SynScan WiFi and iOS - dummies guide!

[Dazzyt66]

My new SynScan WiFi arrived today and in less than 30 mins I had it up and running on both my phone using SynScan pro app and iPad mini 2 using SkySafari 5! I can’t wait to use it at night!! No clouds please ?

For all those that may need step by step (as I did), I thought I’d put this together as a one stop shop for SynScan WiFi using iOS device - so this is how I set it up on my HEQ5:

1.    Buy a SynScan WiFi adapter!
2.    Download the free SynScan app from iTunes or Sky-Watcher (‘pro’ version if you are using eq mounts)
3.    Plug WiFi adapter directly into the mount (instead of the handset)
4.    Power up mount (it powers the WiFi)
5.    Locate the network on your device (mine is iPhone 5s but also did it on iPad Mini 2)
6.    You may want to set your device to ‘forget’ (or set the connection not to auto join) any other nearby WiFi you use as it may switch over depending on signal strength which will make you lose connection with the mount. I haven’t experienced this yet.
7.    Make sure auto lock on the phone is off (it will disconnect from the wifi if it locks) – so set auto lock to ‘never’
8.    Open the the SynScan app
9.    ‘Connect’ - it will identify your mount at the top of the screen
10.    Viola!! You should now be able to star align and use your phone as a handset

The next steps are if you also want to use SkySafari (I’m using v5 pro on my iPad (Note: do not have SynScan app open on the iPad as well as your other device at the same time - this may stop SS linking to your other device):

1.    Download SS app (now v6)
2.    With phone connected as above and ONLY polar aligned at this point ready to use, open the settings menu in SS
3.    Select IP address and get this from your phone (settings, WiFi, network you are connected to, First IP address at top of list)
4.    Use port 11882
5.    Connect
6.    You should now be able to see your telescope reticule in SS pointing at Polaris. Do whatever star alignment you prefer using your phone. 

7.    You should see SS mimic your telescope alignments and adjust itself as you confirm on the phone.

8.    You are now good to use SS to navigate!

You will need to keep the SynScan app running to use both apps together. If you just want the SynScan app on your iPad you can do that too (same as phone setup above) BUT you will not be able to run both on same device. If you have a new type of device (iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 4) that runs split screen it may work (I don’t actually know if this is true but from what I’ve read it might):

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/16/ios-9-split-screen-multitasking-ipad/

If someone tries this and let’s me know I’ll update this guide.

I think if you definitely want to run it off one device you will have to use Android. Again I have no experience of this but it will be similar to above except that android devices can run simultaneous apps.

I am also setting up my pc with Stellarium so I will do a similar guide for that shortly.

I am really REALLY excited to use this!

Hope that helps, I know I had to hunt around in various places to confirm how and what worked.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Dazzyt66

[Demonperformer]

Love the idea of plugging wife adapter into the mount. Ain't autocorrect great.

[Dazzyt66]

On 18/04/2018 at 14:32, Demonperformer said:

Love the idea of plugging wife adapter into the mount. Ain't autocorrect great.

? I’ve amended, although it did make me laugh...

[Dazzyt66]

I had my first light with this setup last night and can say it worked brilliantly! I couldn’t get my iPad and phone to work together but I know this is because I used SynScan on my iPad first before moving to the iPhone to try them together (I’ve deleted the SynScan app from my iPad now and it works fine). Independently, both work fine with the app. 2 star alignment put us bang on second star and all subsequent targets were centre of finder afterwards.

I may have had the luck of a newbie visitor attending as my daughter came to stay and was blown away by the ‘faint fuzzies’ (her words for Bodes) we could see from my light polluted Doncaster garden!

I also found putting the phone on the darkest ‘night shift’ mode (under display settings) helps with maintaining night vision should you accidentally lock the phone - yes, I did that a few times! The app didn’t seem to lose connection with the mount in these brief periods so all was good!

All in all a great experience for a first light and I really prefer the app to the handset - mainly because you can select from a list of targets rather than scroll through. Although an added ‘common name’ search may be asking for perfection instead of having to know (ok, lookup) Messier and NGC numbers). This is being ultra picky though!

One thing I have done is replace the short connector cable with my old handset cable so I could loosely tie wrap the dongle around the centre bolt - see pic. I was a bit worried of the dongle just ‘hanging in the breeze’ and possibly catching the scope during slews!

I’ll experiment more with the dual device SS setup again tonight, skies willing!! ?

