My setup and reintroduction

[Dave1]

Hi guys,

Long time no see! I hope some of you can still remember me? Its been a long time since I've been that active in astronomy. But the bug has bitten me again. Especially with the big bright planets in the sky. I always was mainly a planetary observer. 

So I'm finally getting around to completing my DIY GoTo mount, which will be used with my Skylight 60mm F16.7 telescope. My little 60mm refractor is my only current telescope. 

Here's a photo of the progress so far. So far I've manage to get the motors, gears, and belts on.

[Ags]

Hi, this looks like an interesting project!

[RobertI]

Very nice, let us know how that works. Your 60mm should sit nicely on that. Still time to catch Venus!

[Dave1]

Thanks guys, thanks for the comments. Waiting for a couple of DB9 female to female gender changer couplers to turn up. Then I can take the next step and hopefully put the whole setup together and get it working. The hardest part for me will be sorting the software settings out!

[Alan White]

Nice to see you back active Dave.
Interested to see how the mount project goes and good luck with being back.

[Dave1]

Hi @Alan White thanks for the welcome back. I hope I can already be practicing astronomy 1 night a week at the moment.

[Dave1]

So an update on where I am with this, the DB9 female to female couplers have turned up, and are fitted. I have now sorted a power pack Nevada PS-08. I now need to wait for the power cables to run from the Nevada PS-08 to the mount control box. Getting there!

[malc-c]

I followed the link in your other post 

 

When you say software do you mean firmware?  ie the means of translating the instructions from a PC or handset to make the motors move and position the scope ?  If so then to be honest you are better off looking at an existing goto system such as Onstep, which is Arduino based and aimed at those who are making their own mounts.  Alternatively, if you are using a commercial mount which has the same gear ratios as one of the Skywatcher / Orion mounts then look at purchasing a control board for said mount and use that in whatever box you are placing the electronics in.

If you really want to reinvent the wheel, then you'll need to come up with a set of command codes for each of the actions for both the firmware in the mount control board and any ASCOM "driver".  The "driver" would need to be compatible with existing planetarium applications otherwise you would also need to write your own PC application.  

Good luck with your project.

[Dave1]

I already I have the EQ Power control box by Astro Gadget. Which if connected to a pc uses EQMOD/Ascom. But use SynScan and Sky Safari Pro from mobile, since it has built in WiFi. So not reinventing the wheel, so to speak. EQMOD Ascom is older than Onstep.

 For SynScan to connect to my control box via WiFi. I need to update the firmware in the control box first via PC. I have a firmware file, which is a hex file. But for some reason it won't write/install itself to the control box. It might be something I'm doing or not doing? Which is why I asked for help.

[malc-c]

On 25/05/2023 at 14:37, Dave1 said:

I already I have the EQ Power control box by Astro Gadget. Which if connected to a pc uses EQMOD/Ascom. But use SynScan and Sky Safari Pro from mobile, since it has built in WiFi. So not reinventing the wheel, so to speak. EQMOD Ascom is older than Onstep.

 For SynScan to connect to my control box via WiFi. I need to update the firmware in the control box first via PC. I have a firmware file, which is a hex file. But for some reason it won't write/install itself to the control box. It might be something I'm doing or not doing? Which is why I asked for help.

 

HEX files are loaded in two ways.  The first is programming the controller ( PIC microcontroller, ARM based processor, AVR etc) directly.  This requires a small bit of hardware which connects to the PC, with its outputs connected to certain pins on the processor, normally via a header pin.  The hardware supplies high voltage (typically 12v) to one pin and power to Vcc and Vdd.  This then places the processor in programming mode.  The last two wires connect to the Data and Clock lines on the processor.  Once programming software has detected the processor you can then  load the HWX file and click write on the PC software to "burn " it to the chip.  The second way depends on how the processor was originally programmed.  If programmed with a small bit of code called a bootloader then you can use the same connection that is used to control the mount and a small application to upload the HEX file.  Most modern goto mounts tend to have bootloaders coded into them form the factory to allow the end user to update the mounts firmware through a small app.   From my limited research it seem that the EQ Astro uses both a 18F series PIC micro and a large ATMEL Mega - Why I have no idea as most Synscan units have two 16F series PICs, one for each axis.  The fact it uses EQMOD suggest that it uses the SYNTA protocol but has pre-programmed settings for various mounts it's designed to work with. 

Maybe contact the manufactures to ask what's needed and if the file you have can be uploaded via the bootloader.  My gut feeling is that you are going to need a programmer and program the MCUs directly.