SynScan App on Windows - setting location

[AstroAndy70]

Hi All - my first post on this site so be gentle

I am awaiting delivery on an EQ6-R Pro mount when FLO are able to get stock - hopefully soon 🥴. Whilst I wait, I'm setting up a new laptop for imaging use.

I'm hoping to get a mount with the new direct USB port and because of that I will be trying to use the SynScan App Pro for Windows to talk to the mount. In emulation mode this all seems to work well and I can get either APT or NINA to "control" the mount.

What I'm having an issue with is having to enter the location lat/long into SynScan manually... I have a NMEA GPS device connected via USB and using a COM port. I can't get SynScan to "see" it though. When I set the toggle to "Use Location Sensor" it just says No Location Sensor - Please ensure permission to read location has been granted. I've tried to set the Windows 10 settings to allow location data to be shared but I don't think SynScan is playing that game.

I installed SynScan on my Android phone and toggling that switch gets the phones location fine without issue.

Has anyone else managed to get the app on Windows to accept a lat/long from another connected device?

N.I.N.A. can read the COM port device and set it's location correctly but when I then "connect" to the mount (emulation mode at the moment) the button to send location to telescope is disabled so either the app doesn't support it or maybe the emulation part doesn't? Anyone use this setup i.e. not EQMOD.

I'd rather "keep it clean" and not use EQMOD if the SynScan App can be made to automatically pick up the current location.

 

Thanks

Andy

[AstroAndy70]

Just an update to this in case someone else would like to do the same thing as I do... 

I emailed Skywatcher and they replied to say that the Windows version of the SynScan App does not accept a location automatically and there are no plans to change that. 

A real shame as I doubt it would be difficult to do... I may look into writing my own update script to set the coordinates from the NMEA device. 

[AstroAndy70]

So I've looked at the settings.txt file that the app creates at first run and then maintains after and it a pretty simple JSON file. 

I've written a powershell script which finds a GPS device on a serial port and injects the adjusted lat/long into the file in the correct format.

As long as I run this first before opening the SynScan App then it works great. 

If anyone wants a copy of the script then let me know. 

[grantboxer]

Would this work running a gps over a Bluetooth connection?

[oscar001]

On 31/07/2021 at 00:09, AstroAndy70 said:

So I've looked at the settings.txt file that the app creates at first run and then maintains after and it a pretty simple JSON file. 

I've written a powershell script which finds a GPS device on a serial port and injects the adjusted lat/long into the file in the correct format.

As long as I run this first before opening the SynScan App then it works great. 

If anyone wants a copy of the script then let me know. 

Hi, can you send me a copy please? thanks