POSSIBLE SILLY QUESTION?

[bcfcciderhead]

As the title says but here goes, do you have to have a Goto system to be able to conect to a laptop and use stellarium to guide the scope?, or will it work with just a supatrak mount with a cable going from laptop to the port where the handcontroler goes?

Hope that made sense:D

[Capricorn]

Think the answer is yes.

The scope has to be able to feed back how much drive has been applied, this is not present if the scope hasn't a goto function.

Equally the drive has to be told where to drive to and again the commands are digital so needs the computer software.

Could also be a case that some of the software in the handset is utilised by the laptop.

[Cornelius Varley]

As the title says but here goes, do you have to have a Goto system to be able to conect to a laptop and use stellarium to guide the scope?, or will it work with just a supatrak mount with a cable going from laptop to the port where the handcontroler goes?

Hope that made sense:D

Not with a Supatrak mount unless you have an interface between the laptop and the mount. Tronisoft have such a circuit board that will convert the signals from your laptop into something the mount can use. You may also want to read this website Merlin multifunction Interface for a bit more information on connecting the board to the mount. There is also a ready made adapter available from Ursa Minor sold by 365 Astronomy, it seems to out of stock. An FTDI cable such as this one from Farnell can be modified and would replace the Tronisoft circuit board.

Peter

[bcfcciderhead]

Thanks guys, i guess the best way would be to buy a upgradable goto handset (needs to be config for this mount), but i like the Tronisoft circuit board at the price, might be worth a dabble

[Cornelius Varley]

Thanks guys, i guess the best way would be to buy a upgradable goto handset (needs to be config for this mount), but i like the Tronisoft circuit board at the price, might be worth a dabble

I should have also mentioned that the Supatrak is upgradeable to goto by replacing the existing handset with a Synscan handset flashed with rhe AZGOTO firmware.

Peter

[bcfcciderhead]

have been looking for that handset, but quite a price

[Cornelius Varley]

have been looking for that handset, but quite a price

You can purchase a table top Merlin mount with goto for less than the price of the handset on its own. Figure that one out.

Peter

[bcfcciderhead]

funny you should say that just looked at one on ebay for £129 and then on FLO..its a big difference in price....odd