EQDIR cable connection question

[Marvin Jenkins]

There is plenty of info out there about EQMOD and connecting my mount to a laptop and controlling it with planetarium software.

Perhaps I have missed a thread somewhere, or something obvious, but I still have a question.

I have an NEQ5 synscan V5. I have just bought an EQDIR USB to RJ45, Lynx Astro 5m (I stand to be corrected if this is incorrect) and I would like to operate my mount using my laptop (Acer Windows ten).

Can I connect the laptop directly to the mount with what I have and make the synscan handset redundant?

I have a bunch of Ascom drivers on the laptop and I have already downloaded EQMOD. I plan to use Stellarium as the planetarium software.

This is much more of a hardware and physical connectivity question as I can get to tech, driver and software questions later.

Any imput greatfully accepted.

Marv

[Cornelius Varley]

5 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

There is plenty of info out there about EQMOD and connecting my mount to a laptop and controlling it with planetarium software.

Perhaps I have missed a thread somewhere, or something obvious, but I still have a question.

I have an NEQ5 synscan V5. I have just bought an EQDIR USB to RJ45, Lynx Astro 5m (I stand to be corrected if this is incorrect) and I would like to operate my mount using my laptop (Acer Windows ten).

Can I connect the laptop directly to the mount with what I have and make the synscan handset redundant?

I have a bunch of Ascom drivers on the laptop and I have already downloaded EQMOD. I plan to use Stellarium as the planetarium software.

This is much more of a hardware and physical connectivity question as I can get to tech, driver and software questions later.

Any imput greatfully accepted.

Marv

That's basically what you need. Eqmod also requires the ascom platform, which I assume you already have. The EQDir cable connects between the laptop and the handset socket on the mount replacing the handset as the primary means of moving the mount. there are also clever things you can do with wireless/usb game pads to slew the mount. If you are using Stellarium as your planetarium you will also need StellariumScope to communicate between Stellarium and EQMod. If you use Carte du Ceil instead of Stellarium you don't need StellariumScope, so one less programme to configure/go wrong. 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Thank you very much for this simple but much needed info. I did notice that the power box on the mount has one RJ45 socket and a separate smaller socket for an auto guider.

I thought the hand set must be redundant because if the handset is plugged in then EQDIR cable has nothing to connect into.

Thanks for the heads up about Stellariumscope.

[Tomatobro]

Once you have your mount and PC talking to each other you can also use a bluetooth game pad and set up the joysicks and switches to do different things. Add voice confirmation as well.