Terrans Industry Onstep kit for EQ5

[AndrewRrrrrr]

Hi All,

Bought one of these to see what it's like and how it will work. 

I bought the "lite" version: https://www.terransindustry.com/en-gb/collections/onstep-v4-kit/products/celestron-cg4?variant=42563771302081 and it cost me GBP 119.70 all in (paid via paypal) after the introductory 10% discount was applied. 

It took about 4 weeks to arrive, no import duties or the like. 

Very easy to install although needed a bit of figuring out which bolts/washers/nuts to use where and the lack of covers for the motors isn't very pretty imho.

I'm still in the process of configuring it up, so far I've got SkySafari on my ipad connected to it over wifi and slewing around works well, although all indoors at the moment as terrible weather!

Still working on it from a star alignment point of view, but will need a clear night for that. 

Slewing is really really quiet. 

I intend to get it connected to my windows laptop when time allows and also to see how it works with guiding. 

Will update this when have more info. 

cheers

Andrew

Edited July 31, 2023 by AndrewRrrrrr

[bosun21]

I'm looking forward to hearing how you get on with this kit. I have a new  synscan go to EQ5 as well as one that only has the motor drive kit. This would be a great upgrade for the later. It's considerably cheaper as well.

[bosun21]

Does this kit slew at go to speed? Thanks.

[AndrewRrrrrr]

Slewing with onstep under SkySafari on iPad control. A decent rate I think.

slewing using the arrow buttons on SkySafari seems a bit slower.

I think from the documentation that the android onstep app might be more flexible but it only runs on android and I don’t have an android phone (going to buy a cheap one and see what happens)

haven’t managed to get the usb connection from my windows pc working yet.

l

 

[bosun21]

16 minutes ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

Slewing with onstep under SkySafari on iPad control. A decent rate I think.

slewing using the arrow buttons on SkySafari seems a bit slower.

I think from the documentation that the android onstep app might be more flexible but it only runs on android and I don’t have an android phone (going to buy a cheap one and see what happens)

haven’t managed to get the usb connection from my windows pc working yet.

l

 

IMG_3458.mov

Thanks Andrew. I'd really appreciate it if you could post how things work out for you.

[skybadger]

On 02/08/2023 at 07:55, bosun21 said:

Does this kit slew at go to speed? Thanks.

A typical onstep slews at 3 degrees per sec. Fast enough for most. 

It can go higher but that depends on voltage ,steppers and gearing. 

My skytee will do 4.5

 

[AndrewRrrrrr]

Got the usb working, didn’t push the usb in far enough!! Doh.

ascom all connected nicely.

APT can slew it around, as can stellarium.

pointing looks about right although can’t be sure as inside due to force 8 winds and rain outside!!!! (Again)

put the c8 on with the counterweights and still slews just as good, fast and quiet. Movie shows slewing from m31 over to Arcturus. 

 

 

 

[bosun21]

48 minutes ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

Got the usb working, didn’t push the usb in far enough!! Doh.

ascom all connected nicely.

APT can slew it around, as can stellarium.

pointing looks about right although can’t be sure as inside due to force 8 winds and rain outside!!!! (Again)

put the c8 on with the counterweights and still slews just as good, fast and quiet. Movie shows slewing from m31 over to Arcturus. 

IMG_3471.mov 153.65 MB · 1 download  

 

 

Thanks Andrew. I will order myself one now to replace the motor drive kit on my spare EQ5.

[AndrewRrrrrr]

also worth noting that I used the company's live chat feature late last night to ask a technical question, and while I didn't get an immediate answer, I did receive an email reply by the time I woke up this morning. Good english and a reasonable reply. 

[bosun21]

11 hours ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

also worth noting that I used the company's live chat feature late last night to ask a technical question, and while I didn't get an immediate answer, I did receive an email reply by the time I woke up this morning. Good english and a reasonable reply. 

Would I be able to use my Android tablet to connect to the telescope with Sky Safari? I only do visual so no laptop required in my case.

[skybadger]

Yes, mine does from my HTC phone on android 9

Needs to implement the web server part of onstep.

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by skybadger

[AndrewRrrrrr]

On 06/08/2023 at 20:36, skybadger said:

Yes, mine does from my HTC phone on android 9

Needs to implement the web server part of onstep.

 

Hi Skybadger,

Are you using the native onstep app or are going through something like SkySafari on your android device? 
I got hold of an old android phone but although I can run the onstep app fine, apparently the android version is too old to run stellarium+ and I’m too tight to buy SkySafari again! need to learn about android…..
Out of interest, what implementation of onstep are you using? 
cheers

andrew

 

[AL1]

Hi, 

I am following this with interest. I have a onstep project on the back burner at the moment.  I built a proto board and had it working on the bench but have not got around to the mechanical integration on my vixen gp mount. 

