will blow the board.

The options you have, depending on the generation of handset are to connect the mount directly to the computer using an EQDIR cable. It's advisable to get a genuine EQDIR from FLO or RVO (other retailers also stock them), and then run ASCOM and EQMOD or GGS server under windows as the mount controller and use a planetarium application of your choice, PHD2 and any imaging application. Or use a USB cable between the computer and the handset (assuming the handset is the newer generation) and connect the handset in PC-DIRECT mode to the mount. You can then run ASCOM on a windows machine as described above. If you have an older version of handset that doesn't have a USB socket, you can use the supplied serial cable, with a bog standard USB to SERIAL adapter (unless you have a really old PC with a DB9 serial port fitted) to do the same as the USB cable on newer handsets. - Place the handset in PC-DIRECT mode to allow communications throughput. If you want to remotely access the mount, rather than sit by it then you can either remote desktop into a windows based machine controlling the mount as described above, or you can use a Raspberry Pi, and run EKOS and INDI along with LINUX to do the same function as the windows PC. You will still need some connection such as an EQDIR cable between the Pi and mount. You would then VNC into the the Pi and control the mount remotely. Remote access is more suited if you have a permanent set up with a pier or observatory. I personally use an old windows PC in my observatory set up. The mount is connected to the PC via an FTDI based EQDIR cable with EQMOD as the chosen application with ASCOM platform handling the comms between CdC and PHD2. I remote into the PC from my main PC in the lounge (twin 24" monitors) and perform my imaging sessions form the lounge. - It works for me

Hard to say as scouting FLO's website these mounts don't appear to be available as a separate purchase to get some idea. The only mount I found that looked similar is the SkyWatcher Star Discovery WiFi mount at £350. I tend to look at between 50% to 75% of the new cost as a fair price depending on the condition. If the item has been kept in its box, and the box is in pristine condition then around £250, if it's unboxed, but otherwise in good condition, £160 - £175. But it depends on market trends. At the moment astro gear is in short supply, so you could ask £300 and someone may want it !

So where I have my observatory PC running CdC, and communicating direct to the mount via an EQDIR cable which gives me the option to undertake an imaging session in the observatory, or remotely using remote desktop form my main PC, in order to do the same with Kstars I would have a Pi attached to the mount running INDI server, presumably with the EQDIR cable connected to it and the mount, and then use EKOS on the Observatory PC (or any other PC on the network) to communicate with the INDI server running on the Pi... Interesting... So in essence, I could either install the Linux variants of APT, PHD2 and Kstars on the Pi and do away with the observatory PC, or run the windows versions on any PC on the network and have it connect to the pi running the INDI server... again, doing away with the observatory PC ?? I have to ask though, why are you so against the ASCOM platform?

If that is the case, then why port it to Windows, or any other platform like a Mac... Most people will use it for telescope control, and for some having to learn the ins and outs of Linux in order to run it on a Pi or similar is why they stick with the windows PC option. I hear what you are saying, and that there is a workaround, but it just seems illogical to me...

I stumbled on Kstars many moons ago, and was disappointed that the port from Linux didn't natively support ASCOM. Years later I'm equally disappointed that now, with more and more people knowing about K-Stars it STIL appears that it doesn't support ASCOM in the windows version. With EQMOD and now GSS Server being the goto ASCOM interface to control a scope the developers are missing such a wide customer base.

Sorry... I don't use Apple products... a quick google and Starry Sky Stacker might be an option... Can't vouch for it as I've only ever used windows platform and applications

Geoff, The issue of field rotation tends to be less noticeable when wide field targets are selected and wide field lenses or scopes are used. It's quite surprising just how fast we are rotating, and even in a 3 minute exposure stars will trail. Because an ALT/AZ mount has to make up / down / left / right movements when tracking it can lead to poor quality results when used with higher magnifications or long focal length scopes. Imaging is possible with an AZ mount, but there are restraints that make it just a little more challenging. Software can help, and stacking images, either live or post session, and it's just a case of how well the software can deal with the rotation and overlap the points of light.

