Dave Wells created a new topic ' Celestron SLT Mount question' in the forum. 5 years ago

I have a Celestron SLT mount with the 127 Mak scope which I would like to be able to control remotely from inside the house.
I also have a Starsense accessory which performs the initial 3-star alignment automatically via plate solving. This works without issue. The only problem is the align needs to be initiated from the HC.

One problem most Celestron owners will have realised is that the mount control and pointing model is within the HC which therefore must normally remain attached. The only exception in my case is if I bought a Celestron SkyPortal device which allows a tablet or phone to take the place of the HC. The alignment can then be initiated remotely from the app. However, the Skyportal app wont control a focuser or camera :(
Celestron have produced a new Windows application, CPWI which will also allow remote alignment but it also doesn't allow control of a camera. It does allow control of a focuser but only Celestron's (suprise!)

My preferred setup would be:

- A raspberry pi at the mount connected to home wifi and running indi server - controls mount, focuser, camera, dew controller etc etc
- PC inside house running Kstars/Ekos on Ubuntu connected to pi via network

I have tested this setup on the bench and it will happily control the scopes slew and also allow me to have a remote focuser and camera. The problem is I can't initiate the mount's initial alignment this way (unless anyone knows a way). The only workround is to align the scope using the HC and then plug in the Pi and retire inside. Maybe it sounds a bit lazy but I would prefer to be able to do everything remotely.

The question I suppose is this:

If I buy the SkyPortal and run it in AP mode so it is connected to my home wi-fi will I still be able to use Kstars/Ekos (as above) to control it all once the initial alignment has completed?

I don't know if the celestrongps driver can connect to the mount via the SkyPortal. It connects fine via the serial socket in the base of the HC but the Skyportal replaces the HC.

I hope that all makes sense and I'm open to any alternative suggestions (apart from dump the scope and get a better mount - no funds for that I'm afraid).

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