Ran some further tests last night with everything connected using a ten metre cat 5 cable and all worked well, had forgotten to plug the wireless game pad dongle in the other night so thought I'd better do that as well just to make sure.
So at this stage of the game everything appears to be fully functional
Still waiting for some clear skys, it's been months now, the ground is so wet I think the tripod would just sink in the lawn
oh well can't do much about that but quite prepared for clearing weather when it happens.
