Update HEQ5 Pro motor controller

[blinky]

See my wanted ad - Im trying to figure out why I keep getting timeouts with my HEQ5 Pro...  Im using an FTDI Cable, have also tried one of FLO's cables in the past with the same error.  Ive swapped power supplies, cables, ports and laptops all have the same timeouts happening in EQMod  (Have also tried an older version of EQMod).  As a final step, I thought I would see if the motor controller board needed updating, I downloaded the app from Skywatchers website and it says I currently have version 2.4.01, which is strange as the latest version on the website seems to be version 2.04, as I getting confused?  Why is my current version higher than that on the website ?

[malc-c]

Time out / drop outs can happen for one or many reasons.  I powered my HEQ5 from a 13.8v regulated supply (its in an observatory), used an home built EQDIR cable based on an FTDI cable purchased direct from the FTDI website, which was connected to the PC via a 5m active USB cable and never experienced a loss of communication between EQMOD and the mount.  Others, like you seem to experience poor coms even though they have tried swapping most of the kit out.  Occasionally it seems connection is via hubs, either external or internal to the computer that is being used.  One turned out to be due to the high bandwidth requirement of a camera which caused the hub to drop "packets".

For older boards that are PIC microcontroller based the firmware hasn't changed form 2.0.4 for some years.  Newer boards that use ARM processors run the 3.39 version.  When connected the handset / EQMOD sends :e1 and :e2 command to the mount which instructs it to return the firmware version.  My guess is that the PC application is transposing the digits incorrectly as it pars the string it receives back form the mount.

There are a lot of steps between the application used to instruct the mount to do something even before it's left the PC.  The commands are sent through EQMOD through the virtual serial port which converts the data into the USB standard, which then gets converted to TTL Serial which the mount can understand.   Factor that in with the physical connections and the fact the mount moves it's very easy for something to cause a slight loss of comms at some point.

 

[blinky]

It daened on me this morning, I had the same timeouts with an eq6 and one of FLO's eqmod cables,  that mount is on a pier in the observatiy and I went back to an ancient shoestring astro adapter and it has zero issues.  So I've tried swapping everything, mount, cables, power supplies, laptops and have nothing connected other than the cable going directly to the laptop.