Vixen Sphinx with Skysafari - finally

[Stu]

I've been wanting to link my Vixen Sphinx mount up to SkySafari since I've had it, but despite (or probably because!) of some intensive, IT illiterate fumblings around with a Netgear router I have been unable to get it to work.

Now, during my latest bout of fumbling, I managed to break the mini (or is it micro?) USB input on the Netgear, so decided to buy another, simpler one to have another go.

Amazon Prime delivered as quickly as ever, and a somewhat randomly chosen TP Link AC750 router turned up. I had read a brief guide on the Skysafari website which indicated it should be fairly straight forward, and so it proved. I configured a range of DHCP addresses as indicated in these instructions, connected up the router to the Starbook controller, and after connecting to the TP Link's WiFi network with my phone, I was delighted when a tap of 'connect' had Skysafari sync to the somewhat arbitrary position that the controller thought it was pointing at. A few test gotos slewed the mount, as did the control arrows, so I'm confident it is working.

Looking forward to giving this a go at the next opportunity. I do find double star hunting much easier with SS rather than the Starbook controller.

VixenWirelessSetup.pdf

[CraigT82]

I also have the little TP link router hooked up to my Sphinx SXW and it's great, so easy to create a doubles observing list and then just swing by each pair in any order you fancy! Great for me as with my light pollution finding specific doubles not in the star book memory can be very tricky 

[Stu]

13 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

I also have the little TP link router hooked up to my Sphinx SXW and it's great, so easy to create a doubles observing list and then just swing by each pair in any order you fancy! Great for me as with my light pollution finding specific doubles not in the star book memory can be very tricky 

It works really well doesn't it? I agree, I find the Starbook a bit limited when it comes to doubles too so SkySafari makes life alot easier.