Dear,

First of all, I am newly in using INDI library and its server.

I am trying to connect a Skywatcher AZ/EQ 6 mount to my Mac (OS Sierra 10.12) to control it thanks to the indiserver. Up to now, I am without success and I am hopping to find on the forum some help or hint that can help me to establish the dialog with the mount. Not that I am trying to use the mount in AZ configuration and that, after starting up the mount, I set it, for the hand controller, in AZ configuration. Then, I start an indiserver as follow :

I try to "connect" the mount, using the "INDI Control Panel" application, I receive a message saying "Mount not Responding" and I can't establish the dialog.

The connection is done with Skywatcher SYNSCAN USB to SERIAL cable, connected to the Serial<->RJ11 (delivered with the mount) which is itself connected to the hand control of the mount. Has the cable was not recognised by the OS Sierra, I used the Serial Detect Application (www.mac-usb-serial.com) to identify the driver I needed to instal. The application recognised the cable has an "USB serial D controller" and I installed the driver PL2303 from prolific (www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=229&pcid=41).

The installation of the driver created a new "network connection" called USB-Serial Controller D. I configured this new connection following the recommandation "c.getsatisfaction.com/plugable/topics/os...-connection-solution. In other world, the Network USB/Serial controller was configured as :

Vendor = Null Modem
Model = 9600
Dial mode = ignore dialtone when dialling.
Un-tick “enable error correction and compression in modem”.
Select “Tone” for dialing and “on” for sound.

Similarily, on the INDI panel control, I set up the Baud rate to 9600 too.

I initiate the connection (int the INDI control Panel application) and it failed. I also tried with EQmod mount driver. Without success too.
Also, should I also connect the USB-serial controller D ("System Preference>Network>USB/SERIAL Controller>Connect) before I start to connect the mount with the indi serve ? In that case, I received a message box which say that the periferic isn't responding.

I am hopping to found MAC user with similar mount on that forum that have successful connection. Any help from them would welcome.

Hi William,

what port device name do you use? Make sure, it is something like /dev/cu.XXX and not /dev/tty.XXX.

Peter

Yes, that is something I forgot to mention,

From the INDI Control Panel application, I set the port (synscan>Option>Port) to /dev/cu.usbserial

This seems good. Try to turn debug on and debug level to "debug" (in Options group), SW driver should be quite verbose. You can also try to switch hand controller into "PC Direct" mode and to use EQMod driver instead. BTW, how did you build INDI, by homebrew? Peter

Thanks for your reply.

I was on the point to post about my progress...
So, I finally manage to get connection to the mount. The point was that the default configuration for the indy_synscan driver set the BAUD RATE to 19200 and, despite I changed it into INDI Control Panel, when I clicked the 'connect' check box, the BAUD RATE returned to the default configuration (19200) before the dialog started between my computer and the mount. I have to manually change the default configuration file to a BAUD Rate of 9600 to establish the connection.

I do not really understand why the BAUD rate switch back to its default value just before establishing the connection.

I also try EQmod driver, but in that case, I get very unsuccessful to establish the connection.
- If I set my telescope in PC direct mod I get- If I do not set the PC direct mod, I got timeout error

It switches back because you have it saved in the config file. After you connect, it loads the configuration file which has the prior baud rate. Once you change the baud param, save the configuration again.

Ok, I also manage to connect with either the EQMod and the Skywatcher (which is a derivative of the EQMod drivers) drivers. To do so, I needed to put the mount in PC direct mode before I started the indiserver on the mac.

Any way, thanks for all your advices.

I still have one last question (and maybe I should post new post on that subject):
The mount AZ/EQ 6 is configured to work in Azimuthal coordinate, not equatorial. The mount aimed to host microwave instrumentation and their is no way I turn it back to equatorial mode as one of the instrument is on the counter weight axis and any rotation of that axis, in its equatorial configuration, would be critical for the instrument. Looking quickly at the SynScan or EQMod drivers, it seems I do not have the possibility to control the mount in AZ mode: i.e.It seems that I can't enter Alt/Az coordinates to slew the telescope to that coordinate, I can only enter RA/DEC.

Is their possibility to control the mount in AZ with this driver, or is their any other driver more appropriate for that purpose ?

Many thanks.

If the mount receives equatorial coords, doesn't it convert it internally to Az/Alt and go to the target? Sorry not exactly familiar with how it works so how does it work now if you try to slew to a particular area in the sky as is?

No that is not as strait forward. The Skywatcher AZ/EQ 6 mounts designed to be mechanically configured in either Azimuthal (AZ) mode or Equatorial (EQ) mode. In equatorial mode, the RA axis is parallel to the Earth rotation axis, while in AZ mode, the RA axis is oriented to be parallel to the zenith axis.
With the hand control alone, at start up, I can inform the mount firmware that the mount is configured in AZ, which I can not do with the indi driver I have tried up to now.
Without knowing that the mount is in AZ configuration, the mount firmware will think it is in EQ mode and will give me a very bad pointing. Also, in AZ mode, I need tracking on both axis while in EQ mode, tracking on RA, with accurate initial calibration, shall be enough.

Of course, I can write down some formula to compensate for the difference but the mount firmware itself is already doing that, as long as it know that the mount is in either AZ or EQ mode. Thus I would rather prefer to use an indi driver that already give me the capability to work in AZ mode. Even if I still need to pass to the mount the RA/DEC coordinates, as long as I am able to inform the mount that it was installed in AZ mode, it should not be a problem. But, what is important is that the mount need to know how it as been setup.

I think I will open a new post on that subject. I may be get more indication.
I will close met issue regarding my problem of connection.

I just took a quick look at Synscan commands, and there is no command to put the mount in "Alt-Az" mode, I think this is a setting you set perhaps using the hand-controller alone. However, there is a command to explicitly send Az/Alt coordinates to the mount but the current drivers aren't using it. So now what happens when the mount receives RA/DE coords? Does it automatically switch to EQ Mode? or does it simply convert those to Alt/Az and remain in Alt/Az mode? That I don't know.

We can perhaps add the explicit Alt/Az commands as well and see if that makes any difference to the mount behavior.

EDIT: Looks like the synscan can be commanded to track in EQ or Alt/Az modes, but the current Synscan mount does not change the mode so it should remain as is.

So, if I understand well, if I set the hand controller to AZ mode before I connect my computer to the mount with the indi_synscan driver, the mount will still be configured in AZ mode.

I will check, the preliminary test I have done show me the mount was doing weird movement : the dec axis, with correspond to the Alt axis in AZ mode almost did a 360 degreee turn ... which would highly compromise my instrumentation if this kind of motion is repeated with the instrument onto the mount. On the other hand, I do not really remember if, at that time, the hand controller was in AZ or EQ ... I think I did not touch at all the hand controller and I can not say if it could remember previous setting at the mount start up.

Is their a way, with INDI command, to check some mount properties or configuration, like getting a dump of the mount (i.e. not something related with the INDI driver properties, but really getting the statues of the mount itself -> like reading the mount register and deduce its actual configuration).

If the AZ mode is retained in the controller, and the driver does not change it, then it shouldn't change unless internally the hand controller changes it somehow. Maybe you can inquire from Skywatcher about this particular behavior.

On the other hand, RA/DE to ALT/AZ conversions always have small residual errors especially near the poles. I think a better way is to have ALT/AZ field only explicitly for this purpose. I'll see if this can be added to the driver.