Connect to AZ GTi via Sky Safari or Stellarium (android)

[Orange Smartie]

Hi. Pretty self-explanatory really - I can't. I can connect to the AZ GTi wifi no problem, but it has limited functionality, so I'd like to drive my mount through either Sky Safari Pro or Stellarium plus. But for the life of me, I can't work out how to connect. Any one have any experience of doing this successfully?

 

Pete

[Elp]

In Sky Safari Plus or Pro when you press the telescope icon and connect to the scope (whilst your phone/tablets WiFi is connected to the mounts WiFi) what happens?

[Orange Smartie]

I'm getting the message "connection refused". Not sure what host and port settings I should be using, or whether I should connect via SynScan app first or not (it doesn't seem to work either way though).

[Zermelo]

9 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

I'm getting the message "connection refused". Not sure what host and port settings I should be using, or whether I should connect via SynScan app first or not (it doesn't seem to work either way though).

Yes, connect with SynScan first.

SkySafari needs configuring with a connection on 192.168.4.2,  port 11882.

[Orange Smartie]

Thanks Zermelo. However that isn't working. I can connect to the SynScan ok, and I can drive it to do an imaginary alignment (no scope on at the moment). On SynScan, I'm seeing under Connection Settings, the message Server start failed under the heading "connection to this app".

[Elp]

Have you copied your azgti IP address into skysafari?

[Orange Smartie]

Ah, now I can see "server started" under the "connection to this app" section of synscan, but still can't get on there from Sky Safari. I've just tried Stellarium and that doesn't work either.

 

[Orange Smartie]

3 minutes ago, Elp said:

Have you copied your azgti IP address into skysafari?

I'm seeing the IP address as 192.168.4.2 - I was using that.

[Elp]

From my experience you don't do anything within the synscan pro app other than get the mounts information, all the setup is done within sky safari pro/plus. You have to be using these versions of sky safari as the standard free one doesn't have telescope control capabilities though i'm assuming you already know that.

[Orange Smartie]

Just now, Elp said:

From my experience you don't do anything within the synscan pro app other than get the mounts information, all the setup is done within sky safari pro/plus. You have to be using these versions of sky safari as the standard free one doesn't have telescope control capabilities though i'm assuming you already know that.

Thanks, yes I was aware of that. I've been using Sky Safari Pro for ages, and prefer that, but I've also got Stellarium +. I'm having the same issue with both apps.

[happy-kat]

I hadn't managed to get skysafari plus to connect since Android 14.

[Elp]

Strange behaviour. I haven't used it for a while and my android version is the same on V12 but now for some reason synscan pro is very buggy, as soon as you switch apps it has a tendency to not open again and hang, this affects the connection within sky safari and that too will likely crash. I've just gone through the process of adding another scope (choose other the fourth option, then choose Skywatcher Synscan from the mount controller list, add in the IP address and port number and press the check connection button, if correct it will say connection verified in the top box, click next and confirm the preset name and save) with the settings outlined above and it works fine. There might be an issue with your synscan pro app based on what I've just tried.

[Orange Smartie]

It's very frustrating. I don't want to be limited to syn scan as the list of objects is so meagre.

[Elp]

Have you got another phone/tablet you can try? Preferably using an older version operating system.

[Orange Smartie]

I don't unfortunately.

[AstroNebulee]

I use sky safari pro 6 with my AzGti. I load up synscan first do an alignment via synscan. Then connect sky safari by pressing scope and connect. Sky safari then gets all the information it needs from the synscan alignment routine. 

The settings are as shown in my screenshots. 

Synscan has to stay awake when your using sky safari. By going into app launch on your phone settings and press manage manually on synscan and sky safari, making sure all the check boxes are checked and app runs in background. 

I use this with my p30 lite in android 10 and p20 lite. 

Lee 

 

Edited February 13 by AstroNebulee

[Elp]

Can you align your azgti in SS @AstroNebulee? When I try it it just says something like command failed. In SS my azgti is ever so slightly off to one side when comparing to the SS sky atlas.

I presume the above is a kind of workaround.

Edited February 13 by Elp

[happy-kat]

I forgot to mention it's sky safari plus 7 and I preferred version 4 which I came from

[Gfamily]

Have you turned off battery optimization for the SynScan app? 

This keeps the app running when you switch to Sky Safari.

Just a thought 

[AstroNebulee]

44 minutes ago, Elp said:

Can you align your azgti in SS @AstroNebulee? When I try it it just says something like command failed. In SS my azgti is ever so slightly off to one side when comparing to the SS sky atlas.

I presume the above is a kind of workaround.

Once I've performed the alignment routine in synscan be it North level or 1 star. I switch to sky safari.  Say I've Jupiter in my fov in the ep, I can press align in sky safari and it'll place the crosshairs over Jupiter. Then all ok. 

I've always done the main alignment routine in synscan first. Seems to work for me. 

Lee

 

Edited February 13 by AstroNebulee

[happy-kat]

You're using an older version sky safari pro

[Orange Smartie]

Hi all. Many thanks for your contributions - I told Mrs Smartie this evening what a wonderful community this is, and time and again it proves to be true.

@AstroNebulee special thanks go to you because your idea seems to have worked a bit; I've updated the app preferences for battery use and successfully connected to my mount. It isn't perfect yet, because the mount seems to disconnect quite rapidly - I'm wondering if this is due to the battery saver mode causing a disconnect. But it's a massive improvement and I am extremely grateful for everyone's input.

 

[AstroNebulee]

22 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

Hi all. Many thanks for your contributions - I told Mrs Smartie this evening what a wonderful community this is, and time and again it proves to be true.

@AstroNebulee special thanks go to you because your idea seems to have worked a bit; I've updated the app preferences for battery use and successfully connected to my mount. It isn't perfect yet, because the mount seems to disconnect quite rapidly - I'm wondering if this is due to the battery saver mode causing a disconnect. But it's a massive improvement and I am extremely grateful for everyone's input.

 

No problems, always willing to help on this great little mount. I think the issue of it disconnecting, could be in the battery saver mode setting. 

If you just make sure you're out of battery saver mode, press battery in settings, then app launch and make sure your synscan and sky safari apps have all the boxes checked to keep running in background , should be ok. 

I expect if you flip back to the synscan app using the square icon on android devices, after the mount says disconnected in sky safari that the synscan app would be saying goto pc target  or something similar. The issue is because synscan isn't running in the background properly so sky safari can't see it. 

Also in stellarium my settings are the same. 

Lee 

Edited February 13 by AstroNebulee

[Robthepiano]

Well I must be lucky: Skywatcher synscan link has to be selected as the telescope in SkySafari and make sure that the phone is connected to the mounts Wi-Fi, not our home! When I open SkySafari and click to connect the telescope it briefly opens the synscan app, asking me whether I am using altaz or not then that disappears behind SkySafari and I use that to star align. So it’s all done through SkySafari. 

[Orange Smartie]

It's possible that mine might do that now that the battery options have been changed, but I haven't tried it that way yet.

Does anyone know what happens if more than one Az GTi is within range of your phone? How does one select the correct connection, or is it just not possible to have multiple mounts running close to one another?