Who is currently working on the indi_celestron_aux driver? I reached out to Derik on teamcelestron, and he said the command set for using the CGX via the built-in USB port (no hand controller) should be the same as the aux command set. However, I can't get the indi_celestron_aux driver to interface with the CGX via that built-in USB port.

Just a quick glance through the code makes it look like this driver is just for ALT/AZ mounts?

Just looking for a way to ditch the hand controller if I can.

Ok, so quickly hacking on the indi_celestron_aux driver got me to communicate with the mount via the USB port. It turns out you need to interface with it exactly the same as with the AUX cable, but without the RTS/CTS functionality. I can move the mount using the mount control window. Now I need to figure out how the driver works. Scope location and goto's are way off.

So I followed the same approach as you, just trying a bunch of different things to see if I could get things to work. I was able to get the driver to work with my AVX, but not consistently. After I got connection. I would try to do a plate solve and sync. This would point the mount to the correct location. It was easier said than done. But I did have some success. I was using the simulators, with my AVX.
I kept running into issues through trying this. I started one or two threads which I got responses from some of the original developers. They clearly stated that this was not targeted at EQ Mounts. But it might work. It just seem like I was wasting too much time troubleshooting. So I switch back to the standard driver. I just use a quick align and point roughly at Polaris. I can normally do a plate solve and sync from there. Quick align skips most of the pain of the handset, but not all.
I would be happy to see development done on the AUX driver focussing on EQ mounts.

Once I get some free time, I might try to make a driver that will work. Got a lot of other personal projects going at the moment. I'll need to read up a lot on the Alignment Subsystem, but it looks doable.

All the help is *greatly* appreciated! I just informed Fabrizio and Pawel who worked on this driver about this thread, so hopefully you'll get some useful feedback soon as I don't know much about the internals of the driver.

I have a CGX as well and can assist you with any troubleshooting. I also have some slight abilities to read and comprehend code... I do not know if I have the math or skill set but am willing to help in any way I can.

Jim

Sounds good Jim. I'll reach out once I have something kinda working.

And I can help test the AVX. It seems to respond to the current driver, similar to the CGX.

Hello all,

I have already extended the driver for EQ mounts. It needs testing. Just the time to upload it to my forked indi-3rdparty. Just to avoid duplicated efforts.

Hey Fabrizio, where is the latest version hosted? Because the latest changes I see in master are from months ago.

github.com/indilib/indi-3rdparty/tree/master/indi-celestronaux

Hi,
here there is the new version of the driver.

This version adds:
1. Eq support: mount type selection button in mount info tab.
The selection button instructs the alignment subsystem to cope with Altaz or Eq mount.
2. Enabled tracking management, formerly it was disabled.
In INDI mount control tab tacking ON/OFF buttons are enabled.

A few words about the alignment procedure.

1. Power on sync: this is the first manual sync operation.
First, put you scope in some known position with respect to the scope mount. Tipycally by using marks on scope axes. At this point, before version 3.5.0 of Kstars, it was needed to manually compute the celestial RA/DEC coordinates corresponding to this initial scope position. In fact, Kstars < 3.5.0 allowed only to sync to RA/DEC coordinates, a quite unfriendly feature, at least for me. So, I extended Kstars sync capabilities to ALT/AZ and HA/DEC coordinates that are terrestrial frame coordinates indepentent of sidereal time with fixed values for each fixed scope position. This feature is merged in Kstar 3.5.0.
Another added feature to 3.5.0 is coordinates value conversion when changing the coordinate type among RA/DEC, ALT/AZ, HA/DEC.
A sync example for an Eq mount. Point to south meridian with DEC axis perpendicular to polar axis. This position corresponds to HA=0/DEC=0. Open the Mount Control Box (the virtual hand controller of Kstars), select HA/DEC of type radio button, set coordinates values (0,0), click sync button. The first alignment point is stored into the DB of the Alignment subsystem. From this moment the goto commands should no longer produce crazy movements.

2. Plate solver sync
Use plate solving to add all required sync points, manually or automatically guided by Kstars.

3. Finally, since plate solving is probably much more accurate than manual pointing of the first power on sync, it is better to delete the first sync point. Go to Alignment tab of driver indi control panel, set point index to 0, select action delete, click exec.

A lot of forgotten things missing ...

Hi Fabrizio, I read with interest item #2 above (Plate solver sync). I have a CGX-L, and use the standard Celestron Indi driver. Some time ago, I was asking if platesolved sync's were sent to the mount to help build up a pointing model. If I remember right, I was told that the driver couldn't do this (no way to provide the offsets/updates to the mount). What do you mean by "add all required sync points"? Is this just for Kstars/Ekos use, or is it for the mount's internal pointing model (typically provided by N star alignment via HC)?