Max, you are right. The support for GEM45 currently only is available in the nightly builds.

The iPolar indeed is the same for both and I have read on CloudyNights that someone got it working with INDI . See comment #13. Unfortunately the poster did not say HOW he did this. We tried with the V4L2 driver and we do get an image however during daytime it is completely white and during the night completely black. Probably during daytime it is too sensitve and quickly overexposes. During the night probably it has not been focused well so we don't see any stars.

My code changes so far only have been to map the CEM40 code to the GEM45 with a new alias and the V4L2 code to iPolar. This works but, as I said, we need more time to test the iPolar in that setup.

Finally, we have had word from iOptron that Linux and Mac drivers for the iPolar would be released soon (see also comment #12 in the CloudyNights thread) but so far that's all we know.

Great info - thanks!

I am about to take a plunge and order a GEM45. Hope I won't regret it.

Good choice! I am sure you will wnjoy it a lot!

I have the IOptron GEM45-EC model and it is reporting as code 0044 which looks like will need to be added as well.

DEBUG 129.616196 sec : CMD <:MountInfo#>
DEBUG 129.649251 sec : RES <30 30 34 34>
ERROR 129.649364 sec : Mount with code 0044 is not recognized.

Thank you for the report, it's added now to GIT.

Thanks! I verified can connect now with new GIT:

Model: GEM45-EC
Board FW: 191018
Controller: 200113
RA/DEC:1 90722

Also there is a new CEM70 model out along with an integrated Guider version as well. I'm assuming this will be under model 0070 if follows other models. Don't see a EC version for the CEM70 model, probably due to having a built in guider instead. So the base model and the guider model could be under the same 0070 model number or guider version could end up 0071. Don't have the new models to test with.

www.ioptron.com/category-s/233.htm

Dear iOptron GEM45 experts,

I am a hobby astronomer from Germany and new here in this formun. I find the information you provide here is very helpful and highly accurate.

Please let me ask a question to you experts, because I did not find the right answer up to now in this formum:

Recently (this week!) I bought a new GEM45 mount from iOptron via a German dealer.
I try to get connected it to my rather old computer running on Linux Mint Cinnamon 32-Bit. I installed the Debian stable version of Indi with all drivers, Kstars and Ekos. No isue so far.
Then I select the GEM45 mount from the list in Ekos, start the Indi platform and try to connect to the mount. The mount is connected via USB wire to USB0 of my computer.
When I press the CONNECT button, I only get timeout errors , there is no connection possible. I tried all possible baud rates from 9600 to 115200, no difference.

When I select the iOptronV3 mount instead, then I can connect to the mount, but only with a baud rate of 115200. For all other baud rates I get the well known timeout errors and no connection.
But the connection with the iOptronV3 driver is not stable at all, I get a lot of timeouts in between and the operation of the mount is almost impossible.

Do you have any idea why the GEM45 driver is not working at all on my side? As far as I have seen in the forum, other useres can operate the mount with this driver or with the CEM40 driver.
The CEM40 driver by the way is in my case not connecting as well.

My GEM45 is using firmware 191018 for the main board and 200113 for the hand controller.

Hope you have any suggestions for me.

Best regards and CS
Ralf

Dear Ralf,

How do you connect the GEM45? Via the hand controller or directly with a USB cable connected to the mount? I have only tested the latter last year when I had a GEM45 at my disposal.

Also, what do you mean with "I installed the Debian stable version of Indi with all drivers, Kstars and Ekos"? Do you mean KStars from the Debian repositories? I am not sure if that actually works well because I don't know what release of KStars-bleeding this is based on. Please try the direct USB connection and see if that works. If not then perhaps you'll need to switch to kstars-bleeding, the download instructions for which can be found in the menu at the top of the forum.


HTH, Wouter

I would try the nightly-build or bleeding build as mentioned. You can also use moserial (GUI serial terminal) (wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Apps/Moserial...ow&redirect=moserial) to test serial connection. Connect with 115200 Baud 8N1 and send "MountInfo#". The mount should return with its 4 digit model number. GEM45 -> "0043" GEM45EC -> "0044".

Dear Wouter,

thank you very much for your fast reply and your welcome support.
I connected the USB port of 1my computer directly to the USB port of the mount with an USB cable (the USB port next to the HBX input). I also tried to get connection via the RS232 input at the hand box using an USB to RS232 converter, but this did not work either.

To install the SW I followed the instruction given in the download section (Sorry, I mixed up Debian with Ubuntu, I used the given Ubuntu installation procedure):

Stable Release
1. INDI Library is available for Ubuntu 16.04 and higher. To install stable INDI Library, run the following commands:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa
sudo apt-get update

After update is complete, you can install INDI and optionally Ekos:

2. To Install INDI Library including all 3rd party drivers:
sudo apt-get install indi-full gsc

3. To install latest Ekos:
sudo apt-get install indi-full kstars-bleeding

I did 1., 2. and 3. to install the SW. All worked fine.

Best Regards
Ralf