[skybadger]

20 hours ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

Hi Skybadger,

Are you using the native onstep app or are going through something like SkySafari on your android device? 
I got hold of an old android phone but although I can run the onstep app fine, apparently the android version is too old to run stellarium+ and I’m too tight to buy SkySafari again! need to learn about android…..
Out of interest, what implementation of onstep are you using? 
cheers

andrew

 

I am using onstep 4.2, built from the github distribution and installed onto a CNC V3 R2 ESP32 board with a smart web server running on an esp8266 side board linked via serial port.

The smart web server offers skysafari support on port 9999 and TCP IP support for an ASCOM driver interface which can be connected via serial over Bluetooth or directly via WiFi.

I installed this on skytee to drive the altaz mount to track the sun. 

I run it via the android app over Bluetooth and from firecap on the remote home pc. I also have run it from skysafari over Bluetooth using the meade lx200 protocol. 

I plan to install two more , one each on a large and smaller altaz dob I have built.

So I think the key question is whether the one for sale supports the WiFi interface. It would be severely limited without. 

HTh. 

Mike

Edited August 8, 2023 by skybadger
Added answer to the question.

[AndrewRrrrrr]

3 hours ago, skybadger said:

I am using onstep 4.2, built from the github distribution and installed onto a CNC V3 R2 ESP32 board with a smart web server running on an esp8266 side board linked via serial port.

The smart web server offers skysafari support on port 9999 and TCP IP support for an ASCOM driver interface which can be connected via serial over Bluetooth or directly via WiFi.

I installed this on skytee to drive the altaz mount to track the sun. 

I run it via the android app over Bluetooth and from firecap on the remote home pc. I also have run it from skysafari over Bluetooth using the meade lx200 protocol. 

I plan to install two more , one each on a large and smaller altaz dob I have built.

So I think the key question is whether the one for sale supports the WiFi interface. It would be severely limited without. 

HTh. 

Mike

that’s great info thanks!

 

I can confirm this one works fine over Wi-Fi, ip address and port 9999 as you say. You can go direct to the built-in web server or SkySafari. Prefer SkySafari as the units own web server is a bit clunky for my liking. Bluetooth is ok from the android phone but not from an iPhone. 

[bosun21]

2 minutes ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

that’s great info thanks!

 

I can confirm this one works fine over Wi-Fi, ip address and port 9999 as you say. You can go direct to the built-in web server or SkySafari. Prefer SkySafari as the units own web server is a bit clunky for my liking. Bluetooth is ok from the android phone but not from an iPhone. 

Thanks Andrew. So I can basically install the kit and then connect it to my Android phone/tablet and use Sky Safari to control the telescope and mount? 

[AndrewRrrrrr]

Hi I’ve done that with an apple phone&ipad. Sounds like skybadger has done that with an android phone. 
haven’t used it in anger outside yet as weather terrible but looks like there may be an brief opportunity coming soon! Fingers crossed……

[bosun21]

Great, I actually have both Apple and Android devices so I have my bases covered. Thanks again.

[AndrewRrrrrr]

grabbed some time between the scudding clouds tonight to try it out using sky safari on iphone connected to the onstep via our home wifi.

...... super-rough polar alignment and 2 star mount alignment. next object M31 was near the centre in the finder and eyepiece so all good.

using the slew buttons while looking through the eyepiece (24mm in my C8 giving 84X) is a very smooth experience. looking forward to seeing how auto-guiding will work at some point.

let it alone for 10 mins and when checked, the object under view was still in the eyepiece fov

totally silent when just tracking, very quiet when slewing, I would say quieter than my belt-modded neq6. 

saw a few Perseids as well 🙂

 

 

 

 

[AndrewRrrrrr]

I can confirm control of the onstep is good via Astro Photography Tool and PHD2.  once a couple of platesolves and syncs have been done, it's very accurate at slewing to what you want. 

The guiding accuracy was not great, but it was really poor seeing, i have a polar alignement error of over a degree and had a fully loaded C8 on the GP mount (way over what you should have on a GP for photos).

Although the guiding wasn't great it was a massive improvment over the GP mount with the SS2K on it, which basicallly wouldn't guide at all. I guess the SS2K motors and using spur gears compared to the belt drive and modern steppers for the onstep have helped here. 

I think I can get the guiding better with some decent seeing, a proper PA and may a bit more time spent on balancing. Certainly the poor guiding isn't down to the onstep, it's the amount of gear I have on the GP.

We will see.......

 

[Ags]

This looks really interesting! Was it really simple to install? I only have basic DIY skills.

[AndrewRrrrrr]

42 minutes ago, Ags said:

This looks really interesting! Was it really simple to install? I only have basic DIY skills.

yes - really easy. basic skills will be good enough! 

[AndrewRrrrrr]

finally a clear (ish) night so gave the onstep on GP mount another trial with a better PA (2.4 arc-min)

It's doing really well IMHO (this a C8 with a 0.63x reducer and a Canon 60D) guiding accuracy seems to be around 0.63"  going as low as 0.42" at one point!

 

 

onstep-guiding291223.tiff