As a small add-on comment, one of the niceties about controlling things from a lappie at the mount is that you can run a simple LAN (Cat 5, or even wireless if you trust it) back inside your house and control the Laptop via your desktop (presuming you have one!) from there on cold/mozzie nights, including seeing the lappie screen and moving the scope. Windows XP Pro 'Remote Desktop' will do it, although there's plenty of other programs around as well.
And finally, go the EQMOD route to control your mount. You can also buy the USB to serial cable in Oz for about $45 here:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ftdi-...ter-cable.html, although you'll have to put the appropriate connector on the mount end. I'm sure IIS will help you there.
My 2c
