LX90 REMOTE CONTROL

[BRUCE J]

Hey folks - Bruce J Richmond, VA - There's probably a post somewhere about this but I'd like to control my Meade LX 90 from inside the house which means a camera and whatever cabling is necessary to accomplish this - If one of you nice folks could point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

BTW the scope has 2 AUX ports on it and my laptop just has USB ports and a HDMI port.

Great to be part of this group - Thanks for your time,  

[crush]

Hello and welcome to SGL

I am still a newbie here myself but there are a lot of friendly knowledgeable people on here and I am sure someone with more info than I can offer will be along soon.

I would say though have you had a look on FLO's website for WI-FI capable kit so you don't need to run cables outside?  

[michael8554]

Hi Bruce

I hope you get some answers here, but the Meade section of the US "Cloudy Nights" forum has Meade experts lurking.

To control the LX90 remotely you don't need a camera, just the right cables and software.

Michael

[Cosmic Geoff]

Welcome to the Stargazers Lounge.

My first thought on shopping for a GoTo scope several years ago was maybe I could control it and view from indoors.  Several years of owning GoTo scopes later I still have not managed this.  It can be done, but... there are various technical obstacles that make it not as easy as you might think.  If you reply, I could explain in more detail.

[Albir phil]

14 hours ago, BRUCE J said:

Hey folks - Bruce J Richmond, VA - There's probably a post somewhere about this but I'd like to control my Meade LX 90 from inside the house which means a camera and whatever cabling is necessary to accomplish this - If one of you nice folks could point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

BTW the scope has 2 AUX ports on it and my laptop just has USB ports and a HDMI port.

Great to be part of this group - Thanks for your time,  

Hi I have the same scope ,the way I did it was to buy a 10 mtr cable for the hand control ran this into the house , at the time I was using a Canon DSLR linked to my laptop with live view I could see the object I was imagining.This is the easiest way 📷👍

[malc-c]

Googling LX90 PC control provides a lot of information.  It seems that you can use a serial cable between the handset and a PC, with the handset connected to the mount so it relays the commands.  As most modern PCs won't have a true serial port you will need a USB to true RS232 serial adapter.  On some of the links to other forums there was suggestion of a 505 cable, which might be a propriety cable with the adapter built in.  As the cable is using standard serial it can be long enough to have the scope outside and control it from the comfort of your lounge.  However the problem you will run into is with other equipment such as cameras, which will all be USB and anything over 3m ideally requires an active cable to boost the signals.  Personally I would not advise using anything over 5m..  Most remotely operated  setups tend to keep everything local to the mount, including a computer of some kind.  Then you simply use wi-fi or a long cat5/6 cable between the two PCs and remote desktop into the PC at the scope.