Problems - Vixen Starbook over Ethernet

[DeepSkyMan]

Hi there everyone, wondering if anybody has encountered problems communicating over ethernet with the Vixen Starbook.  My intention this afternoon was to do a little experimentation with ASCOM against my Sphinx SXW. Unfortunately I ran up against a fundamental problem, that being I was unable to communicate with the Starbook.  The infrastructure is as follows:

Computer to Sky Broadband router over ethernet

Router to Starbook over ethernet

Not anticipating any problems here I simply plugged in the Starbook as normal, plugged in the Ethernet cable (CAT5) and powered up the mount.  At this point the Starbook powered up Ok with the normal Vixen banner screen, but never progressed beyond this.  Further investigation revealed that the ethernet Port indicator on the router was flashing amber (not good), after a second attempt at this I said, Ok... lets simplify things.  I then replaced the Broadband router with a simple DLink hub which I know for a fact works fine (tested between two PCs prior to connecting up).  When I plugged in the ethernet connection to the hub from the Starbook, the hub Link/Rx indicator came on Green (all good), unfortunately the partition light came on red as well, needless to say the Starbook stalled at the banner screen again.  Has anybody any idea what is happening here?  What is required in order to get a simple ethernet connection between the Starbook and a networked computer?

Kind Regards

Paul J.

[Stu]

Hi Paul,

Not sure if this is any help, but I do know that when updating the firmware on the StarBook you need to use a LAN crossover cable.

http://www.vixenoptics.com/starbookupdate.html

This link may help you?

http://enzerink.net/peter/blog/2008/06/28/ascom-star-book-driver

Cheers,

Stu

[DeepSkyMan]

Hey Stu thanks for the response.  Yeah I do know about the cross-over cable but that is strictly for a direct connection between the starbook  and the computer, my requirement is via a router or hub, and the instructions in the Vixen documentation is for a straight-through connection in that scenario.

[DeepSkyMan]

Hmmm... On reflection I can't seem to find that documentation, perhaps my thoughts are being coloured from my experience of connecting to PC's over ethernet which does require the cross-over but doesn't when connected over the LAN.  Stu... you may have the right of it, anyway no harm in trying the alternative.  Again, many thanks for your post :-)

[Stu]

There is some more info here which may help......? Seems to discuss what you are trying to do.

http://enzerink.net/peter/blog/2008/06/24/vixen-star-book-faq

Stu

[pete_gamby]

Paul - a standard Ethernet cable is all you should need for the set-up you are trying to achieve - this is how we set up here for doing firmware updates, testing etc.

I've not come across this type of problem but I'd speculate that the Starbook is not able to get an IP address from the router or cannot negotiate a data rate and so is freezing at this point in it's boot sequence.

Have you tried booting without the Starbook connected to the mount? Just a thought as sometimes a dodgy mount-Starbook cable does cause boot problems.

Cheers, Pete

[DeepSkyMan]

Pete

Many thanks or your feedback, turns out there was an intermittent wiring fault in one of the RJ45 connectors on the ethernet lead I was using, bend it in just the right way and it worked fine, which was what happened when I tested it successfully between my PC's the other day.  In order to remove the hub/router from the equation, I purchased a cross-over cable yesterday, testing with this cable was successful, so there was obviously nothing wrong with the RJ45 interface to the Starbook, which pointed to an ethernet cabling fault being the issue.  Swapped out the original lead for a new one, connected via the DLink hub and hey presto everything sprang into life. 

Thanks again

Paul.