TheSky6 won't talk to the mount...

[ollypenrice]

Computer numpty me again. I control the Tak EM200 mounts with TheSky6 which comes loaded with what's needed to run the Tak Temma system of GoTo. All's well except on a new PC, which can't communicate with the mount. The new PC has hardly had any devices loaded up so the Com Ports should be OK and I've tried a few without success. Now the Tak mounts need a serial to USB connection and, from memeory, I think the cable I used had some software to run it. Needless to say I've lost whatever disk it had. Could this just be the problem, fixable by buying a new cable and disk? Or should I be looking to try something else?

Cheers,

Olly

[RogerTheDodger]

It's probably serial port drivers you need. When you have the cable plugged in, goto Start-> computer (right click - manage) to get the management up, go to Device Mangement and look for the Serial or com port entry (doing this from memory...) if the drivers are loaded you should see a Serial port with a COM number, if they are not it *may* have a CHxxx where xx is a number... if that shows up then that is the serial driver type needed. Let us know what it says and we'll take it from there.

What OS is it BTW?

[cfpendock]

I am sure RogerTheDodger is absolutely correct. Serial Port Drivers are required for the USB/Serial cable, and they are normally available free from the internet. The most common type is "Prolific", but you could find out by reconnecting your old computer (if it's still working and available) using the same procedure described above by RogerTheDodger. I trust that this glitch will not interfere with our enjoyment of your regular submission of amazing images?

Chris

[ollypenrice]

It will be sorted. I may need to bring in long suffering Brian the Pilot from the next village but It Will Be Sorted!! I think I follow the USB drver thing!

So many thanks, really.

Olly

[RogerTheDodger]

No probs Olly, let us know if you want more help

[Magnum]

Hope its fixed by the 9th Olly LOL.

In my opinion USB never really lived up to its name, it was supposed to be plug and play, but the amount of problems ive had with it over the years seems to negate this.

Ive always preferred firewire devices on my Mac for the constant data rates!, but unfortunately firewire never became popular in the PC/Windows centric Astronomy products, (only exception I can think of is the imaging source cams).

That being said ive never had a problem with USB on my Mac either so maybe its just the Windows implementation thats at fault!

Regards

Lee

[ollypenrice]

Hope its fixed by the 9th Olly LOL.

In my opinion USB never really lived up to its name, it was supposed to be plug and play, but the amount of problems ive had with it over the years seems to negate this.

Ive always preferred firewire devices on my Mac for the constant data rates!, but unfortunately firewire never became popular in the PC/Windows centric Astronomy products, (only exception I can think of is the imaging source cams).

That being said ive never had a problem with USB on my Mac either so maybe its just the Windows implementation thats at fault!

Regards

Lee

Don't worry, we don't need the computer in question to talk to the mount. We have another one.

Latest in this silly saga is that I bought a new serial to usb adapter, ran the installation software, got the message that it was installed successfully, plugged in the lead and got the Device Not Recognized message.

I can only repeat that Bill Gates should be drinking cider under a bridge in Scunthorpe, not swanning around as the richest man in the world.

I'll get somebody who can make this stuff work to find out what's wrong.

USB is certainly a dire system, worse on Windows than Mac because of the com port nonsense.

Olly

[Baffa]

I find it odd why astro thingies insist of using com ports though, computers stopped getting com ports like 10 years ago. Those USB to com devices are a pain in the behind!

I only found one brand that seems to work, Aten, we use em at work and I have one at home.

They are of course not without installation problems, if you plug in the device before installing the driver you can be sure things wont work...

Skickat från min HTC Desire S via Tapatalk 2

[davew]

Are you running the internal driver in The Sky 6 or Chuck Ferranda's driver ? I ask because Chuck's Ascom driver requires Com 3 on my computer but the computer decides Com 4 might be nice and won't work of course. I just switch it back. Regularly.

Don't suppose it's that easy ?

Dave.