[Sunfish (Ray)]

After enjoying a secondhand HEQ5 with synscan 3.06 controller , I decided I would like to try using Ascom with this mount. To use the Ascom driver I would need to upgrade the firmware to the later version.3.39. Ha.

I did not have a cable. Out of stock on Ebay. Not listed at SW Aus or Bintel.

Rather than wait and spend $30, yes $30 for a telephone cable, I thought I could make one with a spare DB9 RJ11 / RS232 connector.( which by the way cost $15 from Wildcard) It has six pins at the cable end. How hard can it be with three wires? Well it turns out it is physically quite simple, but getting those three out of six wires in the right configuration looking in the mirror took half a day.

My advice? ignore the colours and stick to the multimeter. Stick to default 9600 on your old pc serial port 1. Only takes 30 min to flash. I can check the Keyspan USB later and see if that works also.

Turns out there is lot of disagreement about how best to do this and the correct pins , because it depends of course , which end of the swap over cable you look at ( the SW one like guide port and EQ is straight through) here is the diagrams that worked for me. DB connector for the INSIDE.

Finally got it right and flashed the Synscan hand control. Here are some pictures showing the pins I pulled out of the Db connector with gentle persuasion pushing with a small storx in the front of the DB9 and pulling with tiny pliers. Must have taken the crimped end out and put them back 20 times before I got the multimeter to read bingo in mirror image with the other end, and then to check the control was linking but they still work. I am not recommending this unless you have an afternoon spare and cant wait for stock.