Hi everyone,

I was trying to get my Vixen SXD mount work under an Ubuntu 14.04. I've been reading about INDI and EKOS, but I guess my mount won't work... Does anyone know if it's planned to include support for the Vixen Sphinx in future releases? On Windows systems it's supposed to run with ASCOM driver. Any alternatives?

Thanks so much!

Javi

Do you know what protocol it's using?

Hi knro,

I'm not sure... Mount is connected to the StarBook with a DB9 cable (i'm not sure if it's RS232 protocol....). The Starbook is then connected to the computer with a crossover LAN cable, so I guess communication is done through ethernet-TCP/IP. Windows users are using Peter Enzerink driver (enzerink.net/peter/blog/2008/06/28/ascom-star-book-driver). As far as I know he's not supporting this driver anymore since 2008... This driver looks for the IP of the Starbook and communicates with it.
Autoguiding is done through an "Autoguide" port on the Starbook. I was doing it with a GP-USB device and PHD Guiding software.
Could some of this be done with INDI library?

Thanks so much!

Without detailed protocol description, or at least an open source version of the ASCOM driver, I'm afraid not much can be done. You can still use GP-USB with Ekos as there is an INDI driver for it.

I believe the fellow who wrote the ASCOM driver used the Japanese-only application and reverse-engineered the protocol probably using Wireshark or something.

IMHO too much effort. I'm sure Jasem would have better things to do with his time (if he could even get his hands on a Vixen SXD - which is dead end-of-lifed mount with severe declination tracking issues)..

To the OP, it would be better to just contact Marie Therese for the NexSXD board, which fixes the declination jumping issue and emulates a Celestron Nexstar, for which I believe an INDI driver is available.

Sorry for bringing this old topic up again. Has there been done some work with this mount since the last post?

I'm asking because I've just got a SXW in perfect condition for a very good price and I will try to make it work with INDI.

I know that this will involve a lot of reverse engineering so it would be great if someone already has some information about the protocols involved. This shouldn't be too difficult from what I've gathered so far but still every bit helps.

THat's different from Vixen Starbook? because we recently added support for Starbook.

The SXW is using the original StarBook so it should work too. That is great news. Thank you very much. What is the driver called?

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere and this old thread is the only Google entry for Vixen Sphinx and INDI here. So I was expecting that this was still missing.

Hi,

I just wrote a message but I think it didn't publish correctly. Sorry if it duplicates somehow.
I was saying that this is very good news if there's actually a driver for the Starbook. The thing is, where is it listed/published/specified? Is it compatible with both Starbook and Starbook Ten?
"Recently" Vixen published an ASCOM driver for the new Starbook Ten, but not for the previous Starbook shipped with the SXD mounts. Where can we check compatibility? it's not listed in the devices section, is it?

I've just noticed that there is a thread for the new driver in the mounts subforum: indilib.org/forum/mounts/4329-vixen-starbook-driver.html

It doesn't mention Sphinx, SXW, SXC or SXD anywhere so I completely missed it (so did Google and the forum earch engine).

Hi,
I wasn't aware of this thread. I'm creator of Starbook driver. Starbook by its self is an interface for your mount, so it shouldn't matter what mount you use. In theory. I have developed this with New Atlux in mind, while Peter developed ASCOM version with his Sphinx mount. But HTTP API is so high level, that it shouldn't pose any problems.
As RoMe mentioned, please refer to thread first indilib.org/forum/mounts/4329-vixen-starbook-driver.html
I will drop all news here.
I got page in device section indilib.org/devices/telescopes/vixen/vixen-starbook.html from Jasem.
But I won't update it until I'm happy with github.com/indilib/indi/tree/master/3rdparty/indi-starbook README.