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andyonroad1969

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  1. There is a 3D printed one for the FMA180 here that i use. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4796364
  2. I am finding this little scope to be excellent as my goto holiday rig on a AZGTI with the asiair pro. Printed some 3D parts to do Autofocus from the link below. Needs to be manually in the ball Park unlike the Deepsky dad version as the whole front camera assembly moves with the focus ring but once you have stars then this takes care of autofocus throughout the night perfectly. Belts and Pulley are both readily available on Amazon. http://grapeot.me/auto-focus-solution-for-sharpstar-fma180.html Heres a test shot not fully processed yet but you get the idea and photos of the rig.
  3. I made up my own cable and flashed the firmware to recover my mount from the dreaded 3 lights with some parts from Amazon. You need a FTDI 232RL adaptor with 3.3 V logic and a RJ12 connector. I have posted the fix instructions here.
  4. Hi All, Here is how I recovered my mount from the dreaded firmware-update 3 lights. My update failed over wi-fi and the Motor control update said reboot the mount. I did so and i immediately I was faced with the dreaded 3 flashes. The SynScan SSID was no longer being broadcast and I was only seeing the ESP SSID which you can connect to but is effectively dead for updates. 3 days of trying to do the 4 hr reset and lots of googling later I was resigned to having to either buy a USB dongle, a WI-fi dongle or a new MC board. I thought I would take 1 last shot at updating with a direct FTDI cable that i made cheaply myself and I can confirm that works perfectly. Items you will need are : FTDI FT232RL USB to serial UART interface 3.3 V - Do not use a 5 V or you will damage the mount - I used 1 with the cable attached as i will use it to control the mount afterwards but any 1/2 decent 3.3C FT232RL adaptor will do that has windows drivers. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JGSXW8X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. - This cable also has a good diagram of the pinouts and cable colours. RJ 12 Plug and cable I used this as it makes wiring dead easy https://www.amazon.co.uk/VBESTLIFE-Ethernet-Terminal-Splitter-Connector-default/dp/B07DS9D4SV/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=rj12+screw+adaptor&qid=1594759786&sr=8-3 Windows Motor controller Firmware loader - USB dongle version from the Skywatecher website version 1.74 The relevant AZ or EQ firmware .mcf file for your mount from the skywatcher site The wiring for the plug is as follows FTDI Black (GND) to RJ12 pin 5 GND) FTDI Orange (TXD) to RJ12 pin 4 (RXD) FTDI Yellow (RXD) to RJ12 pin 2 (TXD) The Pinout looking at the mount for the RJ12 is in the Skywatcher manual Once I made up the cable and TRIPLE checked the wiring I plugged it into the Windows 10 PC and waited for the windows drivers to load. If they don't go to device manager in Windows and find the FTDI USB serial convertor and select update driver from internet. Once drivers are loaded look under COM ports and you should have a USB serial port Note the COM port number. Fire Up the Synscan Hand Controller PC-Direct / USB dongle ( NOT the the WIFI version) version of the Motor Control Firmware loader. Turn off Auto-detct COM Port. Turn Off use Synscan Hand controller. Enter the COM port number you discovered in Windows. Select MC version it should say it can't read the version but its ready to update. If you get that response, select the firmware file you want to flash and then hit Update. It should run the update and then say update complete. Power off the mount remove the cable and power the mount back on. You should be good and the SynScan wifi mount should be visable and you should have normal LED activity. You also now have a direct control cable if required all for less than £ 15.00. This worked flawlessly for me. Hope this helps.
  5. Hi Guys, Im hoping you can help. I have my Az-gti mount stuck in updating firmware and I am hoping to make up a cable to recover the firmware flash without having to buy the WI-fi dongle. I don't have a handset so thats not an option. Can you confirm if the voltage was 3.3 V or 5V and can you confirm if this cable would allow me to do a OCM port flash of the MCB ? Many Thanks in advance Andy
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