Takahashi hand controller at last

[Paul Haese]

Takahashi has finally made an electronic hand controller.

Seen here (http://www.takahashiamerica.com/)on the front page of Takahashi America's website.

Also sold by OPT. Seen here (http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=439-735-256-14989)for description. Now the question is will this work so that southern hemisphere does not have to be selected each time, and will it create an artificial home position? Are we seeing Takahashi trying to catch up with the rest of the world? Since I own an EM400 I am keen to have a good hand controller for this fabulous mount. I do wonder though if a new batch of encoders are on the way so that true robotic control can be had???

[gbeal]

Hi Paul.
I understand your pain, and wonder if you use software though to control the mount. In my case TheSky, and the Temma driver from Chuck. In my case the southern hemisphere option is automatically selected. Yours isn't?
Gary

[Paul Haese]

Gary, I use the sky too but I still have the hand controller connected and have tried to use the driver from Chuck but still need to have my finger pushed down on the hand controller to select the southern hemisphere.

[gbeal]

Weird, mine defaults to southern with TheSky (I tried it).
However, if I just turn the mount on, not connected to the PC, it requires S1 to be held down.
Gary

[Hans Tucker]

It's not made by Takahashi but by a company called Astrosolutions LLC and Takahashi America are the US distributor.

http://www.astrosolutionsllc.com/AstroSolutions_LLC/Welcome.html

The actual Takahashi Hand Controller (Pictured) was less than impresive and had a limited database.

[Paul Haese]

Hans yes I have erred. It is of course built for temma mounts. However the hand controller you have pictured is probably a previous incarnation. The new one is much more advanced from what I have read.