Adding Bluetooth Telescope Control to Orion XT10g

[inertia8 (Australia)]

Hi All,

Thought I'd share a little upgrade I've just added to my Orion XT10g, queue clouds tonight for the new moon...

The techie in me could hold out no longer... Using SkySafari on my Android phone without it being connected to the scope felt like I was missing out!

I fully wanted to learn star hopping prior to using GoTo, however time at the scope is limited at present, so the ability to quickly get into it is very appealing.

I baulked at the price of the official options from Orion, the SkyBT from simulationcurriculum is $129.95US + P&P, but I understand it is a nice turn key package.

After a bit of googling, I found people were having success using USConverters RS232 to Bluetooth adapters, such as this one:

http://www.usconverters.com/serial-r...etooth-adapter ($75usd)

A quick ebay search revealed a similar looking device for $45aud.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/272030347...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I ordered it Thursday night and I received it today. I noted that, unlike the USConverters unit, it does not come with a DB9 gender changer, so a quick visit jaycar was in order, as both the BT unit and the serial cable for the Synscan controller are female. This added a further $6 to the cost.

I'm powering the adapter via a USB Powerbank 5v, it takes a wide range of 4.5v to 24v DC, so should be able to be wired into the same battery system as the synscan (they provide a connector for this). It does mention that the source should be regulated.

I set the switches as follows to connect to PC:
DIP S/M (Slave/Master) = SLAVE.
DIP NG/G (NonGroup/Group) = GROUP (This was default).
Power = USB/Battery
DCE/DTE = DCE

I connected the device to my PC using a USB to Serial cable that I already owned and connected to it using TeraTerm on the COM port assigned to that cable.

Typed in BAUD=9600, got the response OK.
Typed in ROLE=?, got the response that it was set to SLAVE.

Paired it with my phone's, default pairing code = 1234.

Fired up Sky Safari.

I plug it into the scope and fire up the scope.

Sky Safari would connect to device but could not talk to the scope.

Solution = Set DCE/DTE switch = DTE.

So far I've tested.
Slewing the Scope.
Changing the Slew Rate.

I shall report back once I can test the Goto functionality to confirm that this is a valid option for those of us on Android.

[inertia8 (Australia)]

Finally there was enough patches in the cloud cover tonight to perform an alignment and try out control using SkySafari.

I thought I got the alignment spot on with the hand controller, then fired up sky safari and it was reporting the scope to be pointing at the 2nd alignment star that I used (canopus), but upon selecting Jupiter and waiting for the scope to slew, it was just a little off to the right.

I then tried the hand controller and each target was off to the right, re-aligned and had almost the same error. I'm thinking I really need to get the scope level and will be making a based to achieve this.

So far it seems that the BT control works just fine though I'd like to get alignment to be perfect before giving it a full bill of health.

[inertia8 (Australia)]

Ok, reasonable night tonight.

Another brightest star alignment, Sirius and Hadar, no good, same as last night

Switched to 2 star alignment, chose Sirius and Regulus, much much better, this time slewing to target presents it within the FOV of the 12.5mm illuminated EP.

Plugged in the bluetooth adapter and connected with Sky Safari and had a great hour or so touring the sky's brighter objects.

I found using the Sky Safari slew controls a bit finnicky for up/down in that I had to tap up/down, pressing and holding did not function the same way that holding left/right simulates holding a button on the controller.

[inertia8 (Australia)]

Another update. Unfortunately this is not working with my new lg g4. Trying to sort it out before contacting sky safari devs as there is a few other wierd behaviours observed with the app in this new version of Android