Lee, It's possible to convert the SW 9 x 50 into a finderscope. You have to remove the "eyepiece" section from the tube and fit an adaptor in its place to suit your camera. I use an old QHY5 that has a standard (C or T) mount adaptor thread so used one of these adaptors https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/finderscope-c-or-t-adaptors.html to connect the camera to the finder. Not 100% sure it would work with out an extension on a RACI version as the focal point may be behind the camera. There are plenty of small guidescopes available, including packages deals with cameras https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/telescope-guidescopes.html?scroll=1513

I use a GPS dongle and let EQMOD read it in. Then enter the same values in CDC. I don't think 60 feet of elevation would make that much difference to the positioning of the mount.

Excellent.. The issue is that Microsoft totally re-wrote the kernel (the core code) with windows 10, and this meant all the vendors for any product had to re-write their drivers. Prolific didn't do that, so MS basically gives you a warning stating the support for that driver ended in 2012. The thing is, either Prolific have had a change of heart over the years as so many devices with their 2302 chipset became obsolete, and have now produced a win10 compliant driver, or MS have built in support for legacy windows 7 drivers and not told people ! Anyway, glad you have it sorted.

I recently posted in another thread where a member was having loads of issues with his mount and PHD2... but here's the edited version Run the TOOLBOX application - From windows start button > all programs > EQMOD > EQASCOM > Toolbox Click DRIVER SETUP In mount options leave that set to Auto Detect Enter the correct latitude, longitude and elevation for your location Ensure ASCOPM PulseGuiding is selected under the guiding section and set the RA and DEC Rate to x0.90 Click OK to close the config window Once you are happy with the polar alignment, select a target that is close to the elliptic and about 30 degrees up and use the NSEW buttons on EQMOD to move the mount to any star near that area. Open up Stallarium and connect to the mount - ensuring that the location information is the same as EQMOD Open up PHD2 and ensure logging is enabled Select a target in CDC and instruct the mount to slew to target - take a single exposure to confirm its on target Open up PHD2 and create a new profile. Run through the wizard to enter the focal length of the finder and camera pixel size etc Use the option from the TOOLS menu to auto select the star Hopefully it will calibrate well enough to do a guided run Some of the above can be ignored... I'm sure you already have the locations set, the mount polar aligned etc.... it was just easier to cut and paste than retype

Still no update..... what a waste of time and effort !

Glad to hear the mount is now connected and working. I guess you've done the normal thing of unplugging the camera and plugging it back in again? - Or find it in device manager and remove it and then scan for new hardware changes (I tend to also delete the driver so the driver gets reinstalled and re-registered)

OK, so with what you describe you have the handset plugged into the mount, the PC-DIRECT cable that you used to update the handset plugged into the handset, with the cable connected to the laptop via a USB to serial adaptor. You will then you'll need the driver for the USB/Serial adaptor so that it shows up as a com port in windows device manager. The only time you won't need a driver would be if you are connecting directly to a serial port on a laptop but hardwired serial ports and now seldom found on PC's. The port needs to be configured for 9600 baud speed. You also need to place the handset in PC-DIRECT mode to allow the pass through of commands. To control the mount you need to install the ASCOM platform and then an ASCOM compliant telescope "driver" such as EQMOD or GGS Server. Either application will need configuring with your location details and pointing to whatever com port you are using. To direct the mount you'll need a planetarium application such as Cartes du Ciel. As for guiding, forget the ST4 cable. Install PHD2 and use pulse guiding.

Been googling around and it may be unique to the new EQ6 mounts with USB, but device manager does indeed register a prolific chipset....so it might be worth downloading the prolific chipset from here plugging the USB lead in with the mount powered up and seeing if it detects the mount. If it does change the driver settings to 115000 baud and see if EQMOD can communicate with the mount

From discussions with members who were considering replacing / repairing synscan units the newer versions with USB ports actually use ARM microcontrollers that don't appear to have any USB- Serial chipset such as the prolific convertors in the PCB. Whilst there is an "ASCOM" driver for the V5 handsets, nothing exists for the newer mounts, so my guess would be that the handling of the USB comms is part of the mounts firmware. I could be wrong as I've not examined a new board first hand... and this has been based on images of a new board From what I've read connecting a USB lead should cause device manager to display the connection as a Comport and this need setting to 115000 baud rate rather than 9600 when using an EQDIR cable on an older version of these units. It may be worth the OP contacting the retailer for some advice, and if it is of the opinion that the module is faulty it can be replaced under warranty