Hey all,

Our local astro club has a rather nice RC on the aforementioned Orion HDX110-EQ-G mount. Currently all it has is a hand controller. I'd like to control this mount from Ekos via INDI.

I ordered a USB-to-Synscan module from Starizona, which apparently can plug either into the HC with the included RJ-11 cable, or replace the hand controller using the RJ-45 cable. Documentation is minimal.

The Synscan driver appears to be pretty limited. In particular, it doesn't do pulse guiding. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker -- the scope has a LaCerta MGEN II with an ST-4 connection to the mount -- but I'm a lot more comfortable using PHD than I am trying to figure out the MGEN's quirks. I suppose I could pull the MGEN off the guidescope and replace it with my ASI120MC and use PHD via ST-4, but I'd rather not disturb the setup unless I have to -- the scope does not belong to me, after all.

What are my options here? I'm running StellarMate OS on a Pi 4. Is there an advantage to replacing the HC, or should I just connect through it? Will one of the other drivers work? I've never played in the Sky-Watcher/Synscan universe before, all my experience has been with iOptron mounts. Is the USB-to-Synscan the correct hardware?

Ideally I'd like to get, in order of priority:

  1. Automated pointing via Capture and solve/Slew to target in the Alignment module*
  2. Dithering
  3. Guiding via PHD

*Currently I can't get it to plate-solve any of the 12.8' images off my imaging camera. I downloaded all the index files down to 4200, still no joy. Fortunately ASTAP works fine, so I can do it sort-of manually. And of course PHD guiding would be nice.

TIA,

rw

Your suggestions?

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