John_M

Hi All, Just joined SGL and this is my first post. I've been reading through these forums for some time and there are many helpful and useful insights that have helped me to date. Continuing with the trend of useful information, I wanted to share a technical issue that I've had to overcome with my Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro mount and more so the SynScan V5 handset. There isn't really a lot of information out there on the SynScan V5 hand controller (or at least from my searches) and problem solving was that little bit harder, so I hope this contribution is helpful to someone else and saves a bit of time. The Problem: When connecting the SynScan V5 hand controller to the laptop via USB Type B cable, whilst the laptop would recognise a new device has been connected (the usual "beep" noise would sound), I could not follow any subsequent steps where the laptop would act as controller for the mount. In my case I was hoping to use Stellarium for selection and go to for planets, nebulae etc. Given the lack of information out there, diagnosing the problem took a bit of time but eventually worked out the issue was a driver issue. My laptop is Windows 10 based, and realised that when I plugged in the SynScan hand controller, I was not seeing any "Ports (COM & LTP)" listed within Device Manager. The Solution: I tried several different ways to add the required driver including using Device Manger and "Add legacy hardware". In there you'll find "Ports (COM & LTP)" and can add a generic communications port and several others but that didn't solve the problem in my case. I also tried downloading drivers from FDTI (virtual com port as well as D2XX) and still no success. Perhaps these options might work for others. Eventually, I found a useful piece of software that automatically searches and provides updates for Windows drivers. There's plenty of options out there and with the software I used, a scan revealed that an update for “Prolific USB-To-Serial Comm Port” was required. I downloaded the drivers and stored in an easily accessible folder as I had to perform a manual install. Manual install is relatively easy and is done by opening Device Manager and look down the list for “Other devices”, there you’ll see a device with a small yellow triangle with an exclamation mark along with “USB Serial Cable” or similar. Right click and select “Update Driver Software”, followed by “Browse my computer for driver software” follow the file path to the location of the driver. Click next and the drivers should install successfully and the Ports (COM & LTP) should be listed and a Comm port should be assigned to the device. To validate the connection and the ability to communicate with the mount, I did use the ASCOM platform and EQMOD. Just remember which Comm port your computer has assigned to the device for populating the details. As set out above, I had intended to use Stellarium for control of the mount. In my case both the ASCOM platform and EQMOD have now become redundant when using Stellarium. Within the configuration window of Stellarium and when adding a new telescope the first radio button "Stellarium, directly through a serial port" is the correct option to choose. Ensure other options are correct within the pop-up window i.e. serial port number and device model. Once these are complete, connecting to the mount should be successful. Almost forgot to mention, the SynScan V5 remote should not be set to "PC Direct Mode" as it will not communicate with Stellarium. Hopefully the above is of use and here's to cloud free nights. Regards, John Picture of SynScan V5 for reference: