The Rig and how to set it all up.......

[Earl]

I have almost got it all together now except the Guidescope camera so lets skip that section.

EQ6 Hooked up to my PC via Handset Serial Cable to USB Adapter into a Powered USB Hub.

Cannon 450D and or webcam again into the USB Hub

Im going to use Stellarium to control it.

Canon Utils to control the DSLR

Sharp Cap for the Web Cam.

I know there are other applications out there, but at this moment I am familar with these, so id like to get that working first then consider improvements.

How does this all sound?

I am waiting on a few things to arive through the post so cant plug it all in to trial yet.

[Euan]

Sounds good so far

Have you got a PC or a Laptop? If you can it's better to use a real serial port rather than a USB to Serial adapter, although some may argue otherwise, for me it's one less piece of kit to go wrong. Some PC's still have them (thankfully)

[Earl]

The PC only has USB ports although I can add Serial if needed via a PCI Card.

Ideally i want to stick to USB though as this in theory should be the only lead from the scope to the computer.

[Euan]

I spent this afternoon in work swearing at a Keyspan one that wouldn't play ball with a Win7 Macbook Pro, so I was ready for a rant there

You should be fine, just watch out for them changing COM numbers, in a lot of software you should have the option of having it fixed

[BlueAstra]

I use a laptop with 3 USB ports.

One port goes to the serial dongle, then a serial cable to the EQ6 (I actually plug into the handset via the Serial/handset cable, but you can go direct to the EQ6 via an EQDIR dongle). The scope is controlled by Starry Night/EQMOD.

Second port goes to a powered usb hub at the scope. The hub connects to my Canon camera, lodestar guide cam and pc wireless game controller (power only). The controller power is probably unnecessary, but it keeps the thing connected and powerd up. The camera is controlled by the Canon Utils package, and the guide cam by PHD.

Third port goes to the wireless game controller handset dongle.

My best advice is to find a connection sequence that works and stick to it. Also, always use the same usb ports for each connection every time. And wait for the usb connection 'ding' before trying to use the connected equipment.