Using a Y-adaptor cable for EQDIR + SynScan

[SteveBz]

Hi Fellow Astronomers,

Last night was a beautiful night, 7 hours or more of M82, NGC4565 and M101.

But every night I have to unplug my EQDIR and plug in my handset so that I can get the mount the correct side of the pier before booting up my software.  I always boot in the West-facing direction, whereas my software boots in an East-facing direction.  I plug in the Synscan handset to right matters, and then unplug to plug in EQDIR (KStars and INDI on a Raspberry Pi, since you ask).

What I'd like to do is have them both plugged in together with an adapter. 

Do you think that's OK or will they clash with each other.

Regards,

Steve.

[malc-c]

So you are thinking of using something like an RJ45 "Y"cable ?????   Uhmmmm

Not 100% sure it would work - you would probably end up with having serial "packet" data corrupted as both devices would see the mount and be trying to communicate at the same time.  You are basically trying to parallel TX and RX serial data to two devices at the same time - don't think it would work.

Why don't you use whatever driver for the scope to perform a meridian flip - I know EQMOD can be configured to force a flip at a given point, but given the hardware would assume you are not using EQMOD as the driver 

[SteveBz]

4 minutes ago, malc-c said:

So you are thinking of using something like an RJ45 "Y"cable ?????

Yes.

 

4 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Why don't you use whatever driver for the scope to perform a meridian flip - I know EQMOD can be configured to force a flip at a given point, but given the hardware would assume you are not using EQMOD as the drive

It's a very small space, I don't want anything to move.  I only ever image between about 23:30 HA and 03:00 HA - in a Westerly direction, which gives me about 3 hours on most objects, and that's OK.  If I do e flip, it's likely to hit the shed walls.  Really all I want is to unpark pointing Westerly, not Easterly.

Tx.

Steve.

[malc-c]

It would probably require a different cable, but if you had a PC-DIRECT cable connected between the computer to the handset, with the handset in PC-Direct mode, and then the handset connected to the mount, then all you would need to do is come out of PC-Direct mode on the handset and use the handset and normal to park the scope.  The PC direct cables used to be a DB9 to RJ45, so you may need a standard USB to serial convertor to replace the EQ-DIR cable

[SteveBz]

36 minutes ago, malc-c said:

It would probably require a different cable, but if you had a PC-DIRECT cable connected between the computer to the handset, with the handset in PC-Direct mode, and then the handset connected to the mount, then all you would need to do is come out of PC-Direct mode on the handset and use the handset and normal to park the scope.  The PC direct cables used to be a DB9 to RJ45, so you may need a standard USB to serial convertor to replace the EQ-DIR cable

I have one, but the driver for the PCDirect is just not as good as the driver for the EQDir.