Azeq6 connect to computer

[lotus]

Hi All

 

i have an azeq6 mount with a just bought usb dongle that plugs into the hand controller and then with a printer cable connects to my laptop 

cannot get this to work ....is there a baud number in the com ports that magically makes the connection?

[ONIKKINEN]

What software are you trying to connect it to?

But anyway regardless of software, you need to install some drivers for it to be discoverable as a COM port. Try the ASCOM driver for the hand controller here: https://skywatcher.com/download/software/ascom-driver/

Just to make things more difficult, i will say that these drivers here did not work for my AZ-EQ6, which came out of the factory in early 2022. I see that the drivers on the Skywatcher site are still dated 2018, so there is a chance they will not work for you either. In that case you can try the "check chip version" tool from Prolific, download here: https://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=225&pcid=41

You should find out which exact version of the chipset is in your handset with that tool, and then be better equipped with info on what exact driver to find.

[lotus]

Thanks for replying 

 

i should have said that prolific driver is installed for the usb dongle and ascom installed for hand controller 

[lotus]

I get a com port number but when attempting connect message box says that com port is in use

Ive tried many different ports

[malc-c]

Can you post a picture or give more info on the "dongle".   Most EQDIR cables look more or less like a standard USB -A cable, but are terminated with the same RJ plug (other then the older EQ6 mounts that have a D9 plug).  So there is a direct connection rather than via an convertor / "dongle"

When connecting any mount with an EQDIR cable that plugs into the handset port on the mount will run at the default 9600 baud rate.   On newer mounts that have a built in USB -B port and can use a normal USB A-B cable the USB bridge (the chip that does all the work) is a Prolific 2302 chipset that runs at 115200 baud.  As mentioned above there are several versions of prolific driver so worth running the tool to help aid downloading the correct driver if the device has a Prolific chip.  Most 3rd party EQDIR cabes such as those made by Lynx use the more widely supported FTDI chipset which is plug and play under windows.

[malc-c]

Just a word of caution... If your EQ6 has one of the D9 connectors for the handset and you have purchased a standard USB to Serial adapter that has a D9 plug on one end and a USB port on the other then there is a very high (almost certain) risk that you will damage the motor board.  This is because true RS232 to USB adapters ramp up the voltage to +/- 12v (yes a potential of 24volts) which when fed to the serial pins on the processor blow the EUART and render the communications useless.  In such cases the only action possible to restore the mount to working ability is to replace the damaged controllers containing the firmware for the model of mount.

[lotus]

Check chip on prolific site didn't work it says theres no com port

 

i'm giving up on it

the usb dongle from skywatcher doesn't work 

[ONIKKINEN]

What kind of dongle do you mean? You only need a USB printer type cable to bridge the hand controller to your laptop

[malc-c]

2 hours ago, lotus said:

Check chip on prolific site didn't work it says theres no com port

 

i'm giving up on it

the usb dongle from skywatcher doesn't work 

Is this the Wifi dongle ??  - You really need to give us more information and even add some images as requested - we can then advise you if you have the right item to suit your needs.  If you are connecting your AZ-EQ6 to a PC then all you need is an EQDIR cable  such as this one

 

[lotus]

Guys i have the synscan usb dongle which is sold by skywatcher

 

not the wifi dongle

 

its a specific dongle with rj45 on one side and printer cable on the other

 

 

 

Edited February 18 by lotus

[lotus]

23 hours ago, malc-c said:

Is this the Wifi dongle ??  - You really need to give us more information and even add some images as requested - we can then advise you if you have the right item to suit your needs.  If you are connecting your AZ-EQ6 to a PC then all you need is an EQDIR cable  such as this one

 

 

[lotus]

I've ordered this eqdir cable but I doubt this will work

 

i do not use eqdir and i am in altaz

lm presuming i will need to ibstall eqdir and drivers to get this cable to work

 

anyways let's see when it arrives from firstlight optics

 

Edited February 18 by lotus

[ONIKKINEN]

1 hour ago, lotus said:

Guys i have the synscan usb dongle which is sold by skywatcher

 

not the wifi dongle

 

its a specific dongle with rj45 on one side and printer cable on the other

 

 

 

Is it this thing?
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/sky-watcher-synscan-usb-adapter.html

You dont need this to connect the mount to a computer, like it says on the page: Note: Sky-Watcher mounts with a built-in USB port do not require this dongle

The eqdir cable you have ordered will surely work, and is the most common method for connecting a mount to a computer, but i am not at all sure you can make that work in alt-az as i am pretty sure the EQMOD software is for equatorial operation only.

What you could do, and what i assumed you to be doing in the first place, is to bridge the hand controller to your PC with a USB cable. The connection goes like this: Hand controller to the handcontroller port on the mount, and then a USB printer cable to the bottom of the hand controller and the other end to your PC - this way you can control the mount from both the handset and the PC so you should have full functionality. You can also skip the hand controller with this kind of printer cable, if you just plug the cable to the mount itself (hand controller can not be used in this case - also not sure about alt-az functionality as it needs to be set up by the handset).

[PeterC65]

I've been through this with my AZ-EQ5 which is probably similar. Do you have a USB type B (printer) port on the mount head and another one on the bottom of the hand controller? Either of these can be used to control the mount from a laptop with nothing more than a standard USB cable.

EQMOD, the software and the cable, can only be used with the mount in EQ mode.

