Skysafari Plus control of iOptron Smartstar G

[glend (Glen)]

I have an iOptron Smartstar G cube mount that is GotoNova controlled. I am trying to find out what I need to drive this mount via Android Skysafari Plus scope control. My mount handset controller has a USB connection. The iOptron website says I need a ASCOM dirver to drive the mount via Windows but nothing about Skysafari Plus on Android. The Skysafari website (support area) says they do support iOptron but require a RS232 to USB interface to do so.

My current Skysafari Plus setup is running on a Nexus 7 tablet and intrefaces to my 16" dob via Astro Devices Nexus wifi box for full Pushto control. The Astro Devices Nexus has a USB connection, and various other RJ45 ports to drive other systems like Servo Cat (which appears to be RS232 driven via the RJ45 connection). I don't want to disturb the Dob system configuration but I would like to be able to utilise Skysafari Plus on the tablet to also control the iOptron mount.

Anyone doing that? Or have suggestions?

[torsion (Bram)]

Hi Glen,

My understanding is that you have all the bits you need. You should be able to use the Astro Devices Nexus to make the 'Smartstar G' mount USB connection into a Wifi connection.

Unfortunately, you may need to modify the Astro Devices Nexus configuration to 'see' its USB port of the Smartstar hand controller as well.

I don't know how the 16" dob is connected to the Astro Devices Nexus, but if it doesn't use the USB port you maybe able to configure the Nexus to 'see' the 16" dob and the Smartstar (maybe not at the same time).

For SkySafari to control the Smartstar, I think you need to set the telescope to 'Meade LX-200 Classis', or at least this is how I connect to my iOptron iEQ45 mount through an ASCOM connection to my laptop which runs Wifiscope (ie. not using the AD Nexus). So my iPad/iphone connects to my laptop (which both are on the same home wifi network), which runs the Wifiscope program. The Wifiscope talks to the mount via ASCOM (the 'ioptron .NET telescope').

Wifiscope is sort of a serial to wifi program/device, except it need to run on a windows computer.

Hope this helps,
cheers,
Bram

[Fizics (John)]

Hi Glen,
Your question intrigued me so did some checking and found on the Southern Star website an article giving some insight into the usb connection.
I quote

"iOptron's GOTONova 8401, 8402A and 8402G controllers contain their own built-in USB to Serial adapters, based on the Silicon Labs CP2102 USB-to-UART chipset (8402A) or the Prolific Technologies PL-2303 USB-to-serial chipset (8402G). To communicate with these controllers, you'll need to download and install the appropriate "Virtual COM Port" (VCP) driver software for the CP2102 and/or PL-2303 chipset. You can get the latest versions from the Silicon Labs or Prolific Technology web sites. "

It will be this built-in USB to Serial adaptor that is unusual and a nuisance. Other scopes have like my nexstar have an rj11 port so require external use of a dongle OR direct serial to serial.This tells me you need to install the drivers referred to on the Nexus device. Not on a computer or iPad. The driver would need to be for the unix o/s. Probably best to contact Astrodevices and ask how to go about doing this.

Just saw this at astrodevices web site, seems just connecting usb to usb would work as Nexus appears to have the driver installed??

Note:
1. Using a special utility from Astro Devices is required to be able to use Nexus with other planetarium software supporting ServoCAT. Please also note that additional cables are required that are available from Astro Devices at extra cost. Please e-mail us for further details. All generations of ServoCAT are supported (USB and non-USB).
2. Nexus supports USB serial devices based on CP210x (iOptron mounts), FT232x (ServoCAT Gen3, SiTech) and PL2303 (iOptron, Meade) chips.

Here are a few easy setup guides to using Nexus:

Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus with Deep Sky Browser
Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus with Megastar
Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus with SkySafari
Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus with TheSky 6
Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus and ServoCAT with planetarium software running under Windows
Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus as WiFi to Serial adapter
Quick Setup Guide to using Nexus with ServoCAT and Deep Sky Browser and SkySafari