SUMMARY :I have been struggling several months with random disconnections of my devices.I found that these disconnections were due to a conflict between my FTDI and Prolific serial-USB drivers.After uninstalling the FTDI driver, everything works just fine. HERE ARE SOME DETAILS :- My setup includes : a Celestron mount, a Sirius dome, a MicroTouch focuser and 3 ZWO cameras (imager, guider, finder) connected to a Mac.- The Celestron CGE Pro mount and the Sirius dome were connected via two FTDI adapters- Some months ago I replaced the Celestron NexStar hand control with a built-in Prolific chipset- Thus my dome was still running on a FTDI driver, and my scope on a Prolific driver. The MicroTouch focuser has its own installer (including a Prolific ?)- And my devices started to disconnect with errors like :Dome : "[ERROR] No response from MAX DOME ""[ERROR] Write Error: Device not configured " Mount : "[ERROR] Serial write error: Write Error: Device not configured ""[ERROR] Failed to read RA/DEC values. " Focuser : "[ERROR] WriteCmd error: Write Error: Device not configured”"[ERROR] WriteCmdGetResponse error: Timeout error” - I checked the USB cables and hubs, I replaced them by active cables and powered hubs, I installed macOS and KStars on a new SSD, I measured the required current for each USB device- I found that TheSkyX (using X2 drivers) was less sensitive than KStars (using INDI drivers) to the disconnections FINALLY : Thus my dome was still running on a FTDI driver, and my scope on a Prolific driver.Apparently the FTDI and Prolific drivers don't like each other and the FTDI driver conflicted with the scope and focuser drivers.I uninstalled the FTDI driver and replaced the adapter.And everything works now just fine. I wish this might help some people

Hello. Very interesting information. Unfortunately I'm in this situation. I have a Moonlight focuser which uses the FTDI driver and my mount (EQ6-R Pro) uses the Prolific driver. I can't get my mount connected I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any suggestions you might have will be gratefully recieved. Both of these devices are quite expensive and I just can't afford to replace either.

No one said it would be easy

cas

@Collin: Just a guess, but perhaps it would work if you used the old-school approach for your mount, and plugged an FTDI cable into the the hand-controller port, e.g. using optcorp.com/products/stellarmate-usb-to-...q5-eq5-eq8-eq3-cable or the USB2EQ5 cable on www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/products_eq.htm

Hello Hy. Many thanks for your suggestions

Yes, there are a few ways I could go with this. I have tried connecting to the mount using AstroTelescope which worked fine (I needed to know if my mount was broken so I went back to the fundamentals) although it would only connect at 9600 bps.

I happen to have an FTDI FT232 ttl cable and I'm wondering if I can "spoof" INDI by making it think it has an FTDI interface. As I say, I'm not sure how to proceed. I need to sit and think for a while - but not tonight, it's way past my bedtime and my head hurts

Thanks again for your suggestions, I'll add them to the mix - so to speak.

As they say. Tomorrow's another day.

Best regards,

cas

There's a more than decent chance I don't know what I'm talking about here but, just in case not, here's what I mean:
Connect your mount to Ekos using the SkyWatcher -> EQMOD Mount connection, then just plug that cable from your computer's USB to the mount's hand controller port.
That's what I do with my Orion Atlas Pro, which I believe is pretty much the same mount as what you have.

I don't know how it is on a Mac  but on a Linux system (especially with Astroberry installed) I would check the gpsd rules file in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d

These rules sometimes take a serial2usb chip for a GPS (pl203 ...) en then you risc that GPSD connects  ..... and messes up things.


Paul

Hi PDB.

I just looked for the file at the location you suggested and it doesn't exist.

Thanks for the suggestion though - another tool in the bag

Yes, I'm running a Mac and remoting into a pi running Astroberry.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards.....

Best,

c

@Hy.

Thanks for the thought. I may ultimately have to resort to something like this.

Best,

c

Well I sympathise with your frustration, but I have been forced to use both an FTDI and Prolific chip sets for Serial to USB drivers at the same time for ages, mostly with success and occasionally with temporary issues when things don’t connect. All was good until some major Linux kernel changes a year ago made USB ports invisible. A large number of updates later and with KStars 3.5.5 and Indi 1.9.2 things seem (fingers crossed) to have settled down. 

I had a look at my installation to see if I could pin down what the latest version (3.5.5) of KStars offers. This is a screen shot showing the Indi control panel and the (serial) Device Port Selector screens.
 
The two serial devices are the Pegasus PPB with a Prolific chip and the EQMOD mount driven by a Lynx Astro USB to serial cable with an FTDI chip which these days seem to work happily enough together.
 

Avocette, You are lucky.
I see that you are running Windows and I am running macOS.
May be the macOS version of KStars is the problem ?

Hi Avo,

I've messed around quite a lot with this and it's all a tad confusing - for something so apparently simple it's bizarre ! I now strongly suspect that in this case it is a buggy driver implementation. I don't know which piece has the dodgy implementation, whether it be Astroberry/Debian/INDI et al or a straight defect in this particular driver.

I've used FTDI, Prolific, and the bargain bucket jobs for MANY years. I've never had a problem like this.
I'm pretty sure it's not the prolific hardware per se. If it was, they'd be out of business

Looks like my options are buy or make something.

I have the bits to make something, just can't locate a verified pin-out diagram. Looks like FLO will be getting an order

Oh, thanks for taking the time to make the screen shot.

Best

c