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GOTO for Skywatcher Flextube AUTO dobs is a reality !

johninderby

By johninderby
in Discussions - Cameras

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johninderby

johninderby

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Thanks to Robert at New Zealand Telescopes for the following info.

"We use a standard Synscan controller, it uses special firmware that is used for the AZ mount gotos such as the Mak127 from skywatcher. Also requires a special cable.

If you can find someone that sells the Skywatcher Mak 127 on AZ mount, you should be able to obtain the bits you need, controller, interface cable, than download the firmware from Skywatcher .net website.

New Zealand is the first place in the world to offer the goto with the Dobs."

Steve, price for the dob GOTO kit please.

John

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calibos

calibos

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Arrghh. I could have gotten mucho kudos months ago for this! :) I remember at the time of the initial announcements, googling synscan to see what the handset looked like and one of the hits was their Alt AZ tripod mounted Maks. I said to myself at the time........"I wonder?.......Nah, probably different firmware, it'll be blocked or something: " :)

Looks like that NZ dealer had the same idea but actually had one of those Maks on the shop floor to test the idea straight away.

Well that clears up everything. They probably weren't telling fibs when they cancelled it for "Technical reasons". The guy who did the mini review on CN did talk about backlash issues. Maybe this affects goto's and SW aren't 100% happy with the accuracy yet. The NZ dealer has just found a clever way round the cancelled upgrade. He might be in for some trouble from SW though.

ie. word gets around that Goto's aren't great with the unmodified Auto's with un-official Synscan goto and negatively impacts sales of the future fixed/modified autos with the official goto upgrade.

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johninderby

johninderby

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One thing to note is that according to the post on Cloudy Nights the hand controller being used has firmware V3.06 and the latest version available on the Skywatcher website for download is V3.05. However the NZ dealer said just to download the latest firmware available on the site.

Don't know if V3.06 is essential to make the GOTO work, but waiting to see how Steve gets on with the test.

John

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johninderby

johninderby

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One thing I didn't mention was that the NZ dealer wasn't allowed to export the hand control that is being sold with the scope (with firmware V3.06) to the UK.

So why is it being sold by a big official Skywatcher dealer in NZ with full guarantee if it isn't approved by Skywatcher? Apparently it has only just been released there.

Lots of questions.

John

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johninderby

johninderby

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As the NZ dealer wasn't allowed to export the hand control sold with the scope he said that if I could get the handcontrol for the 127 AZ GOTO here and the cable to update the firmware it would work. He was quite willing to sell me the handcontrol and ship it to a NZ address for someone else to ship it to the UK though.

I'll ask him later today to clarify if it is an official Skywatcher unit and also if he is aware that the V3.06 firmware is not available for download. The one thing that is bugging me now is if it isn't offical how come the handcontrol in NZ comes with this newer V3.06 firmware?

John

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calibos

calibos

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Ah! I mis-interpreted your initial post John. I thought you meant that the Synscan from the Mak was how he was supplying Goto when no one else was. You actually meant that he seems to be selling an Official Skywatcher Synscan handset for the Flextube Auto, ie. Supplied by Skywatcher with the Auto. The Mak synscan handset was merely his suggestion as to how you might go about getting Goto before SW release the Handset internationally.

Well, then the Waters are still Muddied. I'd be leaning back towards the idea that SW are using a small Territory to test the waters with consumers. ie. They could't get the system to work as well on their Dobs as on their alt/az maks, Feared being overwhelmed with support calls about Goto problems, pulled the Goto upgrade from the advertising, are now testing in a small market to gauge the level of customer satisfaction with the Goto accuracy that the scope can give and to see how much support calls it generates before they decide whether to provide the upgrade to the rest of the international markets.

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FLO

FLO

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Okay, we have done some digging around. Whilst we cannot say anything official we are satisfied that Skywatcher have good reason not to release a GOTO handset for their Flextube AUTO range of Dobsonians so we will not be putting together an alternate kit.

Probably not what you wanted to hear - sorry.

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johninderby

johninderby

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Things just got a lot more interesting.

While the Flexrube Auto dobs in NZ just come with the tracking hand paddle as here, this is the really interesting info as supplied by the dealer.

