#281  
Old 20-06-2013, 07:07 PM
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Tandum (Robin)
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Originally Posted by AstroJunk View Post
Just a small point Robin, ASCOM is perfectly OK without EQMOD if you plan to be at the scope, ie enter the date and time by hand. Nothing particularly wrong with Synscan - ask any Celestron owner!

(Having said that, I'll be using EQMOD to operate the scope remotely!)
The celestron driver works for me also, but with a motorised dome, you must have a way to sync the two. I use poth, it goes to the mounts ascom driver and to the domes ascom driver.

Without that ascom driver to the mount I'm screwed. Doing ascom via the handset means entering times/dates etc before you can do anything. You should be able to bypass that crap so the pc has control from turn on.
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  #282  
Old 20-06-2013, 07:44 PM
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AstroJunk (Jonathan)
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Originally Posted by Tandum View Post
The celestron driver works for me also, but with a motorised dome, you must have a way to sync the two. I use poth, it goes to the mounts ascom driver and to the domes ascom driver.

Without that ascom driver to the mount I'm screwed. Doing ascom via the handset means entering times/dates etc before you can do anything. You should be able to bypass that crap so the pc has control from turn on.

Me too, I'm using the standard celestron drivers for the scope on POTH to sync it with the dome. Agreed about the entry of data - I was just pointing out that EQMOD isn't actually needed.
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  #283  
Old 20-06-2013, 07:52 PM
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Tandum (Robin)
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One thing for ya Johnathan, pempro will put a pe correction curve right into eqmod. So will pecprep I assume. The celestron driver doesn't do any of that, also I've had to up guide pulses in eqmod from the eq6 settings to get guiding under control. It's not what works, it's what works best ...
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  #284  
Old 20-06-2013, 08:22 PM
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acropolite (Phil)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
Sounds like this is the adaptor needed for EQMOD if it needs 3.3V rather than 5V?
Bummer, I just bought the 5v usb I/F based on what I read on the eqmod site regarding the Az-EQ6, they claim the 3.3 volt one won't work. Looks like the circuitry in both the Eq8 and AZ-EQ6 are similar.

Quote:
The motor controller on the AZ-EQ6 and the EQ8 are using 3.3V logic, and in the future, all our new motor controller will use 3.3V logic, too. But we have made sure that the communication interface is +5V tolerant and the new motor controllers will be compatible with the old SynScan hand control. The EQMOD user should make sure that their adapter can receive 3.3V serial input signal reliably.
I read from this that the mount is tolerant of 5v TTL as long as the TTL I/F device can accurately detect the lower 3.3v signal from the mount.
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  #285  
Old 20-06-2013, 08:55 PM
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Originally Posted by acropolite View Post
I read from this that the mount is tolerant of 5v TTL as long as the TTL I/F device can accurately detect the lower 3.3v signal from the mount.
That's right. It seems some people already knew this from dealing with the alt/az eq6. And skywatcher have to protect the mount from 5v ttl synscan controllers.
I still don't know why my 3.3v bluetooth didn't work. I'll revisit that sometime.
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  #286  
Old 21-06-2013, 05:34 AM
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Hi folks,

...The only odd thing though is that it makes an unexpected noise, often more than once part way through the slewing. It is difficult to explain so I did a poor video and put it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4aIf7vUh08 - obviously no scope and I didn't put the counterweight shaft on either, but somehow I doubt that is the issue. In fact, there may be no issue, but I have been able to see one other EQ8 and it didn't make this noise...

I tried again today using my Thumper power supply and it didn't make the beeping noise it made when I used the portable power pack. The light was never flashing though. I switched back to the portable supply and slewed the mount. The first slew didn't produced the beeps but some subsequent ones did. Switching back it didn't happen, but I think I won't really know if that is the problem for sure until I use it for a longer period. When I used the portable power pack I was also outside and it was pretty cold so perhaps that made a difference.


Chris
Quote:
Originally Posted by peter_4059 View Post
Sounds like this is the adaptor needed for EQMOD if it needs 3.3V rather than 5V?

http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ftdi-...ter-cable.html
I tried using my EQDIR cable that worked with the HEQ5 but the mount wouldn't connect. I don't currently have a serial to USB connector, but I have one on order from Jaycar but can anyone confirm that I may need the one Pete sent the link for?

Chris

PS the 152mm APO arrives from the UK early next week - currently in mid-air
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  #287  
Old 21-06-2013, 06:41 AM
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I'd be interested to hear comment on the polar alignment, 1, 2 and three star alignment and the accuracy of the GOTO, using the Synscan.
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  #288  
Old 21-06-2013, 06:59 AM
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pmrid (Peter)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OneCosmos View Post
I tried using my EQDIR cable that worked with the HEQ5 but the mount wouldn't connect. I don't currently have a serial to USB connector, but I have one on order from Jaycar but can anyone confirm that I may need the one Pete sent the link for?

Chris

PS the 152mm APO arrives from the UK early next week - currently in mid-air
Chris, that link (the one Peter gave us) seems to be for a cable with USB at one end and a flat connector of some sort at the other. The one you need has an RJ45 connector at the mount end. Have a look at Shoestring Astronomy's site for their USB2EQ5 cable:
http://www.store.shoestringastronomy...roducts_eq.htm

Mine worked when I connected it yesterday in Win 7 (32 Bit). Can't vouch for other OSs.

Peter
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  #289  
Old 21-06-2013, 07:22 AM
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Originally Posted by acropolite View Post
Bummer, I just bought the 5v usb I/F based on what I read on the eqmod site regarding the Az-EQ6, they claim the 3.3 volt one won't work. Looks like the circuitry in both the Eq8 and AZ-EQ6 are similar.
Don't worry, the 5V usb will work fine - it is what the shoestring USB cable uses.

