A newbie to PHD guiding

[PaulHD]

Hi, I've acquired a 14" Meade LX200GPS Autostar ll system (yes, its a monster!!) and am looking for some advice on how to connect it to my laptop when using PHD. It looks simple enough but for whatever reason when I try connecting the mount in PHD to 'Meade LX200GPS/R (ASCOM), I receive an error message stating that it cannot create object type of prog ID: Meade LX200 telescope. Does this mean that my mount is not supported by ASCOM ?

I'm sure I have all the ASCOM drivers downloaded ok.

I can connect via 'On Camera' though I'm led to believe that this is not as robust as via ASCOM above.

Am I missing something so obvious that I cant see the wood for the tree's ??

Any assistance most welcomed.

[malc-c]

How are you controlling the telescope?  I can't advise on the specifics for your mount, but generally PHD requires an "driver" application such as EQMOD (for Skywatcher / Orion) as PHD2 doesn't (AFAIK) provide direct control / interfacing to the mount.   It integrates through the ASCOM platform to the imaging software, any planetarium software and the telescope control software.

Drivers are listed on the ASCOM website (seems Mead don't produce their own drivers for their scopes !)  Listed here   the LX200GPS is about 2/3 the way down the page.  I've not been able to locate any application for PC control, but there are various software packages listed on Meads site, so I guess they produce something that provides that functionality.  

 

[michael8554]

Hi Paul

You need to load the ASCOM Platform, followed by the Meade ASCOM driver.

The are at least three ASCOM Meade LX200GPS drivers, the latest that fixes most deficiencies in the previous ones is:

"Meade Autostar/Audiostar Project (October 2019) <- TRY THIS FIRST"      which is on this page:

https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm

It's also known as the "Meade Generic Driver", it works with Autostar II for your mount, and for ETX etc mounts with the 497 Autostar.

Next you need a connection between your PC and the mount, you haven't described how you have done this:

A USB-to Serial Adapter, connected to a Meade #507 cable, plugged into one of the two RS232 ports on the mount.

The RS232 adapter has to show as fault-free in Window Device Manager, note the number of the COM port it creates.

After you have switched on the mount and Star Aligned, then open PHD2.

Look for the Generic Driver in the mount section of the Equipment selection window, select the COM number, and connect.

Michael

 

[PaulHD]

Hi Malcolm and Michael,

Many thanks for your suggestions. Certainly food for thought.

I've hooked up the Meade #507 cable to the Auto guider port on the computer control panel but never thought of hooking up the laptop to one of the RS232 ports.

This I'll try once it stops raining !!!!!

I appreciate you getting back to me.

Paul

[michael8554]

The Autoguider port on the LX200GPS control panel is only for old-school ST-4 guiding - for a cable from the ST-4 port on the camera.

Connect the camera directly to the PC, USB to USB.

Other procedures to while away the hours:

Train Drives on a distant landmark - Appendix D of the Instruction Manual.

Improves the accuracy of final moves in GoTo's. Has to be followed to the letter or you will keep going back to the start - bin there, dun that !

Check the date after a GPS fix. If it's not 2021, the mount needs a software update to correct the deliberate world-wide "GPS Rollover" in 2019.

You can switch off GPS Alignment and enter time and date manually, often faster !

Michael

[PaulHD]

It was the Autoguider port that's thrown me. 

During a dry spell this morning I hooked up the camera directly to the pc, forgetting about the ST-4 cable, which I've previously been trying to use. Then hooking up pc to RS232 port seems to have cleared the connection error messages I've been receiving. Downloading the "Meade Generic Driver" may have also helped.

All I need now is a clear night to play with the guiding for real. Looking at the weather forecast this could be some time off :-((.

Cheers, Paul