AstroAndy70

Seems I've answered my own question by firing up EQMOD and seeing what happens with that. The reticle is rock solid so has to be down to either the Sky-Watcher ASCOM driver or the SynScan App 😑 A shame but at least I have a working solution when the rain eventually stops!

Hi again Tested by plugging into the handset and setting it to PC Direct Mode. Afraid it doesn't work for me either in that configuration. In Device Manager under Ports (COM & LPT) I see a device named Prolific PL2303GL USB Serial COM Port on COM10 but it fails to connect using the SynScan App. When I'm plugged in directly to the mount I get a device named Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port on COM8 which works really well. Perhaps when connected via the handset, a different kind of USB cable is required? Andy

Hi All Has anyone had Stellarium move the mount reticle between the point the mount is actually pointing at to 0h00m00s - 0deg 0' 0" then after a random period of time move it back and forth and back and forth...? I'm using a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R PRO directly connected to Windows 10 using a standard USB B cable. Then I have SynScan App Pro running connected to the mount on COM8. This works great and I can control all aspects of the mount without need for the handset. Then I've also got the ASCOM Telescope driver for SynScan App v1.3.0.0 installed. I can use the ASCOM Device Hub to connect to the ASCOM.SynScanMobile.Telescope driver and also control the mount from that. When I then move over to Stellarium, it connects to the same ASCOM driver but then exhibits this strange movement behaviour and it does it whether the mount is tracking or not. I'm using the latest Stellarium v0.21.1, ASCOM Platform 6.5 SP1 and the driver as specified above. Windows 10 is 100% up to date. I've attached a short video clip of Stellarium. Initially I'm pointing at Polaris and it moves the reticule to 0/0 then back again. Then I slew and the reticule catches up to where I've moved the mount to but then again flicks back to 0/0. I'm am new to this mount and setup so it's possible I've not set the mount up correctly. Note that I've only had it a couple of days and it's not yet made it outside so the "pointing at" part is "virtual" having set the mount to the home position only. It seems to be saying the correct RA/DEC in the SynScan App though from what I can tell. Any ideas would be most welcomed. Thanks Andy Stellarium 0.21.1 2021-07-31 15-14-39_Trim.mp4

Hi Does the HEQ5 Pro have a USB port directly on the mount? I'm using a similar setup i.e. not using eqmod but my mount is an EQ6-R Pro and I'm not using the handset at all. For me, plugging directly into the mount gives me a serial device of COM8 on Windows. Then in the SynScan app under the settings/connect settings I select Serial and choose the COM8 from the list. I haven't tried plugging into the handset but if going directly to the mount is an option for you then I'd go that route. I'll test out what happens when using the handset on mine later on though see if I can get it to work and report back. Andy

So I've looked at the settings.txt file that the app creates at first run and then maintains after and it a pretty simple JSON file. I've written a powershell script which finds a GPS device on a serial port and injects the adjusted lat/long into the file in the correct format. As long as I run this first before opening the SynScan App then it works great. If anyone wants a copy of the script then let me know.

Just an update to this in case someone else would like to do the same thing as I do... I emailed Skywatcher and they replied to say that the Windows version of the SynScan App does not accept a location automatically and there are no plans to change that. A real shame as I doubt it would be difficult to do... I may look into writing my own update script to set the coordinates from the NMEA device.

Hi All - my first post on this site so be gentle I am awaiting delivery on an EQ6-R Pro mount when FLO are able to get stock - hopefully soon 🥴. Whilst I wait, I'm setting up a new laptop for imaging use. I'm hoping to get a mount with the new direct USB port and because of that I will be trying to use the SynScan App Pro for Windows to talk to the mount. In emulation mode this all seems to work well and I can get either APT or NINA to "control" the mount. What I'm having an issue with is having to enter the location lat/long into SynScan manually... I have a NMEA GPS device connected via USB and using a COM port. I can't get SynScan to "see" it though. When I set the toggle to "Use Location Sensor" it just says No Location Sensor - Please ensure permission to read location has been granted. I've tried to set the Windows 10 settings to allow location data to be shared but I don't think SynScan is playing that game. I installed SynScan on my Android phone and toggling that switch gets the phones location fine without issue. Has anyone else managed to get the app on Windows to accept a lat/long from another connected device? N.I.N.A. can read the COM port device and set it's location correctly but when I then "connect" to the mount (emulation mode at the moment) the button to send location to telescope is disabled so either the app doesn't support it or maybe the emulation part doesn't? Anyone use this setup i.e. not EQMOD. I'd rather "keep it clean" and not use EQMOD if the SynScan App can be made to automatically pick up the current location. Thanks Andy