Edited April 20, 2018 by Dazzyt66

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Dazzyt66 said:

I also found putting the phone on the darkest ‘night shift’ mode (under display settings) helps with maintaining night vision should you accidentally lock the phon

Have you tried the options in Settings > Accessibility > Display Accomodations?

In there you can set the display to red (or any colour) and this applies to everything, even if you exit the app. You can also reduce the white point right down. These two combined really help reduce impact on night vision.

Note that it still helps with visibility of menus to put SS in night mode.

[m.tweedy]

turn your iphone or ipad red

IT WORKS

[cletrac1922]

Dazzyt

Have had the WiFi adapter for a while now

Just using straight from adapter to my Android device

Problem I have, when 2 star alignment,   I use Sirius and Canopus, been southern hemisphere

When align first star, directions indicate to save move controller up and right

Do not get save bit

Go to second star, and App chooses star it wants, and not able to search for one I want

Any hints

Love way App sets your GPS location, time and date

I also use in solar mode, no star alignment, with my Coronado SolarMax11

When doing solar viewing, the app gives you an maths question, and have to type in answer

 

John

 

 

 

[davekelley]

On 18/04/2018 at 14:29, Dazzyt66 said:

My new SynScan WiFi arrived today and in less than 30 mins I had it up and running on both my phone using SynScan pro app and iPad mini 2 using SkySafari 5! I can’t wait to use it at night!! No clouds please ?

For all those that may need step by step (as I did), I thought I’d put this together as a one stop shop for SynScan WiFi using iOS device - so this is how I set it up on my HEQ5:

1.    Buy a SynScan WiFi adapter!
2.    Download the free SynScan app from iTunes or Sky-Watcher (‘pro’ version if you are using eq mounts)
3.    Plug WiFi adapter directly into the mount (instead of the handset)
4.    Power up mount (it powers the WiFi)
5.    Locate the network on your device (mine is iPhone 5s but also did it on iPad Mini 2)
6.    You may want to set your device to ‘forget’ (or set the connection not to auto join) any other nearby WiFi you use as it may switch over depending on signal strength which will make you lose connection with the mount. I haven’t experienced this yet.
7.    Make sure auto lock on the phone is off (it will disconnect from the wifi if it locks) – so set auto lock to ‘never’
8.    Open the the SynScan app
9.    ‘Connect’ - it will identify your mount at the top of the screen
10.    Viola!! You should now be able to star align and use your phone as a handset

The next steps are if you also want to use SkySafari (I’m using v5 pro on my iPad (Note: do not have SynScan app open on the iPad as well as your other device at the same time - this may stop SS linking to your other device):

1.    Download SS app (now v6)
2.    With phone connected as above and ONLY polar aligned at this point ready to use, open the settings menu in SS
3.    Select IP address and get this from your phone (settings, WiFi, network you are connected to, First IP address at top of list)
4.    Use port 11882
5.    Connect
6.    You should now be able to see your telescope reticule in SS pointing at Polaris. Do whatever star alignment you prefer using your phone. 

7.    You should see SS mimic your telescope alignments and adjust itself as you confirm on the phone.

8.    You are now good to use SS to navigate!

You will need to keep the SynScan app running to use both apps together. If you just want the SynScan app on your iPad you can do that too (same as phone setup above) BUT you will not be able to run both on same device. If you have a new type of device (iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 4) that runs split screen it may work (I don’t actually know if this is true but from what I’ve read it might):

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/16/ios-9-split-screen-multitasking-ipad/

If someone tries this and let’s me know I’ll update this guide.

I think if you definitely want to run it off one device you will have to use Android. Again I have no experience of this but it will be similar to above except that android devices can run simultaneous apps.

I am also setting up my pc with Stellarium so I will do a similar guide for that shortly.

I am really REALLY excited to use this!

Hope that helps, I know I had to hunt around in various places to confirm how and what worked.

What if you can't see polaris from your position, eg it's behind a tall building etc?

[Dazzyt66]

On 28/10/2019 at 08:14, davekelley said:

What if you can't see polaris from your position, eg it's behind a tall building etc?

Hey,

Thats ok, if you are only doing visual stuff, just do a rough alignment north using a compass and set your elevation. The alignment process after that should get you pretty much bang on.

HTH.

🙂

[Telescope40]

Hello @Dazzyt66

Just attempted this in the garage and you have just made my day. 
Worked like a charm. Looking to try out in anger now once a bit of sky appears.  Lol 

Thank you.  John 

[Bodger]

THANK YOU so much @Dazzyt66 for taking the time to write the SynScan stuff. I will be using it on my iPhone / iPad and you answered so many of the questions I didn’t have to bother people with 😄

You mentioned you might be trying to get it to work with Stellarium and writing a ‘how to’. I will go look for that but I wanted to thank you for your hard work.

