Eq6r pro controlling with laptop and stelarium

[BungleHilton]

Merry christmas folks

 

I need some brains to pick as I've no idea at all. How would I run my mount eq6r pro on my laptop and then use to stalarium to operate it

 

Thanks. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 hour ago, BungleHilton said:

Merry christmas folks

 

I need some brains to pick as I've no idea at all. How would I run my mount eq6r pro on my laptop and then use to stalarium to operate it

 

Thanks. 

dead easy now. Stellarium supports ascom with the latest version. 

Install the ascom platform and connect to the mount

install stellarium

goto the telescope control tab in stellarium settings and enable, you have to restart stellarium

then add the telescope in the settings. 

 

[BungleHilton]

That sounds rather simple. Is it that easy? I've got stellarium on new laptop. I connect the mount via the hand controller? 

[Anthonyexmouth]

2 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

That sounds rather simple. Is it that easy? I've got stellarium on new laptop. I connect the mount via the hand controller? 

never connected via the handset myself, always used an eqmod cable so cant help you there. once you go laptop controlled the handset is redundant 

well worth investing in a good Eqmod cable from FLO

up until a few weeks ago stellarium required an additional piece of software called stellarium scope to bridge ascom/stellarium. was sometimes a pain but all thats sorted with the latest version. 

Edited December 28, 2019 by Anthonyexmouth

[Cornelius Varley]

1 hour ago, BungleHilton said:

Merry christmas folks

 

I need some brains to pick as I've no idea at all. How would I run my mount eq6r pro on my laptop and then use to stalarium to operate it

 

Thanks. 

I will assume that you already have a suitable usb-serial adapter.

1. Plug the usb-serial adapter into the usb port that you going to use for future connections to the mount. Once the drivers for the adapter have been installed, go to windows device manager and make a note of which com port number the adapter has been assigned.
2. Set up the mount and connect the supplied serial data cable to the usb-adapter and handset.
3. Load Stellarium and press F2 to go to the configurations window. Select Plug-ins scroll down to telescope control. Select "load at startup" and then the "configure" button.
4. Press the "add" button on the telescopes window, select  "Stellarium - directly through a serial port" and then "start/connect on startup". This option requires no external software to drive the mount so should be the easiest to start with. The current version of Stellerium also allows you to use external drivers through Ascom, but this is more complex.
5. Scroll down until you find the option "device settings". Select the correct com port and mount type (Synscan v3)

 

[BungleHilton]

So I've the lead adapter thing. I just plug this into where the hand set fitting on the mount rather than the handset itself. Then the USB end into laptop. 

[Cornelius Varley]

50 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

So I've the lead adapter thing. I just plug this into where the hand set fitting on the mount rather than the handset itself. Then the USB end into laptop. 

Is the "adapter thing" an EQDIR adapter designed to replace the handset using EQMOD or the cable (RJ12 at one end and DB9 at the other) supplied with the mount for firmware updating ?

[BungleHilton]

It's an eqdir lead I got from FLO. 

[BungleHilton]

Do I need something called eqmod? 

[BungleHilton]

Where do I get ascom from? 

[Cornelius Varley]

11 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

Where do I get ascom from? 

The ASCOM platform can be found here . And your journey into EQMOD starts here .

[alacant]

13 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The ASCOM platform

Does the OP need that complexity? Your excellent description should do it, no?

Cheers

[BungleHilton]

Well I've downloaded ASCOM and EQmod. Followed a video on youtube to set up. Does the mount budge...... not a thing. 

[BungleHilton]

Is this the correct lead? 

[Cornelius Varley]

13 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

Is this the correct lead? 

Not sure. The photo on FLO shows the words "USB EQ Direct".  Yours appears to be a USB-Serial adapter which would plug into the smaller RJ port on the handset.

Lynx EQDIR cable

Lynx USB-Serial adapter

[BungleHilton]

It plugs into the mount and also the hand controller where the original lead currently plugs into to connect the handset to the mount. 

[Cornelius Varley]

27 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

It plugs into the mount and also the hand controller where the original lead currently plugs into to connect the handset to the mount. 

Is the RJ plug the same size as the mount to handset cable or smaller ?

[BungleHilton]

The what plug? 

[Cornelius Varley]

3 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

The what plug? 

The clear plastic plug on the USB-Serial cable (RJ = Registered Jack). Also, does it fit the smaller RJ socket on the handset ? The RJ12 plug used in the smaller socket will fit the larger RJ45 socket (handset and mount) but it is not designed for that purpose. Can you count the number of connectors in the plug? The RJ12 has 6 and the RJ45 has 8.

[BungleHilton]

It fits the larger socket on the bottom of the handset. If by pins you mean the little gold teeth things. There are 8. 

[Cornelius Varley]

31 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

It fits the larger socket on the bottom of the handset. If by pins you mean the little gold teeth things. There are 8. 

Curiouser and curiouser. The cable is labelled as a USB to serial adapter which intended for firmware updates and mount control from a computer via the small socket on the mount, but the plug looks too big and has 8 pins like an RJ45 plug.

PS if you bought it recently you might be able to get it checked by the retailer to ensure it is not faulty.

[BungleHilton]

This fits where the hand controller cable fits to the mount 

[Miguel1983]

You don't need the handcontroller anymore, like you said, plug the EQDir cable in the mount directly.

EQMod and EQASCOM need to be installed, and the Skywatcher Synscan mount controller here.

For controlling the mount i can recommend Cartes Du Ciel witch can be found here.

In Cartes Du Ciel you can hit connect to mount, this wil promt a EQMOD screen, here you can unpark the mount and chose the type of tracking.

Then you can return to Cartes and select/search your object and do a go to/slew to.

You can do a star alignment this way, if you use a camera and capture program like APT to control your camera and mount.

In APT you can set your planetarium software, Cartes Du Ciel, and in liveview  you activate the crosshair and center in on your selected target with the scope buttons, once centered hit SYNC button in Cartes dus Ciel.

 

Good luck

[BungleHilton]

Well I've downloaded all of the above. But cant get my mount to budge or connect. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

4 minutes ago, BungleHilton said:

Well I've downloaded all of the above. But cant get my mount to budge or connect. 

First thing to do is get the mount and the Eqmod interface working together. 

can you post a few screen shots of the eqmod up and running with the mount connected