Gday Trevor
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Phil: I take it you are talking about an USB>RS adapter with a controlling chip to interpret and change the signals from the USB to make it look like an RS232 port? As opposed to a simple plug adapter.
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Correct. For rs232 comms, you will need a std USB to serial adapter.
( Avoid Belkins, try and get one with an FTDI chipset in it )
You plug that into the lappie, then make/buy a std adapter cable
that goes from the USB2Ser to the Hbx. You can make the latter yourself quite easily.
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I will email Meade about the possibility,
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Wont help as they only do telephone support.
( and theres no one left there who knows anything any more )
Some of the specific yahoo groups or the archived Weasner site will give you much more specific info on what you are trying to do.
( and all the other options available )
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Ideally I had hoped to run the mount with Stellarium direct from the Netbook, though it seems now the hand-controller is necessary and therefore Mead's own PC software is also necessary.
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90% of the brains of the scope is in the hbx, so you will always need the handbox, no matter what drives it.
However, you do not need Meades software on your PC to drive the scope. Many planetariums support native Meade protocols, and if not, you need to load the relevant ASCOM driver, and then just about anything will be able to connect and drive it.
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Why does the Hand Controller want to know which MEADE telescope is mounted?
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So it knows which way, and at what rate to spin the motors.
Also for hardstops and tripod clash detection values.
The Audiostar supports about 30 different scope types, and it needs to know the mount type and configuration to get those functions right.
Andrew