[Bodger]

On 18/04/2018 at 15:29, Dazzyt66 said:

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/16/ios-9-split-screen-multitasking-ipad/

If someone tries this and let’s me know I’ll update this guide.

I have an iPad Air 5th generation running version 15.6 and can say that it doesn’t work I’m afraid. When you select the SynScan app it says “not supported” which is a pain because Stellarium IS supported.

[Bodger]

On 24/04/2018 at 23:23, m.tweedy said:

turn your iphone or ipad red

IT WORKS

MANY thanks. Works perfectly and how useful by just using three clicks.

[Dave Ross]

Thanks for this post. After considerable grief with Celestron Starsense-based tech, this worked like an charm.

Update: This setup works very well with SkySafari 7, happily!

[Neil H]

Update: This setup works very well with SkySafari 7, happily! 

Your lucky I can't get it to work on SS7 pro the programme does not like my Samsung tablet keeps says programme not responding . It's so bad I have to use stellariaum mobile , does any one know if you can get red screen on the Synscan app 

[happy-kat]

Synscan app /settings /user interface

Night mode

[Neil H]

Thanks found it , it's strange it's on but when I used it last night it was in day mode , so I turned off auto night mode so it's on all the time see if that's fixed it 

[Neil H]

Dazzyt66 thanks for the write up at last I have sky safari 7 pro working on my tablet  and mount 

Omg I am so happy just need a clear night 

[CaptMo]

Hi

First of all thank you for the information on setting up using the Ipad

I have put the SynScan pro software onto 3 devices all of which give me different issues

1. On my older mobile for some reason when I connect to the SynScan WIFI  Dongle after a few seconds it just disconnects itself?

2. On my new mobile It stays connected and I can control the Telescope OK and the Fuji camera,I  have loaded Stellarium standard edition, but I don't seem to have a way to control The Telescope I might have to buy the full version

3. I loaded SynScanPro and Stellarium full version, Set the I pad onto the SynScan WIFI connects OK, Then I opened up SynScan Pro software but when I move the Telescope the Synscan Pro control arrows seem to get stuck sometimes and the Telescope then can only be stopped by switching off the Sky Watcher box

I have closed down all the other apps on the I pad,

It seems to work sometimes when both of the Apps above are enabled

I did have some connection Issues using the Synscan Pro software, but I think that was due to the WIFI being on the same WIFI channel as my Router / AP's  I've set the AP's to Channel 6 and Channel 11,  I have turned off the router WIFI and I have set the Synscan WIFI dongle to Channel 1

I'd would like to get this fixed if I can some help would be appreciated

I have just loaded SynScan Pro on it own it seems to work OK, I then opened up Stellarium still OK until I connected it to the mount the The Arrow keys have locked

 

 

Edited March 25 by CaptMo

[happy-kat]

Hi is that Stellarium on pc or iPad

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

Stellarium doesn't go on iPad as far as I understand, Stellarium mobile yes but not Stellarium.

[CaptMo]

Hi

I'm tying to use a new Android Moto g54- 5g Mobile  or an I pad

I downloaded Stellarium from the I pad shop,  so I hope it's the mobile version

I do have the PC version installed on a PC , but that is using wired LAN not WIFI this is not connected at present

I may have got this working now, I have yet to align the Telescope

I updated the I Pad Software to the latest version today, looks like things have changed for the better

I've connected the Telescope using the SynScan Pro App and can move the Telescope OK

It now depends on if you use the I pad in Full screen, Slide or Split left or Split right

I can't get it to work Full screen even though both apps are running in the background

With the I Pad screen set to Split view right,  looks good, Go To works and arrow keys work on both Stellarium and the SynScan App

With the I pad screen set to Split view left this initially covers over the Stellarium Controls,  but you can reset this by swapping Split screen right then Split screen left also this works fine

With the I pad screen set to Slide the Go To function doesn't work nor do the Stellarium controls the Synscan Pro seem to work all a bit iffy

The good thing at the moment is the Control's are no longer locking up after  the I pad update

So it's update I pad to latest version, use split screen right and your away or use split screen right then split screen left then your OK

Give I pad full screen and slide  a miss

Re using the Mobile you need the full paid version to control the scope

I'll try this for a while and let you know if the keys locking up come back

Thank you for your assistance

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26 by CaptMo