Connecting Celestron Nexstar 130slt to laptop with RS-232 cable.

[Janie]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me please.... 

I have a Celestron Nextstar 130 SLT. I thought it would be a good idea to connect it to a laptop. I ordered the Celestron RS-232 cable and when it arrived - I then realised I also needed a USB to RS-232 connector!

Relieved, I discovered that I had a brand new one, with its mini disk.

Despite being able to read all the folders on the disk - I have tried everything and can’t make it work.

So …….. do I need to buy a Celestron specific USB to RS-232 connector- or am I just being daft! 

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Janie x 

[Janie]

Just to say that the problem is now solved - it does work with the adaptor I had, so a Celestron specific one wasn't necessary .......

Janie X

[Cosmic Geoff]

I ordered a USB to RS-232 adapter on Ebay that was described as being for the Celestron. It turned out to be a generic adapter, and the driver mini CD didn't work. So I searched for the driver for a blue adapter, type 340 or "USB-serial CH340", and downloaded a small driver. It worked.

There is one 'gotcha'- you have to look in your laptop's control panel and see what number the newly created serial port is, so you can set it in any question box that asks for it. And no, it won't be no. 1

Why is this relevant? The Celestron adapter costs about £20. The one I bought cost £10.  A generic blue adapter (which I suspect would work just as well ) costs about £2.