budgierless

Philip,

I've just read Stev74's reply and it seems I may have gone off in the wrong direction with my replies. I thought you were looking to connect your mount to your laptop - sorry!

Dave

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

yes & no, my adapter is old, and yes i have software cd for it, will its still work with windows 8.1, so its good to have another option, without me thinking to wipe my laptop to XP for that to work.

@stev74  thanks

@Dave with luck i wont have that issue, but as stated i will add the Tripp Lite adapter item to my wishlist in case i do need a replacement, so thanks for that.

Hi budgierless, I thought you were sorted with your bluetooth adapter? Don't you just connect your BT adaptor to your mount with the cable? This would only be of any use with a laptop. I see from an earlier post that you have a Skywatcher 130p(?) which I guess is on their Synscan GOTO mount. I believe this mount is the same as Celetron's SLT mount which is what my 130p is on. I had huge difficulty finding a compatible USB-serial adapter for that mount. In the end only the Tripp Lite adapter would work for me - but that was just my experience.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Hi dave,

Indeed you are right, the bluetooth is not problem, Yes i am now only dealing with connecting to a laptop, which now now part of the setup before.

Thanks fro letting me know what USB-serial adapter you used, as i can add it to my wishlist,  its very instresting that i just come to this last post to check out that one cable as i found the one i stated in a bag of PC bits, and its says its R232, so just wonder if i would be saving a pound or two if the item truns out to be what i need, I havent had the change to test yet as im away from home now, that is why i asked in this thread.

what was the issue with your difficulty finding a compatible USB-serial adapter, in what way did it not work, the PC or the device?

cheers

Phillip

Hi guys,

I had one of these which i got off ebay many years ago, can i use THIS? or must i use the suggested item from other post?

Ok as promised here's a list of the hardware that you will need and some info on how to control your telescope wirelessly with Bluetooth from the Android version of Sky Safari.

Hardware links

Bluetooth Adapter - http://www.ebay.co.u...dd#ht_756wt_932

USB to RS232 - http://www.amazon.co...ils_o06_s00_i00

RS232 Serial Null Modem Adapter - http://www.amazon.co...ils_o00_s00_i00

9 Pin Male/Male Serial RS232 Gender Changer Adapter - http://www.amazon.co...ils_o01_s00_i00

RS232 Serial Cable - I don't have a link for this as I used the SW RS232 cable that came with the scope (although I think FLO and other dealers sell these separately if you don't have one).

Software Links

Sky Safari plus or pro for your Android device (mobile/tablet) - http://www.southerns...roid/index.html

Hyper Terminal - This program was already on my older XP laptop, if you have an older computer just search in programs and you should find it. It wasn't on my Vista PC and I don't believe it's on Win7 either.

Alternatives to Hyper Terminal if you don't have it already - http://www.usconvert...id=15&chapter=0

In the Tools and Diagnostics Software section on the above link you will find downloads for Tera Term and Putty which are Terminal software alternatives.

Instructions

First connect the Bluetooth adapter to your PC with the USB to RS232 cable and open Hyper Terminal (or alternative software) set the baud rate on HT to 19200bps so it can can 'talk' to the BT adapter as that's its default baud rate. Then change the baud rate of the BT adapter to 9600bps, you can then disconnect and change the baud rate on HT to 9600bps and reconnect to check if you have been successful.

This You tube vid will talk you through the process -

Next you need to connect all the hardware and switch on the BT adapter -

BT adapter to 9 Pin Male/Male to Null Modem to RS232 Serial cable to RJ12 port on SynScan Hand control. Here's a couple of pics (sorry not great quality) so you can see it all connected up, it's all held on with velcro. Notice the flashing lights on the BT adapter I plan on covering them with some black electrical tape before I go to any star parties as they are quite bright in the dark!!

Untitled by stev74, on Flickr

Untitled by stev74, on Flickr

Then switch on the hand controller and go through your usual set up - location, time etc and alignment procedure until you get a 'successful alignment'.

On your Android device switch on Bluetooth load Sky Safari Plus or Pro select - setting > telescope set up > Equipment Selection > set for your own equipment, for me it's SkyWatcher SynScan and Alt-Azimuth GoTo > Connect via Bluetooth.

Come out of the settings and select - scope > Connect and after 30 secs or so you should here a ping and your android device will say connected. The first time you get it working it's a great feeling and it really is very easy to use out in the field!!

Hopefully this info has been of some help, feel free to post any questions or PM me for more details.

Cheers

The BT Link bluetooth adapter is the same as the one on the USConverters website.  Are you sure you have the correct baud rate?  You can change the baud rate by downloading Teraterm.exe from the linked page (near the bottom of the screen).

www.usconverters.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=15&chapter=0

Be careful to only install Teraterm, as other software asked if you would like to install it also.  I've no idea what it is, but it isn't needed (might be malware).  I've uninstalled all the software now that I'm finished with it.

If you do have the baud rate set correctly at 9600, make sure the Master/Slave switch is also set to Slave.  Within the Teraterm software type 'role=?' and it will respond either M or S to confirm this is the case.

I should have mentioned that the PC software will only communicate if you have the DCE(F) / DTE switch set to DCE(F).  When you are using the device with your scope set to DTE.

Jonno, I've just read through all your post again (now that I've typed this out).  Why do you need the adapter if you have Skyfi?  Doesn't Skifi use a wifi signal instead of bluetooth?

Is the cigar/lighter plug connected to a 12v powertank, or is it a separate  5v 500mah battery?  Sorry, I'm not entirely clear what you mean.

I am new to all this astro world, but i now got an skywatcher explorer 130p to play with, i hunted down a buletooth connecter since the link on ebay posted bedore is a dated deadend, For UK users I found one for a good price, the site was cheap looking and I had to contact them to confirm but i got my goods, so if any others are looking for BTLink !!!

but i would advise you contact them before sending your cash just to be safe as you nerver know these days.

hope it helps guys.