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Laptop controlled HEQ5

MartinH32

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MartinH32

MartinH32

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

I want to controll my HEQ5 goto with my laptop.

What are the best ways of doing this?

Do I need any specific software?

Anything anyone can recommend?

I have Starry Night 6 Pro and Stellarium. Would they be any good?

I'm a bit of a novice still :(

Oh, and I have a cable that looks like it is serial at one end and telephone like at the other!!!!

Thanks

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Grant

Grant

Posted
Posted

Hi Martin,

By the sounds of it - you've got everything you need to get started!

You first need to install the ascom drivers: http://ascom-standards.org/downloads.html these provide an interface between programs such as starry night, dslr focuser and your telescope (or other astro equipment such as electric focusers).

Then you need to make sure you can connect the serial cable to your computer, if you don't have a serial port then you will need a usb-serial adaptor.

Assuming you've got it connected to the computer, the phone jack end of the cable needs to go in the bottom of your heq5 handset, there should be a spare socket (not the one that connects the handset to the mount - the other one).

Once thats all connected, in starry night you need to go to the telescope control panel and setup your telescope - heq5 aren't listed so you need to select celestron, then choose a nexstar 8i as your telescope. Choose EQ N as the mode rather than alt/az, setup your long/lat and choose the correct serial port.

Then back to starry night you should be able to connect with the mount and you will see a marker in starry night to show you where the mount is pointing, you can then click on something and tell the mount to move there...

Hope that helps a little - its a bit vague because its from memory!

Cheers,

Grant

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MartinH32

MartinH32

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Thanks guys,

Funnily enough, the laptop is that old, it's my wifes old work laptop and she has no other use for it. Due to its age it has a serial port - and it runs Starry night :(

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Roy Batty

Roy Batty

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While the weather was (still is :() carp i had a go at doing this but with Stellarium. Luckily enough I had a USB to serial adapter from Astronomiser that does the job for connecting with the serial to (i think) RJ11 "phone" jack cable that comes with the HEQ5 kit. The difference to starry night is that you need another small app. called StellariumScope, this is what's called a scope server app. and it's used to take the commands coming from stellarium and convert them using the ASCOM drivers into instructions your mount can use. Here's the links:

http://www.bytearts.com/stellarium/index.html

All the setup is fairly straightforward (it needs to be for me :D) and does what it say on the tin. Once setup pressing CTRL and #1 brings up the GOTO or SYNC prompt for moving the mount.

RB

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mpeniak

mpeniak

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Posted

Sorry for silly questions, I am still novice in this :icon_jokercolor:. I got HEQ5 recently but it is not the one with GOTO. Can I still hook it to my laptop. What about quiding, do I need that handheld controller for that please?

Martin :embarassed:

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cygnusx1

cygnusx1

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I have the HEQ5 Pro mount supplied serial to RJ11 cable. ( its only about a foot long unfortunately)

If i buy a serial to USB cable to connect to my laptop's USB port, what do i need to extend the cable to say 5 or 10m, so i can run this setup from inside?

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Roy Batty

Roy Batty

Posted
Posted

I have the HEQ5 Pro mount supplied serial to RJ11 cable. ( its only about a foot long unfortunately)

If i buy a serial to USB cable to connect to my laptop's USB port, what do i need to extend the cable to say 5 or 10m, so i can run this setup from inside?

You can get the right cables in the lengths you need from Astronomiser including a serial to USB cable. See the following link:

http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/mcc.htm

cheers

RB

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  • 8 years later...
Daemonum

Daemonum

Posted
Posted

Hello,

I do apologise for digging up the old toppic but, I am wondering how to make my HEQ5 Pro communicate with my laptop. I did some research, did ask a friend for help, but the more I am reading the more it's confusing. Could someone please explain the whole process and what cables will I need to achieve what I want to achieve?

My laptop does not have Serial port, so I will need this? FTDI Serial to USB Converter

Then I will need to buy this ? 20m PC Serial Port To SynScan/ SkyScan Hand Controller , those are from astronomiser

Will it work? will it be safe and won't fry the motherboard in mount ?

I did isnstall ASCOM software, etc

Thanks in advance, Andrew

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