It was only yesterday that I received that technical response from synta regarding the true nature of the mount interface changes made for the AZ-EQ6GT and EQ8. As soon as I knew I posted to the EQMOD group and SGL, Robin copied that info here. I have yet to update the EQMOD website but as it stands the advice still provides a good default stance as the 5V ftdi device will work with all mounts whilst the 3.3V device will only work with the AZ-EQ6GT and EQ8 (and its yet to be tried in practice).

Chris.
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  #290  
Old 21-06-2013, 07:34 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pmrid View Post
Chris, that link (the one Peter gave us) seems to be for a cable with USB at one end and a flat connector of some sort at the other. The one you need has an RJ45 connector at the mount end. Have a look at Shoestring Astronomy's site for their USB2EQ5 cable:
http://www.store.shoestringastronomy...roducts_eq.htm
Peter
You would need to cut off the flat end and splice the black orange and yellow wires to a cable with RJ45 connector. The full connection details are identical to those given for the 5V cable on the EQMOD Project website. Do that and you've made your own USB2EQ5.

Chris.
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  #291  
Old 21-06-2013, 07:37 AM
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pmrid (Peter)
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Setting the Worm Period in PECPrep

Does anyone know the worm period in seconds for the EQ8?
Peter
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  #292  
Old 21-06-2013, 08:22 AM
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OneCosmos (Chris)
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Originally Posted by chrisshillito View Post
You would need to cut off the flat end and splice the black orange and yellow wires to a cable with RJ45 connector. The full connection details are identical to those given for the 5V cable on the EQMOD Project website. Do that and you've made your own USB2EQ5.

Chris.
But the Shoestring one would work with the EQ8? I don't quite understand then why my specially made up one for the HEQ5 Pro doesn't work with the EQ8 - I would have thought it must be the same as the Shoestring one - as they both work with that mount.
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  #293  
Old 21-06-2013, 11:54 AM
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Shiraz (Ray)
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Originally Posted by pmrid View Post
Does anyone know the worm period in seconds for the EQ8?
Peter
24 hrs/435 is 198.62sec (I hope)

edit: see next 2 posts

Last edited by Shiraz; 21-06-2013 at 03:50 PM.
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  #294  
Old 21-06-2013, 12:08 PM
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Should you use the length of a sidereal day (23h 56min 4.1s) for that calc?? Wouldn't make much difference to the period I suppose.....
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  #295  
Old 21-06-2013, 12:24 PM
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Originally Posted by pmrid View Post
Does anyone know the worm period in seconds for the EQ8?
Peter
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee View Post
Should you use the length of a sidereal day (23h 56min 4.1s) for that calc?? Wouldn't make much difference to the period I suppose.....
but it would make it correct . guess that makes it ~198.1 s

Last edited by Shiraz; 21-06-2013 at 12:43 PM.
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  #296  
Old 21-06-2013, 12:26 PM
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Tandum (Robin)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OneCosmos View Post
But the Shoestring one would work with the EQ8? I don't quite understand then why my specially made up one for the HEQ5 Pro doesn't work with the EQ8 - I would have thought it must be the same as the Shoestring one - as they both work with that mount.
The eq5 and eq6 communicate with a 5v ttl serial line. The alt/az eq6 and the eq8 communicate with a 3.3v ttl serial line. All the adapters out there communicate with a 5v ttl serial line but some of them can hear the 3.3v ttl serial coming from the eq8 and some can't.
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  #297  
Old 21-06-2013, 12:54 PM
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OneCosmos (Chris)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tandum View Post
The eq5 and eq6 communicate with a 5v ttl serial line. The alt/az eq6 and the eq8 communicate with a 3.3v ttl serial line. All the adapters out there communicate with a 5v ttl serial line but some of them can hear the 3.3v ttl serial coming from the eq8 and some can't.
Thanks Robin, that makes sense. So some people will be lucky with their existing cables and some not. I wasn't

I can't remember now who I bought mine from but I'm sure it won't be long before someone starts making them available commercially. I'm looking
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  #298  
Old 21-06-2013, 01:07 PM
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TTL Cables and Adaptors

Hi Everyone,

I posted this earlier in this thread, the cable you are looking for (untested but I would be very surprised if this did not work) is an FTDI cable (TTL-232R-3V3).

These are very cheap to purchase and simply need the plug snipped off and an RJ45 plug connected up with the pin arrangement in the correct position. You can easily find details on what pin goes where between the EQ8 manual and the EQMod web site.

The Datasheet for the FTDI cable can be found here and has all the details you need to understand how these work. http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Docu...32R_CABLES.pdf

I use the 5Volt version for my EQ6 mount with a home made DB9 plug from JayCar.

Regards

Anthony
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  #299  
Old 21-06-2013, 03:26 PM
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The TTL-232R-5V is what I ordered from Dontronics based on the EQmod site info, I guess I'll find out soon enough whether it will work.
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  #300  
Old 21-06-2013, 03:44 PM
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on a slightly different tack, i was looking to put the tripod in a case from bunnings but it might be the impossible squeeze? the leg part will fit no problems but the central pier part wont in the current position. thought about lowering completely but then it might not work. yeah yeah measure once and cut twice oh well the case wont go to waste

also shows the head of the eq8 case with the bunnings one

also thought to put velcro top and bottom on the pier to stop it from going to the extremes when loosened instead of drilling into the pier, also would make somewhere to attach things?
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