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Old 07-12-2017, 05:50 PM
I.C.D (Ian)
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Sky-Watcher Wi-Fi

Just come across an article about the Sky-Watcher Wi-Fi set up Sky watcher mounts ,has anyone use it yet and it as good as the Celestron Wi-Fi set up
Ian
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Old 08-12-2017, 09:37 AM
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Camelopardalis (Dunk)
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I have one...it's a great little gizmo.

You plug it into the mount, join its wifi and fire up the app on your smartphone/tablet. The app then functions as the hand controller.

It's very responsive to controls, which is really important to me as I intend to use it for mozzie-protected planetary imaging (i.e. from behind a pane of glass).

There is an ASCOM driver for imagers/PC users also, freeing up a valuable USB port. Through the ASCOM driver, you should be able to connect to the mount through a sky chart program such as Stellarium, CdC, etc.

I've never used the Celestron equivalent, so can't compare.
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Old 08-12-2017, 10:03 AM
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jenchris (Jennifer)
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My camera is wifi (70DW) - and that's a nice bonus not to have the wire hanging from the extremeties.
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Old 12-12-2017, 12:20 PM
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DavidLJ (David)
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There are currently two SynScan apps for controlling a SkyWatcher mount via the SynScan Wi-Fi Adapter. The original one is called “SynScan App”. The new one is called “SynScan App Pro”. Both are free downloads. The blurb for the new one indicates that it is for the advanced user and it does add some features that were missing from the original although the main features are identical. It also corrects some bugs that were present in the original. I can see no reason why anyone would now choose the original in preference to the new app.


Attached is a diagram showing how one can now control a SkyWatcher mount wirelessly using a planetarium or planning program on a Windows PC. It involves downloading and using the Windows version of the SynScan App Pro and the appropriate ASCOM driver. The diagram is based on the planetarium / planning software that I have on my Windows laptop but any program that interfaces to the mount via ASCOM should work just as well. Should I ever need to I can connect and use all three planetarium / planning programs simultaneously in addition to using the SynScan App.
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Old 15-12-2017, 03:39 PM
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DavidLJ (David)
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A problem with the layout given in the diagram accompanying the previous posting is that when standing at the telescope and peering into the eyepiece of the finder 'scope so as to centre alignment stars the slew buttons on the PC will be very awkward to use. Very likely they will be out of reach and/or you would have to remove your eye from the eyepiece to be able to use them. A much better approach would be to use corresponding slew buttons on a mobile device (e.g. smartphone) when peering into the eyepiece. That means loading the SynScan App onto both the PC and the mobile device and connecting both to the SynScan WiFi Adapter wirelessly. Attached is a revised diagram that takes this approach.
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Old 10-01-2018, 07:08 PM
I.C.D (Ian)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidLJ View Post
A problem with the layout given in the diagram accompanying the previous posting is that when standing at the telescope and peering into the eyepiece of the finder 'scope so as to centre alignment stars the slew buttons on the PC will be very awkward to use. Very likely they will be out of reach and/or you would have to remove your eye from the eyepiece to be able to use them. A much better approach would be to use corresponding slew buttons on a mobile device (e.g. smartphone) when peering into the eyepiece. That means loading the SynScan App onto both the PC and the mobile device and connecting both to the SynScan WiFi Adapter wirelessly. Attached is a revised diagram that takes this approach.
Hi David I got one Synscan Wi-Fi adapter but I am have a little trouble ,when try to connect the adapter to the pc it comes up with a message Error: Conversation timeout ,do you know how to fix it

Ian
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Old 10-01-2018, 08:38 PM
bigjoe (JOSEPH)
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Wi fi

Quote:
Originally Posted by I.C.D View Post
Just come across an article about the Sky-Watcher Wi-Fi set up Sky watcher mounts ,has anyone use it yet and it as good as the Celestron Wi-Fi set up
Ian
For what its worth, I have the Celestron wifi adaptor and app (skysafari mod) version on my Pad and it works wonderfully on my new AVX mount ..I am now able to go to many double stars clusters etc ,with a lot of information.
Once setup and aligned..easy as.
Touch of a finger and your on your target and can lock on to it.

bigjoe.
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Old 10-01-2018, 11:57 PM
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DavidLJ (David)
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Hi Ian


