Frostak

Well I finally got EQMOD and GSS to work! The driver you sent wasn't working, but by chance I've come across a post where someone was saying they've had similar issue and it was caused by mount's firmware. So I updated the firmware and the mount connected even without profilic driver I'm still not sure if this will help with the NINA dropping connection issues, but we'll see when I'll have the next opportunity to go under clear skies. Big thanks to everyone for help! Even though my fix was something different I've got a lot of insight, thanks again ^^

Thanks a lot, both for information and the driver. It's nice to know what's going on with the drivers. I'll try it out later today. As for the SynScan workflow that was causing disconnects. Yesterday I realized that I didn't try running only PHD. So I've used shutter release cable for taking photos, SynScan to slew to target and PHD for guiding. To my surprise PHD didn't disconnect and was guiding the whole night just fine (about 4 hours). So it seems it is NINA after all that is causing the disconnects. One more thing I tried tho was forcing ASCOM SynScan driver to use local ip (127.0.0.1), so that might've helped as well. I'll try older version of NINA that works fine for my friend with the same workflow I tried. I'll still try the EQMOD way as well, as from what I hear it's much more stable than SynScan and see where I go from there. Hopefully I'll manage to get both apps working together soon.

Thanks for the info. I have the USB B-A, so a dedicated usb slot on the mount. However even if I install the prolific chipset driver my pc doesn't use it and uses the standard USB Serial Device driver as seen on the screenshot above. I've tried to manually select driver and force it to use the prolific driver I downloaded from sky-watcher website, but with that I got a warning and the device didn't seem to be working at all. As for the workflow, I'm still trying to figure it out, this is the first time I'm trying to control everything through a pc, with guiding and all. The disconnect issues I mentioned were happening when using SynScan. With EQMOD I'm not even able to connect. But the workflow I tried is pretty much just this: Connect the mount. Turn on the mount Check which port was assigned to the mount in device manager Start up EQMOD toolbox (I think that was the name) or GS server depending on which one I was trying to set up at that moment Set the COM port and baud rate (in GSS the mount type to Sky Watcher as well) Try to connect I didn't get past point 6 with EQMOD and GSS, so I didn't even get to NINA or PHD. EDIT I've tried to look into the issue of profilic driver not working. I went over to their website and downloaded a tool that can tell what driver is required based on the cable connected to specified COM port. After running it though it said that there is no PL2303 chip. Would that mean that I don't have the correct cable? It was the one that was packed with the mount so maybe if SynScan doesn't need that it just doesn't have the chip needed for EQMOD to work?

Unfortunately, even being connected through wi-fi doesn't help the disconnecting issue. ASCOM just disconnects from SynScan after a while. At least now I know the issue isn't in the connection to the mount. I've tried to connect using EQMOD and GS server (using a com port), but both of them just refuse to connect to the port, as if they just couldn't find the mount on the given port. When I try to connect through SynScan through a serial connection on the same port it connects without any issues. I have also set the baud rate to 115200, but that didn't help at all. At this point I'm at my wits end, no idea what else to try

Just an update, I managed to get the wi-fi working. There should be clear skies today so I'll have an opportunity to test it out. For anyone who's struggling with similar setup (being in 2 networks as one, one used for remote desktop and other one the wi-fi from the mount), what I did was switch the mount from Access Point into Station mode. Then I connected the mount to the router and assigned a static IP. After that I connected everything using the static IP and finally both NINA and PHD2 managed to connect to the mount Hopefully this way they won't disconnect anymore~

I've tried getting EQMOD to work yesterday but no luck with that so far (EQMOD wasn't able to find the mount even when I specified the COM port manually based on device manager). I'm not sure tho if I can get that working with the normal usb cable since a lot of people are talking about some special cables. I'm a beginner so I'm not sure if there is any way to bypass Synscan completely, so I'll be happy for some pointers on how to do that I went to power management and disabled Selective usb suspend (or something like that). In device manager I didn't find any such setting on the COM port. Only settings such as baud rate, buffer size etc. were there, but I might be missing something. I'll double check it when I get to the pc. But since Synscan remains connected and PHD disconnects even when actively guiding it doesn't feel like the usb port powering down. EDIT: Thinking about it now I didn't check if there are any specific settings for the mount in power management, I'll check that thanks.

