To answer this myself. I tested it and it does work. I can slew the mount with no HC attached; only a direct usb connection from an Ubuntu machine running kstars to the usb port of the Celestron focuser attached to my C8/AVX.

This is potentially a very simple and relatively cheap way of getting both automated startup and focuser capability to a Celestron mount.

Note: I observed some timeout issues, but I think that was the driver.

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