I don't have an immediate answer for you but maybe the rest of this might help? I assume that you are having a problem in setting up the wi-fi connection between your PC and your Adapter. The attached images are some screen grabs of relevant stages when I use my laptop to control the mount using the SynScan App and also one other bit of software.
  1. Make sure that you have plugged the Adapter directly into the mount and not into the hand controller. The hand controller plays no part.
  2. When you switch on the mount make sure that the little yellow light on the Adapter is lit. This will let you know that the Adapter's wi-fi is broadcasting.
  3. On your PC make sure that you have downloaded and installed SynScan App Pro for Windows - you can get the download link here : http://skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/
  4. Also download and install the relevant ASCOM driver whch you can get from : http://www.skywatcher.com/download/s.../ascom-driver/ .
  5. On your PC find the list of available wi-fi connections. You should find that they include the Adapter's address “SynScan_WiFi_xxxx” where xxxx is a number particular to your Adapter. (Image 1) .
  6. Select that SynScan address. (Images 2 and 3).
  7. Open SynScan App Pro on your PC and find the Connect button. (Image 4).
  8. Click the Connect button and note that it is replaced by your mount's identity. (Image 5). You can now use the app to control the mount.
  9. Open another program on your PC and direct its telescope control towards an ASCOM supported telescope. (Image 6). This opens the ASCOM Telescope Chooser window.
  10. Choose SynScanMobile Telescope (Image 7) and set its properties if needed.
  11. Using that ASCOM selection, connect the program to the App / Adapter. (Image 8 shows that the program now displays the mount's RA and Dec coordinates.) The program can now be used to control the mount in tandem with the app.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 1.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 2.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 3.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 4.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 5.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 6.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 7.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Capture wifi connection 8.JPG)
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Old 13-01-2018, 08:20 PM
I.C.D (Ian)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidLJ View Post
Hi Ian


I don't have an immediate answer for you but maybe the rest of this might help? I assume that you are having a problem in setting up the wi-fi connection between your PC and your Adapter. The attached images are some screen grabs of relevant stages when I use my laptop to control the mount using the SynScan App and also one other bit of software.
  1. Make sure that you have plugged the Adapter directly into the mount and not into the hand controller. The hand controller plays no part.
  2. When you switch on the mount make sure that the little yellow light on the Adapter is lit. This will let you know that the Adapter's wi-fi is broadcasting.
  3. On your PC make sure that you have downloaded and installed SynScan App Pro for Windows - you can get the download link here : http://skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/
  4. Also download and install the relevant ASCOM driver whch you can get from : http://www.skywatcher.com/download/s.../ascom-driver/ .
  5. On your PC find the list of available wi-fi connections. You should find that they include the Adapter's address “SynScan_WiFi_xxxx” where xxxx is a number particular to your Adapter. (Image 1) .
  6. Select that SynScan address. (Images 2 and 3).
  7. Open SynScan App Pro on your PC and find the Connect button. (Image 4).
  8. Click the Connect button and note that it is replaced by your mount's identity. (Image 5). You can now use the app to control the mount.
  9. Open another program on your PC and direct its telescope control towards an ASCOM supported telescope. (Image 6). This opens the ASCOM Telescope Chooser window.
  10. Choose SynScanMobile Telescope (Image 7) and set its properties if needed.
  11. Using that ASCOM selection, connect the program to the App / Adapter. (Image 8 shows that the program now displays the mount's RA and Dec coordinates.) The program can now be used to control the mount in tandem with the app.
He David got every thing up and working just waiting for the right night
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Old 13-01-2018, 09:36 PM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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I got up to #8 OK, but for the life of me I can't get Stellarium on my PC to recognize that ASCOM telescope stuff. Downloaded all the ASCOM drivers, but nothing in stellarium in the telescope-choosing section gives me an ASCOM option. Or have I not set the ASCOM setttings correctly?
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Old 14-01-2018, 07:32 PM
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Ian. Glad that you got there. It looks like a good night at Wattle Ponds tonight and, at this stage, even better ones next Wednesday to Friday.

Patrick. I downloaded Stellarium this afternoon to see if I could trouble shoot your problem but just ended up where you have already got to. Since I was using the same laptop as I use for both the Windows version of the SynScan App Pro and SkyTools3 the problem cannot have anything to do with setting up ASCOM. Maybe someone who is well versed in using the telescope control feature in Stellarium can help you?
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Old 15-01-2018, 07:28 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Ian. Glad that you got there. It looks like a good night at Wattle Ponds tonight and, at this stage, even better ones next Wednesday to Friday.

Patrick. I downloaded Stellarium this afternoon to see if I could trouble shoot your problem but just ended up where you have already got to. Since I was using the same laptop as I use for both the Windows version of the SynScan App Pro and SkyTools3 the problem cannot have anything to do with setting up ASCOM. Maybe someone who is well versed in using the telescope control feature in Stellarium can help you?
Thanks David, I really appreciate you taking the time to have a look at this for me. I think I finally got it sorted, but jeez, it was a struggle. I've previously never had any problems connecting both my 8" and 16" dobs to Stellarium (with cables), and had never heard of StellariumScope until yesterday. Downloaded this, plus updated Stellarium (which I probably didn't need to do), and with a bit of painful tinkering finally got the scope to slew wirelessly from Stellarium. Having said that, the scope was in my study and obviously not aligned, so I had no idea where it was slewing to and switched it off pretty smartly. The real test will be tonight once it's aligned. Thanks again.
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