Hello, I'm running into issues with controlling my mount through NINA and PHD2. I have a wired USBa connection to Win11 pc. The PC is running SynscanPro app to control the mount (configured in serial mode). Both NINA and PHD connect to the mount, I'm able to control the mount, slew to target, calibrate and start guiding. However after some time (at random from 1-5 minutes usually) both NINA and PHD lose connection to the mount (even if the mount wasn't slewing) and I can no longer control it through these programs, even manual slewing. PHD starts complaining about PulseGuide not working and NINA doesn't even realize the telescope was disconnected (keeps showing info in EQ tab tho not updating, when reslewing it keeps waiting for the mount to send reply etc.). The interesting thing is that I can still control the mount through SynscanPro without issues. If I restart all programs (so far I tried this only with restarting Synscan as well) they are able to connect again but the connection drops like before. So the issue seems to be in communication between NINA/PHD and Synscan, maybe ASCOM driver? I've tried reinstalling all drivers, changing some com port settings like baud rate. I also tried connecting the mount through wi-fi but even tho Synscan connects properly PHD isn't able to connect to the mount like this for some reason (it can't find the mount or if I set a static IP it complains it doesn't support PulseGuide even though it does). I want to try to rollback ASCOM driver to an older version that is working for some other people. Has someone run into issues like this or has some idea of what I could try to resolve this issue? Equipment: SW Star Adventurer GTi Win 11 mini PC (decent specs), connected to router through wired connection for Remote Desktop control USB cable is the one that was included with the mount All is powered through portable power supply Newsmy N1200P Software: ASCOM platform 6.6 SP1 ASCOM driver for Synscan 1.3.1 (want to rollback to 1.3.0) SynScan Pro app 2.3.8 NINA 2.2 PHD 2.6.11dev4

I'll think about whether to get the BST or just wait a while and maybe get something at a higher price point. Thanks for all the information you provided. Much appreciated!

Yes it is an X-Cel LX. As far as vendors go I don't really have too much of a preference for now. I bought my scope at https://www.astroshop.eu/ and had a good experience with them. Prices also seem to be pretty reasonable in most cases. It also shouldn't be a problem to order through https://www.amazon.de/ or https://www.ebay.de/, though delivery cost are sometimes a bit higher on these. n Slovakia I found https://www.alemat.sk/ (I might buy the GSO from here, but they have incorrectly categorized products) and https://www.astroobchod.sk/ (which seems to be overpriced, at least some eyepieces I checked out). I didn't buy anything from them yet though. Thanks for the reference, I'll check them out. Some of them are definitely out of my budget though. I'd rather not go over 50-60€ per EP. I'm just starting out and I don't want to over invest for now. Any further advice is of course greatly appreciated, if it's not too much of an inconvenience.

Thank you for the explanation. I will get the GSO then, 10€ is not such a big deal. I also managed to get Celestron x-cel 7mm for a fairly good price, from what I've read they should be pretty decent. So I guess I just need to figure out a 12-15mm EP and I should be good to go. Would you happen to have a recommendation in that range? I was looking at the BST 12mm which looked promising, but it's not really worth paying high shipment cost for delivery from England.

@Louis D Between the GSO (apparently marketed here as TS, though I'm able to get GSO as well) and the Orion Sirius which one would you recommend? I'm able to get the Orion for about 10€ cheaper. On the image it seems the Orion has a slightly better defined edges. Also do you happen to know if these would perform decently on f/5 scope? I'm sure it would be a step up from what I have currently but doesn't hurt to ask. And for the highest focal lenght eyepiece is the 32mm the better choice? Before I was thinking more of getting something around 25mm considering my scope has fairly short focal length (650mm). EDIT: I noticed now that the GSO is FMC where as Orion is only MC. Not sure how much of a difference that makes.

Thanks for the reply, I've read the review. I was checking them out at FLO's site. From your review I gather that the 25mm might not be a good idea. Would you be able to suggest an alternative for lower power eyepiece (this is the eyepiece I need to replace the most) in similar price point (at around 50 eur).

Thanks for the answers, I knew barlows work by pretty much extending focal length of the scope but never quite realized that that actually translates to slowing the scope. That indeed does seem like the better option. If so are there any budget barlows/eyepieces you would recommend that work well together?. I'm able to buy the BST 2x barlow with two other eyepieces (I would probably stick to 26mm, dunno about the lower focal length one), but not sure how that one performs, didn't really find any reviews about it.

Hello, I'm a beginnner, just bought my first telescope about a month ago (Celestron astromaster 130/650, f/5). I'm looking to replace the supplied eyepieces (especially the 20mm erecting one). I'm on a pretty tight budget tho (ideally I want to get under 150€). I'd like to get either 3 eyepieces or 2 eyepieces and a barlow. Currently, I'm thinking of buying the BST StarGuider (25mm, 12mm, and either 8mm or 5mm) eyepieces. In description they have written that they should be fine up till f/5, however I've read somewhere that they may have issues on faster scopes. Does anyone have some more insight into them? Or alternatively some advice about different alternatives? As I said I'm an absolute beginner, so any advice is appritiated. Also note that I'm from Europe, so I can't really get eyepieces from US. Thanks in advance for any advice.