EQ6 Pro - Power

[Grant]

Hi guys,

I'm picking up my new EQ6 Pro at the star party, I'm hoping some of you will help me set it up and show me how to use it! But I'm trying to organise in advance, what I need to bring to power it? I'm looking at a powerpack with a 12v plug but does the mount come with any cables? Or do I need to buy some myself? I'm guessing I need a cable that goes from the mount to a 12v cigarrette socket?

Is there any other bits I need to bring with me in order to use my new setup? I don't want to get there and have a new mount but missing Part X so I can't use it!

Cheers,

Grant

[KevStar]

Hi

There is a great power pack you can buy for about 25 quid from the discount supermarket ALDI. It will hold a charge for a good 8-10 hour session.

Kev

[Grant]

Cheers Kev, I don't know of any Aldis around here but I've found some power packs quite cheap on ebay.

The bit i'm still not sure about is connecting the powerpack to the mount?

[KevStar]

The eq6 will come with a connection lead that will plug in to a cigarette lighter type connection on a standard powerpack.

[Grant]

Thanks Kev! Thats awesome!

The places on ebay don't look like they would dispatch in time for the star party, so I might have to go on a hunt for an aldi near by!

[MikeP]

Grant,

I use this one with my EQ6 Pro. http://tinyurl.com/39fdos Bit more expensive, but Maplins deliver pretty quickly.

Mike

[Whippy]

Grant, try looking in Halfords for one of these...

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_186695_langId_-1_CarSelectorCatalogId__CarSelectorGroupId__varient__categoryId_31417_crumb_33958-31345_parentcategoryrn_31417

Branches in Bedford and Biggleswade apparently..

That'll do you, a bit more expensive than Ebay but short notice and all that.. Failing that, mine's got two 12v outs so you could borrow that one if you don't manage to get one.

[Grant]

Thats the badger! Cheers outlash, Theres two halfords within 5 mins drive of me, will be paying them a visit

[Jamie]

Grant

The EQ6 PRO comes with the appropriate power cable also it comes with a dovetail too

so that you can mount your scope straight away...

As for working it i will be looking for some sort of tutorial too...

[Grant]

Can an EQ6 be controlled from a laptop using Starry Night?

[Jamie]

I am sure it can (i am positive i heard that somewhere)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Can an EQ6 be controlled from a laptop using Starry Night?

Yes. See Astronomiser for a cable - serial on the computer to the hole in the handset next to the normal cable, the check the manual for settings in Starry Night to get them to talk.

When you set the handset to RS232, it says "press esc to exit". Leave it at that and then control it from Starry Night, as if you do press esc it terminates the serial connection. Took me ages to get that to work.

Captain Chaos

[Grant]

Thanks CC, its not something I plan on doing straight away but hopefully at some point I can set it up so I can sit indoors and control the scope

[jcm]

Thanks CC, its not something I plan on doing straight away but hopefully at some point I can set it up so I can sit indoors and control the scope

Thats what I did when I got my goto mount. Its much easier to sort out problems and try settings. The wife moaned a a bit about it being inside

John

[Boris]

Will the EQ6 (if properly Polar aligned) track as well as a EQ6 Pro SynScan (again, properly Polar Aligned)? It's just a question that I'd like some info on before I part with cash.

Thanks!

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

jcm, the point is that you are indoors where its warm, the 'scope is outside imaging in the cold. You need a way of driving the goto from other than the handpad, so you link it to the computer and drive it remotely.

Boris, there is some talk of vibration from the non-goto EQ6 which has to be down to the motors and gears. These are swapped when you do the upgrade and when you upgrade the vibration goes away. WRT tracking, the non goto EQ6 will track just as well as a goto.

Captain Chaos

[Boris]

Thanks Captain Chaos!

[buzz5]

Can an EQ6 be controlled from a laptop using Starry Night?

Yes. See Astronomiser for a cable - serial on the computer to the hole in the handset next to the normal cable, the check the manual for settings in Starry Night to get them to talk.

When you set the handset to RS232, it says "press esc to exit". Leave it at that and then control it from Starry Night, as if you do press esc it terminates the serial connection. Took me ages to get that to work.

Captain Chaos

Where did you find that setting? can't see it in setup or utility.

[jcm]

I think the handset is set up so it automatically detects the RS 232 cable. You do not have to tell it.

John

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

In V2 its there.

"Another feature of the SynScanTM is the ability to connect to a computer via a serial cable. Many

commercially available planetarium softwares can be used to control the SynScanTM. Look for

softwares compatible with NexStar5. Below describes the procedure on how to connect and

disconnect the SynScanTM to a computer:

1) Make sure that the telescope has been aligned.

Connect the RS-232 cable to the RJ-11 connector on the

hand control and to the COM-port of your computer (Fig.n).

2) On your SynScanTM hand control, select RS232 under the

UTILITIES menu. Press ENTER to go to RS-232 mode.

In the planetarium software of your choice, choose

"Celestron NexStar5" in the driver setup and follow the

instructions provided by your program to establish the

connection to the telescope. The SynScanTM should be

under the full control of your computer once the

connection is successfully established."

From page 10 of the manual.

Captain Chaos

[buzz5]

yeah but in v3 version it's not in the list... anyway I tried the DetectPC2SynScanConnection.exe and it connected ok.

so then I ran the firmware update and had a connection problem, found out that I had to change the baud rate to 9,600 on the hand control (Press 'setup' key on power up with 0 and 8 for update) to update the firmware to v3.2

but I still have the same connect issue with Starry Night (using NexStar 5i setup), I think it's becuase of the Baud rate, does anyone know how to change the baud rate on the controller to 9,600 when in normal use? I tried 'setup' key on startup but that has no effect.

Buzz

p.s. I'm using a USB to COM adapter, this is probably the reason why I need to change it to lower baud as my laptop doesn't have a standard COM port. the laptop baud is now set to 9,600.

[George]

I think the handset is set up so it automatically detects the RS 232 cable. You do not have to tell it.

John

Yes that is correct with v2 handset, with v1 handset you have to tell it

[buzz5]

finally sorted it, it was usb-serial cable that was the issue, purchased a replacement from astronomiser.co.uk and now it's working ok.