HEQ5 pro autoguiding and the hand controller

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

To make a long story even longer, I originally wanted to do autoguiding without the hand controller. I bought a Hitecastro EQ Direct interface cable, use a frame integration video camera, guidescope and PHD2 for guiding. After a bumpy learning curve I have everything working.

But... now I miss the hand controller. Is there a guiding solution where I can keep the hand controller in use for slewing, setup etc?

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

I dont do any setup on mine as I simply use Stellarium and sync when on target using stellarium scope. You can buy a game controller (USB) and slew with the joysticks, which is what I do when lining up targets using the finderscope.

Of course, you could have kept the handcontroller in place and simply connected via USB to serial using PC-Direct mode and the setup and controller still works while you guide through the hand controller using PHD2.

Chris

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Thanks Chris. The gamepad controller is a good idea. I will have to try that. I also want to use Stellarium with it but not sure how to set it up.

[traveller (Bo)]

Hi Kevin,
Download Stellariumscope, it is the interface for EQMOD and Stellarium. Then you can get a gamepad (I use an old PS2 wired controller via a USB adapter I got from ebay) to fine tune the RA/Dec.
Bo

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

I tried Stellariumscope for a while to interface with ASCOM, but found that it regularly caused EQMOD to hang, requiring a system restart. I switched to Cartes du Ciel (and do most of my syncs now with AstroTortilla), and it's been rock-solid stable since then. A gamepad is definitely a must - I also use the audio feedback which is helpful.

[traveller (Bo)]

Did you map the COM port Barry? I had some troubles initially, but I mapped the COM port and used the same port each time and found no issues.
How do you enable audio feedback?
Bo

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

I mapped the COM port (to 3). Had no problems, even though EQASCOM setup sometimes fails to detect it when you check. I was originally using a USB-to-Serial and PC Direct via the Handset, which often caused connection issues, but that all went away when I got an EQDirect cable and ditched the HC.

There is a setting in EQMOD that allows all of the audio feedback, and you can D/L a bunch of .wavs here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eq-mod/files/sounds/

[traveller (Bo)]

Thanks Barry!

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Thanks Bo and Barry. Will try a few things and see what happens.