I really don't know but it's possible the old fashioned way may work in the short term.
That's using the unified celestron driver, setting it to synta and driving the mount via the aux port on the handset.
I'll have a play with mine when it gets here.
H, yes it has a guide port as well as a shutter trigger for a dslr.
LOL Robin you stand out like lettuce at a butchers picnic - saw the review and photos from Anthony on his blog.
there is a MAJOR problem with this mount. there needs to be a stop or bolt added to the main shaft of the pier because if you loosten the two locking bolts the main tub slips down and smacks on the mounts geared locking knob for attaching the mount head. it will bend the threaded shaft!!. Skywatcher need to address this ASAP. in the interim, adjust this pier height lying down. also shot up the tube showing the geared bolt
the last shot shows it in the back of a Subaru forester. the case with the wheels do not fit, i need to take them off to get it in
Of course, you read what the manual had to say:
1.1 Setting Up the Tripod
1. Fully expand the tripod legs on level ground.
2. Install the hand control bracket on the tripod. (Fig 1.1a)
3. Place one or two counterweight(s) just between the bottom of the central post and the ground if there is enough space between them. This is a critical safety effort because the counter weight(s) will prevent users from putting their feet under the central post unconsciously. (Fig. 1.1b)
Fully release the clamp of the central post by loosening the two hex nuts on it with a 19mm hex wrench (Fig 1.1c).
The central post might fall freely when the two nuts are loosened. The counterweight(s), which is (are) placed between the bottom of the central post and the ground earlier, will support the central post and prevent any potential damages in such case.
While loosening the two clamp nuts, to reduce the possible impact of the falling of the central post, it is recommended to hold the tripod top, or to fill the gap between the top of the counter weight and the bottom of central post with some soft material.
User should loosen the two hex nuts alternately to make sure both of them are fully loosened.
This will be a stupid question, but, I'll ask anyway. Do these mounts have ST-4 type autoguiding? Can I plug in a guidecable and expect it to work out of the box, or, does one need to go the EQMOD/EQDIR route? I don't know the first thing about EQ* software/hardware dependencies. I have always loved the simplicity of the ST-4 interface -- it's essentially plug and play, so long as ASCOM and its associated driver has been installed for your mount.
1.1 Setting Up the Tripod
1. Fully expand the tripod legs on level ground.
2. Install the hand control bracket on the tripod. (Fig 1.1a)
3. Place one or two counterweight(s) just between the bottom of the central post and the ground if there is enough space between them. This is a critical safety effort because the counter weight(s) will prevent users from putting their feet under the central post unconsciously. (Fig. 1.1b)
Fully release the clamp of the central post by loosening the two hex nuts on it with a 19mm hex wrench (Fig 1.1c).
The central post might fall freely when the two nuts are loosened. The counterweight(s), which is (are) placed between the bottom of the central post and the ground earlier, will support the central post and prevent any potential damages in such case.
While loosening the two clamp nuts, to reduce the possible impact of the falling of the central post, it is recommended to hold the tripod top, or to fill the gap between the top of the counter weight and the bottom of central post with some soft material.
User should loosen the two hex nuts alternately to make sure both of them are fully loosened.
That's just my point. Who is going to do that regularly I the field. Rtfm. Yep
It doesn't look as if EQMOD will be supported anytime soon, not unless SW would like to donate an EQ8 to the developer.
Well to be fair If I have issued such an ultimatum it was definitely tongue in cheek!
EQMOD aims to be a free and open project and we will never charge for EQMOD nor request donations. The consequence of this is that developers bear the cost of development and naturally support for new equipment will only occur if a current developer buys that equipment or new developers join the project.
My own position is that I'm quite happy with my belt drive EQ6 Pro and am not looking to upgrade my mount. My own motives for working on EQMOD are essentially selfish one, to provide me with better mount control. Whilst I'm more than happy to share the stuff I do it is hard to justify taking on projects that offer no direct benefit to my own setup. I hope folks understand that.
What would be interesting to know is if the EQ8 sysncan includes an PC-Direct option - if it does then it may just be that they've changed the physical mount interface making the current EQDirect incompatible but not necessarily EQASCOM itself.