 

[malc-c]

That dongle and the EQDIR cable are in essence the same thing.  They have a USB to TTL serial bridge chip in them.  Only the Skywatcher one used the Prolific chipset rather than the more widely supported FTDI.  In order to use that adapter you need to download and install the Prolific 230x driver from either Skywatcher's website or Prolific' s.  Prolific drivers have always been problematical to install and get working, as can be seen by the review on the page you linked to

Quote

Works brilliantly when it does work, but can be quite a pain to get it working, (with Windows 10 anyway).
It's definitely a "keeper" for me, in fact it's now my standard way of connecting my skywatcher scopes to my PC, of all the hardware ways that it can be done.
The "prolific" USB-RS232 driver needs to installed very carefully (from the Skywatcher website), the SynscanPro windows app needs to have admin priveledge, and it wouldn't work for me unless it was plugged into a direct USB 2.0 socket on the PC, and not via a hub.
Given those caveats, it works brilliantly with my EQ6 and my Skywatcher Dobsonian AZ goto. 

Try this driver listed on the Skywatcher website.  You need to have the dongle connected to the PC via a suitable USB cable when you install the driver, then remove the handset and use the correct link cable to plug the dongle into the handset port on the mount.  Powering up the mount you should be able to use a PC application to control the mount.   It's not worth using EQMOD on an ALT/AZ mount as EQMOD was written purely for equatorial mounts.

[lotus]

Thanks for all the help but none of it works 

 

i have the older azeq6 with no usb on the mount

this is what the usb dongle is supposed to do

 

one end is a rj45 which with a cable provided plugs into tge bottom of the habd controller the other end is a printer connection which u can then use a cable to go into a usb computer 

[PeterC65]

I'm assuming that you're plugging the USB dongle into the hand controller and not into the hand controller port on the mount. In which case that's probably the same as using the built in USB port on the newer hand controllers.

The only thing I can suggest, and something that has tripped me up repeatedly, is that if you're using ASCOM to connect to the hand controller then the hand controller must be in left in standby, not in PC Direct Mode, and if you're using the SynScan Pro software then the hand controller needs to be in PC Direct Mode. Get the wrong mode and the software won't connect or will say that the COM port can't be found.

 

[malc-c]

7 hours ago, lotus said:

one end is a rj45 which with a cable provided plugs into tge bottom of the habd controller the other end is a printer connection which u can then use a cable to go into a usb computer 

No wonder.... It's designed to connect to the mount DIRECTY in place of the handset.  Follow my instructions and it should work.   

• Download and install the Prolific driver form Skywatchers website
• Plug a USB cable into the Skywatcher adapter, and the other end into the computer.  Windows should detect the device and with the driver pre-installed  you should have a new COM port showing up in Device Manager.  Provided it doesn't have a yellow exclamation mark against it then the driver has been installed correctly.  
• Right click on the new COM port and select properties and set the baud rate to 9600 if not already defaulted to that speed.
• Un plug the USB cable from the PC
• Remove the handset form the mount
• Plug the link cable between the adapter and the mount using the RJ45 (the wider plug) is inserted into the same socket where the handset would normally ne plugged in
• With the cable / adapter now connected to the mount, power up the mount.
• Plug the USB plug into the PC.
• If you have EQMOD installed already then navigate to the folder and launch he TOOLBOX application.
• Click the driver set up option and enter the details of location, and select the com port that was created above.  Ensure the baud rate is set to 9600
• Once set up close the driver set up and then click on the option to launch EQMOD form within the toolbox.  It should connect and display the mount as parked.
• With the slew rate set to 4 click on the NSWE buttons to make the mount move
• Close the toolbox application - your mount is ready to be used with any planetarium application 

 

[lotus]

10 minutes ago, malc-c said:

No wonder.... It's designed to connect to the mount DIRECTY in place of the handset.  Follow my instructions and it should work.   

• Download and install the Prolific driver form Skywatchers website
• Plug a USB cable into the Skywatcher adapter, and the other end into the computer.  Windows should detect the device and with the driver pre-installed  you should have a new COM port showing up in Device Manager.  Provided it doesn't have a yellow exclamation mark against it then the driver has been installed correctly.  
• Right click on the new COM port and select properties and set the baud rate to 9600 if not already defaulted to that speed.
• Un plug the USB cable from the PC
• Remove the handset form the mount
• Plug the link cable between the adapter and the mount using the RJ45 (the wider plug) is inserted into the same socket where the handset would normally ne plugged in
• With the cable / adapter now connected to the mount, power up the mount.
• Plug the USB plug into the PC.
• If you have EQMOD installed already then navigate to the folder and launch he TOOLBOX application.
• Click the driver set up option and enter the details of location, and select the com port that was created above.  Ensure the baud rate is set to 9600
• Once set up close the driver set up and then click on the option to launch EQMOD form within the toolbox.  It should connect and display the mount as parked.
• With the slew rate set to 4 click on the NSWE buttons to make the mount move
• Close the toolbox application - your mount is ready to be used with any planetarium application 

 

Thanks for this

im strictly in altaz so EQMOD won't work for me

[malc-c]

12 hours ago, lotus said:

Thanks for this

im strictly in altaz so EQMOD won't work for me

Nope... but it's a proven way to test the movement.  Alternatively you could try Green Swamp Server.  

To be honest I can't see any advantage of using a PC compared to the handset to control an ALT/AZ mount in that mode.  All applications such as EQMOD and GSS have been written for EQ mounts, guiding software has been written so it mainly makes small corrections in RA / DEC so doesn't work well with ALT/AZ.

What are you hoping to achieve by connecting an ALT/AZ mount to a PC

[lotus]

I do remote mallincaming from inside my house

 

i have it sorted now

sharpcap has arrow keys and connects to my mount and stellarium does the gotos

 

serial to usb connector FTDI connected to bottom of handset gets it connected to comport 9

 

tgsbjs for trying to help!!

[malc-c]

5 hours ago, lotus said:

serial to usb connector FTDI connected to bottom of handset gets it connected to comport 9

That's a round about way of doing it, but if it works for you then that is all that matters