rodrigol

The blutetooth approach works with the adapters mentioned above. I've got this working on my samsu* phone and android tablet (nexu*7). Gosh! the weather has been so awful that most of the observing time has gone to testing these devices. I still have an issue with the SLT scopes not behaving quite as expected. 

On the WiFi front it would be good to know if someone has tested the celeston wifi skyq link adapter with sky safari pro or plus.

Hi rodrigol,

I can confirm that the BT device that I link to above does work as expected and was originally on the recommended devices on the Southern Stars website (USConverters Serial Bluetooth RS232 Adapter) that's why I bought one in the first place, for some reason it's now not.... strange.

I've only used the BT adapter with my Skywatcher though so I'm not saying that there might not be issues with other scope brands. Saying that the fact that you have connected to the scope through the BT adapter even if it's not working as expected is still a good thing as it might just mean you have a setting wrong.

If you can answer a few questions hopefully we can get your issue sorted.

Have you tried it with the CPC yet and is it working with full goto or are you having the same issue?

Are you going through your normal goto alignment with the SLT until you get 'alignment successful' before you try and connect the BT adapter and Sky Safari?

On Sky Safari what scope and mount settings are you using?

Worst case, although I don't have a Celestron scope my mate has one - 127 Mak on a Alt/Az goto mount so if we still can't get it sorted I can try out the setup on his scope to see if I get similar issue.

Cheers

Hi Steve,

I can confirmt the setup in question works as expected with CPC, which I hope is good news for those that are asking about this setup combination. GOTO's work just fine. With the SLT I do align first and then connect to the BT to the handset. I've also tried other telescope options in SF to see if one works with the SLT but GOTO's do not work, like on the CPC. It would be great if you could try with your friends SLT (it's identical to mine, except he may have other hand control and/or motor firmware version. Please note I have the latest.

Indeed many thanks for looking into this!

R:)

Hi,

If someone could confirm that the bluetooth devices mentioned above work as expected (e.g. directional arrows move the scope, GOTO actually works) - with SW or Celestron hardware. I do realize that Southern Stars indicate they only support a few devices that are expensive (> £80 ) and hard to come by (http://www.southernstars.com/products/skysafari_android/scope_control.html). It seems the devices mentioned in this post are not supported?! However, it also seems that SW owners are a bit luckier than Celestron ones as it is possible the drivers are more forgiving. I cannot get the GOTO to do anything.

Brilliant posting! I'm trying out this out on both my CPC and SLT at the moment and have come up with an issue on the SLT: I can connect and move the scope using the direction arrows but I cannot get the GOTO to work at all. I can't understand what it wrong.

The equipment I'm using the make the connection is identical to the one described here, except the phone is running Android JB 4.1.1.

One of the reasons for doing this is because I want to automate and remote control as much as possible due to mobility issues.