If the EQ8 is not EQASCOM compatible then I would urge all those who are considering this mount to question Skywatcher, and their distributors as to why, what has changed and what, if anything they plan to do about it.
If Skywatcher are made aware that their customer base demands it then they may be more willing to volunteer technical information to the EQMOD development team that would ease any development effort. Failing that to reverse engineer an EQ8 a developer would require access to a motor controller board, motors+encoders and synscan - they wouldn't need a gift of an entire mount.
Failing that to reverse engineer an EQ8 a developer would require access to a motor controller board, motors+encoders and synscan - they wouldn't need a gift of an entire mount.
Chris.
Dave - it's cloudy down there anyway - how about it?
What would be interesting to know is if the EQ8 sysncan includes an PC-Direct option - if it does then it may just be that they've changed the physical mount interface making the current EQDirect incompatible but not necessarily EQASCOM itself.
Hi Chris,
I had a look through the hand controller and yes definitely had the PC Direct option, at the time we did not have the correct USB to serial cable to interface with the hand controller so we were unable to test it. But it is definitely there.
I saw some discussions start in the EQMod forum about this so will post some further details there.
What would be interesting to know is if the EQ8 sysncan includes an PC-Direct option - if it does then it may just be that they've changed the physical mount interface making the current EQDirect incompatible but not necessarily EQASCOM itself.
Chris.
Yes it has a pc-direct option and the manual appears to show the same old handset connections on the mount. I heard that the handset software was being debugged on an eq6. More mounts will be delivered this coming week.
Looks like a possible cause for the EQ8 Mount not working with EQMod could be the EQDir Cable used. Gerhard over at the EQMod forum mentioned there is distinct differences between the EQ6 and the EQ8. So this may just require the 3.3v TTL adaptor instead of the 5v TTL adaptor we already have for the EQ6 mounts.
Not sure why Sky Watcher decided to change this but looks promising for a solution to use EQMod .
Hi Chris,
the current Synscan firmware downloadable from the Skywatcher page is
V3.35. In the manual of this version the new EQ8 is listed too on
several pages. I have updated to V3.35 and tested it sucessfully on my
EQ6 some time ago. So I don't think a Synscan controller delivered with
the new EQ8 is using a different firmware.
In the manual on page 4 this five mounts HEQ5 Pro, EQ5 Pro, EQ3 Pro,
AZ-EQ6 GT and EQ8 are listed as using a 8-pin RJ-45 connector on the mount.
The pins of the 8-pin RJ-45 telescope mount port on hand controller:
GND pin 1+4
DROP pin 3
RX (TTL) pin 5
TX (TTL) pin 6
Vpp+ pin 7+8
pin 2 not connected
The EQ8 manual shows the pins of the 8-pin RJ-45 connector on the mount
GND pin 1+4
TX (3.3V) pin 5
RX (3.3V) pin 6
Vpp+ pin 7+8
pin 2+3 not connected
What is worth mentioning are the 3.3V low voltage levels on serial
communication lines TX and RX. On EQ6 the lines TX and RX are working
with normal TTL levels in the range of 0 - 5 Volts. The logic level
ranges are the same in TTL or LVTTL. But may be the maximum voltage of
+5V is a problem for the EQ8 inputs.
Well to be fair If I have issued such an ultimatum it was definitely tongue in cheek!
EQMOD aims to be a free and open project and we will never charge for EQMOD nor request donations. The consequence of this is that developers bear the cost of development and naturally support for new equipment will only occur if a current developer buys that equipment or new developers join the project.
My own position is that I'm quite happy with my belt drive EQ6 Pro and am not looking to upgrade my mount. My own motives for working on EQMOD are essentially selfish one, to provide me with better mount control. Whilst I'm more than happy to share the stuff I do it is hard to justify taking on projects that offer no direct benefit to my own setup. I hope folks understand that.
What would be interesting to know is if the EQ8 sysncan includes an PC-Direct option - if it does then it may just be that they've changed the physical mount interface making the current EQDirect incompatible but not necessarily EQASCOM itself.