The GOTO upgrade comes directly from Skywatcher as a complete pack, so it's not just something the dealer has cobbled up. The V3.05 firmware has some bugs in it and has been replaced by V3.06. The new firmware is an essential part of the upgrade and Skywatcher has only just started supplying the GOTO kits in NZ.

Steve......Could you ask Skywatcher here why a GOTO pack is now shipping in NZ. Perhaps you can find out the truth of it all.

John

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athlon

athlon

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i am watching this with anticipation ....

The cost of the 12" tracking dob is a bit more than there, and for the same price, you can pickup a 16" plus and Argo Navis, which to me makes more sense.

but NZ is just across the ditch from us ...

hmmmm

:)

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calibos

calibos

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Things just got a lot more interesting.

While the Flexrube Auto dobs in NZ just come with the tracking hand paddle as here, this is the really interesting info as supplied by the dealer.

The GOTO upgrade comes directly from Skywatcher as a complete pack, so it's not just something the dealer has cobbled up. The V3.05 firmware has some bugs in it and has been replaced by V3.06. The new firmware is an essential part of the upgrade and Skywatcher has only just started supplying the GOTO kits in NZ.

Steve......Could you ask Skywatcher here why a GOTO pack is now shipping in NZ. Perhaps you can find out the truth of it all.

John

John, Now do ya see why my interest in all this skywatcher cloak and dagger stuff was piqued a few months ago when I was seeing conspiracies everywhere and Chinese Synta reds under the beds

:):D

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johninderby

johninderby

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It will be interesting to see what answers Steve can find.

This is a big authorised Skywatcher dealer in NZ that is selling the Flextube Auto with GOTO as a complete package with full guarantee, so if Skywatcher didn't want them to do this why haven't they stopped them?

John

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FLO

FLO

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I would like to post a more detailed response John, I hate not being able to, and we would very much like to offer the handset here in the UK but if all but one of Skywatcher's distributors have decided the GOTO handset is not ready for release then I see little benefit in our pushing them.

NZ clearly think differently so you will need to quiz them if you want to know why.

HTH

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johninderby

johninderby

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With this new V3.06 firmware seeming to be only available in NZ, maybe they are trialing it there in a small market to see if all the bugs have been sorted out properly. This might also tie in with the fact that the hand controllers can't be exported from NZ at the moment.

John

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Markone

Markone

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Have you tested it yet?

Not yet, because i have to find items to make the cable.

I have also to recover the Flextube hand controller connector pinout to design the conversion cable, but this is matter of few minutes as soon as i get a disposable RJ12 cable.

The Synscan controller connector pinout is well known due to EQMOD & EQDIRECT projects.

One solution could be to use one of those RJ12 to DB9 modular adapter properly configured, they are cheap and easy to use.

But the problem is ... here in Italy most specialized shops are closed for vacation.

Later i'll try to find something useful in a shopping center, at least a complete (6 wires) RJ12 cable.

Stay tuned,

Marco.

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Jusher02

Jusher02

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I am in New Zealand and have a Skywatcher 12" Flextube GOTO / Tracking Dob, with the 3.06 firmware. I received it just over a week ago. I'd be interested to know any reasons given by dealers for not providing the GOTO capability/hand controller.

I have experienced some unreliability with the hand controller. For example, sometimes it freezes up and loses connection with the scope when performing the two-star alignment. If you turn off the power and turn it back on it still doesn't have connection with the scope. If you push the tube a little while power is off, it generally then powers up OK. I've also had a couple of random slews (in Alt direction only), which I thought would have resulted in the need for re-alignment, but it turned out alignment wasn't impacted.

I should look at the 3.07 firmware that has just been released to see if it helps with these issues.

Other than that, GOTO performance seemed pretty decent. I've only been able to see maybe 50 degrees of sky, so my alignment stars weren't best positioned, but the scope still puts Jupiter in the FOV of a 19mm Panoptic regularly. I was a bit surprised because the mount does seem to have quite a bit of "slop" in both axes (ie you can move it perhaps a degree in either axis before you hit any resistance). So I wasn't expecting GOTO to be that good, but it's working OK for me so far.

So.... what on earth is up with the lack of GOTO capability in other markets? And - does 3.07 fix any of the issues I've run into? Finally - does the 3.07 Synscan AZ firmware work in the version of the hand controller that I have? (which doesn't have a time chip and only has "two star" and "brightest star" as initial alignment options).

Does anyone know?

Jonathan

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