Celestron Evolution 8 wifi causing Skyportal to crash - switched to Access Point mode

[wellsi]

Hi all

I wondered if anyone else was suffering Skyportal freezing and crashing with their Evolution or any celestron scope with wifi?  Having finally got my Starsense working and calibrated, my evening was mostly spent re-aligning due to Skyportal freezing then crashing.

I have two Samsung tablets; one older one which is dedicated to the telescope, and a newer one as my main tablet.  Both displayed the same issue; the aspp crashes after about 3 or 4 stars, often freezing the scope in mid-movement.

I narrowed it down to the tablets reconnecting to the main house wi-fi, so losing the app's link to the telescope.  Searched on Celestron's support pages and found the staggeringly useless wi-fi addendum help that basically says if you're experiencing wi-fi and connectivity issues, move away from other wi-fi sources or disable other wifi sources.  Not really an option when you're gazing in your back garden.

So I've just reconfigured the scope and tablets in Access Point mode, making the telescope connect to my home router, and connecting my tablet via the home router.  I have good wifi access in the garden, so tonight I'll see if this reduces the app crashing as everything is connected to the same network.

The instructions on connecting your telescope to the home network in Access Point mode are fairly non-existant too, but I finally found these, so I've copied them here in case anyone else is having this issue and wants to try this method.  Thing to get your head round is to have the tablet connected to the telescope wifi but disconnect from the telescope when you amend the Access Point settings, and to get the name of your home network (the SSID) exactly right, enter your home network password, and tick the DHCP client as your home router will normally be the DHCP master that sets the individual (IP) network addresses for the items that join it.

This set up also means your tablet is connected to the internet at the same time so you can get more information on stars if you want. Hopefully this will be an improvement

Cheers, Ian

>>

Here the steps that you would need to take in order to use Access point with your Wifi device. 

Step 1)   Set the switch on the WiFi module to direct connect mode.

Step 2)  Open the “Settings” app of your mobile device, go to the WiFi section and select SkyQLink-xx or Celestron-xx access point.

Step 3)   Open SkyPortal app.

Step 4)   Tap the settings icon (gear symbol) and a Settings window will open.

Step 5)   In the Settings window, there is a Telescope section.  And in that section is a option for “Communications”.   Touch that option and the Communications Window will appear.

Step 6)   In the Communications Window, make sure “Direct connect” is selected.  and then tap the button named “Configure Access Point”.   The Access Point Configuration (APC) window will appear

Step 7)  In the APC Window identify the text fields for storing the login credentials for the access point of your local area network (LAN).   Usually your access point will be a Wireless router.   You need fill in these text fields with the same login credentials here as you would normally enter into your cell phone to connect to your LAN.  In some cases, it is also necessary to specify a specific IP address.    That is an IP address on your LAN.   Most routers configure the LAN addresses to 192.168.0.x.   Where “x” is a number between 1 and 254. Check your router settings to be sure.

Step 8)  After entering your credentials, there should be a button that is labeled something like “Save to WiFi device”.   This will upload the credentials to the WiFi module.   It will also close the APC window and return you to to the “Communications” window (Step 5).    

Step 9)  If the application has not already done so, it is now appropriate to configure this to “Access point mode”.

Step 10)  Exit the menus and return to the home screen of the app and disconnect from the mount.   The WiFi LED on the mount should now have a slow pulsing pattern.

Step 11)   Slide the switch on the WiFi Module to the Access point position. While you do this, watch the WiFi icon.   It should switch from a slow pulsing to a fast blinking. It should remain fast blinking for a few seconds while it seeks out your LAN and attempts to use your credentials.   Within 20 seconds it should switch to a slow blinking pattern.  

Step 12) Open the settings app of your mobile device (same as step 2).  Using the WiFi setting, Configure your device to connect to your LAN  This will require credentials for your LAN similar to the one you configured for your mobile device in step 7.

Step 13) Go back to the SkyPortal application, tap on the telescope icon, go into settings make sure telescope connect is now set to ACCESS point, and then tap “Connect”.   It should take a few seconds, but then it will connect.

 

It is now possible to communicate with mount, via SkyPortal, the internet at the same time.  Links in the SkyPortal app will resolve to the appropriate web page.

 

[vinsmed]

@wellsi

Several thanks for your awesome instructions . I spent countless hours trying to make the skyportal work in access mode and was the last thing necessary so I could control my telescope mount remotely. The range on the Skyportal's direct access is very limited and was not helpful beyond few feets. It also required my android phone to use its Skyportal's Wifi which meant I couldn't connect to phone via teamviewer. Following one of the instructions on Celestron's website, even tried downloading Celestron's old software (Sky Qlink) and tried to make that work. Nope. What worked for me were your instructions which were spot on. Thanks once again.

I hope these instructions become sticky notes. 

 

[noah4x4]

As these useful instructions have not made a 'sticky'  (which is a shame) this post will 'bump' it upwards so others can benefit from this tip.

 I will add that they work fine in SkySafari 5 Plus too.  You need to select Celestron WiFi under 'telescope' in 'settings'. 

But do take great care with each step.  I am a BT Smart Hub customer and all I actually needed to do under the "Configure Access Point" step  was insert my Router name (its SSID) and its password and then tick DHCP.  Thankfully, the latter closes the windows requesting the more intimidating data and the WiFi module automatically finds the correct IPA address; Subnet Mask and Gateway  etc - which is handy as BT seem to keep changing this data (presumably for security) and I am forever having to change my CCTV settings.

However,  I did initially select the wrong security setting (e.g a choice of 'none' or 'wep' or 'wap')  and ended up with my tablet and telescope connected to my network but still not talking to each other.  It's then a bit baffling how to resolve this as you end up in an apparently endless loop. Rebooting in direct communication mode (e.g. switch up) didn't seem to fix this. Eventually, I had to resort to the 'reset' button and start again from direct connect mode.  ...and it worked. Well done Ian!