If the EQ8 is not EQASCOM compatible then I would urge all those who are considering this mount to question Skywatcher, and their distributors as to why, what has changed and what, if anything they plan to do about it.
If Skywatcher are made aware that their customer base demands it then they may be more willing to volunteer technical information to the EQMOD development team that would ease any development effort. Failing that to reverse engineer an EQ8 a developer would require access to a motor controller board, motors+encoders and synscan - they wouldn't need a gift of an entire mount.
Chris.
"Once you have a EQ8" if it is never going to work with Eqmod let us now will make a box of tricks to go between pc and EQ8 may be they want to have Control and have a box to do this already and they want to sell it at a price to make yet more money you just have to look what apple did to people with some Bluetooth equipment people had there products working fine then ios update came along and there products that they had working would not work anymore and no reason from apple.
As a idea "only" and I say ONLY A IDEA plug a EQ6 HAND CONTROLLER IN and try it with EQMOD if that fails then the mount is the problem and not the firmware in the eq6 controller it will be the firmware in the mount or you could try my Bluetooth Adaptor !!.
My 2 dollars worth to help
Last edited by coldknights; 09-06-2013 at 10:38 AM.
I was chatting over at the EQMod forum and was told the best next step that could be taken on the EQ8 is to do a test via the hand controller in PC Direct mode to confirm it works properly. I was wondering if anyone was in a position to perform this test and get back to myself or direct to the EQMod Forum with their results????
Well to be fair If I have issued such an ultimatum it was definitely tongue in cheek!
Hi Chris, sorry if I made it sound like something you had actually said because I know that you didn't say anything like that, I saw your post on another forum and I know that was not your intention. I just put a simple spin on a question asked without really thinking it through but still I apologise.
I think you have explained the situation well and I do understand your position, it's by no means a reflection on you at all as much as what you said in the last part of your post that people should start asking questions if it is necessary and show their support for the developers.
It'd be insane if the PC direct version through the handcontroller didn't work with ASCOM out of the box. Would be VERY surprised if that hasn't been taken care of in what is in so many other ways a quality product. Unless you have this set up in an observatory its obviously going to take longer to put up and break down than a traditional tripod mount. An extra few minutes connecting your laptop through the handset isn't that big a deal.
Also very keen to hear if it does work though.
Question - if the EQ8 handcontroller is 3.3V TTL, how have people been trying it on the EQ6? (thought Robin or someone commented on that somewhere?)
It'd be insane if the PC direct version through the handcontroller didn't work with ASCOM out of the box.
Question - if the EQ8 handcontroller is 3.3V TTL, how have people been trying it on the EQ6? (thought Robin or someone commented on that somewhere?)
Long before eqmod, you would use the unified celestron driver and connect that via the handset. The latest celestron driver has a drop down box to select which mount and synta skywatcher mount is still on the list.
I heard Steve Massey was beta testing the software against an eq6 so the handsets haven't changed if that is true.
I've just knocked up a 3.3v bluetooth adapter, we'll see if it goes when the mount arrives.
there is a MAJOR problem with this mount. there needs to be a stop or bolt added to the main shaft of the pier because if you loosten the two locking bolts the main tub slips down and smacks on the mounts geared locking knob for attaching the mount head. it will bend the threaded shaft!!. Skywatcher need to address this ASAP. in the interim, adjust this pier height lying down. also shot up the tube showing the geared bolt
I would be drilling and tapping a bolt to act as a stop just below the but parallel to the current bolt. Make the bolt short enough that is does not interfere with any workings inside and then when you undo the legs and it slides down it just comes into contact with the stop not anything else.
I would be drilling and tapping a bolt to act as a stop just below the but parallel to the current bolt. Make the bolt short enough that is does not interfere with any workings inside and then when you undo the legs and it slides down it just comes into contact with the stop not anything else.
I am glad you can see what I am on about Paul. sadly my engineering prowess is very poor in that department, I would have to "phone a friend" for that one. I am just disappointed that SW didn't think of that. now tell me who places counter weights under their mount to adjust it?
Dont know if this is any help , my AP portable pier has sliding collars . Would do something similar to what Paul said . Pick a couple heights you like and drill tap some knurled knobs or a bolt stop.