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EQMOD and windows 8

valleyman

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valleyman

valleyman

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<p>Have downloaded EQmod onto my windows 8 OS and just can not get it to work. It is fine on my Win 7 OS and works fine. However when I try to operate the Mount by remote wireless and direct connection PC to handset socket on the mount it does not connect via the Coms Port. Have reloaded all the drivers for the remote wireless and direct connection and when I open DEVICE Manager it shows them as connected. I know the Comm Ports are working as I connected via the handset to operate Stellerium with no problem. When I open Device manager there is a yellow triangle against the wireless Bluetooth device. however also have this on Win 7 and it works OK. If I had any hair I would have pulled it all out over the last two days. Pat</p>

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  • 3 weeks later...
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technomate

technomate

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Hi VALLEYMAN,

I am having the same problems, i have just bought an Asus windows 8 tablet, and i cant get the Hitecastro interface to work with windows 8, it still works fine on my windows 7. I have been looking at this problem, and it looks very much like the chip in my older Hitecastro is the problem. Looking at the chip manufacturers website seems to confirm this. You may need to buy a new lead from say First Light Optics( HitecAstro EQDIR adapter £27.95) this says on their website that it is compatible with windows 8 so it must have the latest PROLIFIC chip in it.I am at the moment waiting for an Em ail to confirm this. I hope this helps in some way, still ita a bit of a bummer if we have to change leads for a windows change.

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jonathan

jonathan

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Sounds like the upgrade from XP to Vista all over again - old hardware no longer supported for absolutely no reason at all. In time it may be supported again as drivers are updated, at the moment Windows 7 seems like a mature OS that supports a surprising amount of older hardware considering its early problems.

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technomate

technomate

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Further to this problem with the latest Hitecastro usb eq direct interface, i bought one from FirstLightOptics, based on the info on their website but it does not work with windows 8, ok with windows 7. If you go onto Prolific website, there is a software checker which you run to tell you which version of the chip is in the lead, in this case it showed the PL-2303 XA/HXA to be present and according to PROLIFIC you need the HXD version to be compatible with windows 8. Also the text file on FLO ewbsite that comes with the supposed windows 8 driver for this lead doesnt seem to mention windows 8 so i am confused. I will be contacting FLO today to seem if they can sort it out.

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jonathan

jonathan

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Does Windows 8 include all the compatibility settings that Windows 7 does? You may be able to force it to run in Vista mode if you can get a Vista driver, or Windows 7 for that matter. I have had some success getting older hardware to install and run using this method, it can be a bit of a case of trial and error to find the compatibility setting that works, it's about tricking the old software to think it's running in Vista / 7 (or even XP).

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technomate

technomate

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Does Windows 8 include all the compatibility settings that Windows 7 does? You may be able to force it to run in Vista mode if you can get a Vista driver, or Windows 7 for that matter. I have had some success getting older hardware to install and run using this method, it can be a bit of a case of trial and error to find the compatibility setting that works, it's about tricking the old software to think it's running in Vista / 7 (or even XP).

Hi,

Yes that might work but i dont see why i should have to go to that trouble when the lead was advertised as windows 8 compatible. It looks like Hitecastro have not put the upgraded PL2303HXD chip in, which acording to the manufacturer of the chip is the only one compatible with windows 8. As a bonus i have just seen some on Ebay guaranteeing working with windows 8 for about a third of the price so i will try to get my money back on this one.

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FLO

FLO

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Sorry to hear you are having difficulties with Windows 8 and the HitecAstro EQDIR adapter. This is not a common problem but I have contacted Hitecastro for advice. They say It is quite straightforward to setup their EQDIR adapter to work with Windows 8. Apparently you don't need any compatibility settings, just a slightly modified install procedure. They have offered to prepare a step-by-step pdf guide explaining how to install the driver. They will complete this over the weekend then will add it to their website. We will also add it to ours and will post a link here.

@valleyman: If your EQDIR adapter is one of ours please contact us.

@technomate: Please email us with your order number. We'll send a SAE then arrange a full refund :angel:

HTH :smiley:

Steve

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  • 6 months later...
Dave Smith

Dave Smith

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I have followed the instructions from the HItecAstro installation guide and all seemed to be ok. The mount slews and does it's goto but will not guide. This applies to both an older HitecAstro lead connected to an NEQ6 mount and a new HitecAstro lead connected to an HEQ5 mount.

I have tried guiding with MaximDL (my normal method) and PHD2. The mount appears to move in minute steps but is unable to calibrate properly.

HELP!!! At the moment I am no longer able to do any imaging and have just returned from Kelling very frustrated.

It all worked perfectly well before my netbook died on last Sunday night. On my new laptop with Windows 8, should I downgrade to Windows 7? I read on a website that it is possible that the hardware may not suit Windows 7.

Dave

By the way, is there any way of testing whether guiding will work without any stars?

Dave

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Amra

Amra

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All sorted :smiley: . It was nothing to do with Windows 8, it was the settings in EQmod.

Dave

Can you tell me what you did to sort it? I have Win8 as well and problems with guiding. PHD keeps crashing when I try to calibrate, only got it to successfully run once back on EQmod 1.24, since I updated to 1.27 it hasn't calibrated once successfully. :(

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Amra

Amra

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Did you try PHD2?  With me PHD1 kept crashing too. But PHD2 works like a charm.

I have the same QHY5L-IIc camera as you.

Yeah I downloaded PHD2 in the hopes that it would work better, but sadly didn't help much, still freezes a lot, I wish I could narrow the issue down further. It always goes like this: I start looping exposures and the video feed is fine, I pick a star and then start the calibration, it's at some point during the calibration that it freezes and I have to task manager close it down.

I have tried ST-4 guiding & ASCOM pulseguiding, I got ST-4 guiding to work once when I was about to end my session on EQmod 1.24 then on my next session when I had updated EQmod to 1.27 it never successfully calibrated again.

I suspect it's something to do with EQmod & PHD in my case, because my QHY5L-II will happily run for hours recording the f.x. the sun in ezplanetary.

I want to try it on another computer, but I don't have access to another decent laptop atm, maybe I will drag my desktop outside despite how inconvenient that would be. :p

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Dave Smith

Dave Smith

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In EQMOD ASCOM SETUP choose pulse guiding. Then in EQMOD ASCOM the default pulse guide settings are x 0.2 in each of RA and Dec - these need increasing to 0.5 or thereabouts. That was what was preventing guiding in my case.

Hope that works for you.

Dave

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Amra

Amra

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You can access these by choosing the ASCOM simulator and then you don't need to be connected to the mount. You can at least see whether it is on the default setting of x 0.2

Dave

I wasn't sure specifically where this option was, my options in the sim look like this:

GPS data is accurate & plugged in when I use it, I just feed the GPS data once from my smartphone through bluetooth.

post-28221-0-38417800-1396351144_thumb.ppost-28221-0-06861800-1396351145_thumb.p

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Dave Smith

Dave Smith

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If you open PHD2 and choose manual guiding from the menu, you can try slewing the mount. I found that I couldn't see the actual movement but could hear a change in the motors when it was doing it's pulse guided slew. You need to be connected to the mount for this and if it is tracking a star the movement would be obvious when looking through the eyepiece.

Dave

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Amra

Amra

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I think it's working now! I changed back to pulseguiding and set above mentioned setting to 0.5, calibration was successful the very first time. I'm running some 600/900/1200s sub tests now with a not completely perfect polar alignment. :p

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