Finally said bye bye to my handset!

[RogerMc]

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place or has be discussed elsewhere but being a newbie here I hope you'll forgive me.

I've finally got my handset out of service on my HEQ5 mount and am now using the excellent EQMOD software along with a wireless rumble gamepad, as suggested on their site. I took time to read up the EQMOD site and opted to use FTDI TTL-232R interface cable to connect to the mount. As I work in IT, I was able to crimp an RJ45 plug on to the end of the three wires of the interface cable with a really decent crimping tool. It really makes for a neat job even if I do say it myself.

Next I installed the latest Ascom 5 interface and EQMOD's latest version of their software on to my laptop along with the drivers for the USB interface. Interestingly, I noted that the USB interface keeps the same comm port number regardless of which USB socket I plugged in to on the hub so once set up on the Ascom/EQMOD applications I can now forget about it.

I fired up the Winstars 2 planetarium software and launched the telescope connect interface via Ascom and selected comm port 3 where the interface was connected to and then the EQMOD interface popped up. Fingers crossed with my mount powered and set up I found the cable interface was talking to the mount - phew. I've configured and calibrated the rumble gamepad and was chuffed to bits to see the mount slew by moving the joystick!!!

So now all I've got to do now is to try and get my head round the software and hope for some clear skies over the weekend and have a trial to see how it performs.

Sorry to have gone on.

Roge

[Reggie]

Hi Roger, I reckon the equipment discussion forum is the right place for your post It's nice to see the throng of EQModders growing, being in IT I'm sure you'll find the EQMod software a breeze to use.

[Beyond_Vision]

Yes it's a great piece of software. I have just sorted out a wireless gamepad for £9.99 for my setup and it's great to be able to walk around the mount and not worry about cables whilst doing a 3 star alignment.

Regards

Kevin