Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester
Is this for use with the Canon and ED102?
As others have said, ASCOM is pretty easy, just go to the site, download the latest version and follow the instructions. The only thing you may need to google is how to enable the correct Microsoft .net platform. It sounds daunting but is pretty easy to do.
Does the EQ6R have the USB port? If not you will need an EQMOD/EQDIRECT cable. I use EQMOD to control my old AZEQ6 and it works pretty nicely and reliably.
If NINA will talk to the Canon it is probably a pretty good way to go to manage capture, especially being free and with a pretty enthusiastic and responsive developer community. Combine NINA with plate solving (ASTAP seems the easiest to get along with) and if you can fit a focus motor, automated focus and you will spend less time fiddling or hunting for your target and more time imaging, and generally with automated focus, get sharper images to boot.
Any mount without homing sensors will be a little more work, but while I would love to replace my AZEQ6 with another iOptron CEM70 to have a second mount that can find it's own way home, the AZEQ and EQ6 are perfectly manageable if you are on site with it. It is not much of a hassle if you are on site, but sooner or later you have to go outside and put it back in a known position after an issue.
It got mentioned before, but cable management is a big item to get right. On my AZEQ I have all the cables loomed up and attached in various locations with loops to allow the scope to point anywhere in the sky without snagging. It is comforting to know that you can go to bed and have the mount perform an automated flip and you wont find any USB ports damaged, or a laptop on the ground!
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I have 2 x EQ6-R mounts ( 2018 model in my Dome on the South Coast NSW and 2019 model in Sydney) and use EQMOD on both
2018 model has no USB so just use the RJ45 handcontroller port with a Shoestring EQ Direct cable ( FTDI embedded chip set ) and USB2 extension cable ( Baud rate set to 9600 )
2019 model has the additional USB2B port so use a 5m USB2A to USB2B cable
( Baud rate set to 115200 )
Both work extremely well with Ascom Stellarium for my Goto and Nav
Martin