limburg11 wrote: Hi Hans,

I use a XBox 360 controller as a joystick to focus. The SCT focuser driver has joystick support. And to slew, to set slew speed, to park, to unpark, to abort motion („panic button“), as the EQMOD mount driver has joystick support as well. Great when observing visually. The XBox 360 USB receiver works perfectly on the RPi 4.

CS, Bernd


Never realized that, I'll try it!

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hansdemoor wrote: I was able to get my Celestron focuser working on a Raspberry Pi 4 with Astroberry by setting up the focuser in Ekos. Everything went well, and Ekos seems to run the focuser just fine. It did crash at the end of calibration but once I restarted it worked just fine. I also have a Losmandy G11 and a ZWO camera and guider with filter wheel, and everything got along ok.

So how can I operate the focuser when I am using the telescope purely visually. Every time I change eyepieces I'll need to re focus, so I'd like to have my eye in the eyepiece but my keyboard and monitor are at a desk. Does anyone know of an INDI client that can run on my iPhone so I can focus at the telescope? Is this something iINDI can do?

Thanks in advance.
Hans


Yes, I use iINDI on my iPhone, exactly as you describe.

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astromark101 wrote: Hi James,

How did you get the calibration going through Ekos. If I get all equipment connected then the sct focuser gives min max values of 0 and the calibration does not work.

Cheers Mark



I guess I'm a bit late, sorry ...

Anyway, as others have pointed out, I use the celestron_sct drivers, which means connecting a usb cable from the focuser directly to the PC, not through the handcontroller. When doing that, I get this INDI configuration window (in any INDI client program, like ccdciel, indistarter, ekos, etc...)



There's a button "calibrate" to activate the whole process. The button is still there in the latest INDI version (1.8.4), although I have't clicked it recently, since my focuser is still calibrated. But back when I did, I remember it solved my min-max limits being 0.

Kind regards,
James

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For what it's worth, I can use my Celestron focus motor (a original #94155, not the redesigned #94155-A) on my Nexstar 8 SE, using both the direct USB connection driver (celestron_sct_focus), and through the hand controller driver (celestron_gps).

I use a Lenovo laptop with Gentoo. The two interfaces (HC and direct USB to focuser) both emulate different USB serial adapters (my HC has the newer-style mini-USB port on the bottom), and so need separate drivers in the kernel. The HC needs the "USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver" (CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303), and the focus motor direct-USB port needs the "USB Modem (CDC ACM) support" (CONFIG_USB_ACM). Kernel is 5.3.11. I used the newest INDIlib 1.8.2 release, which is available in the Gentoo tree. After choosing the correct driver, and port (/dev/ttyUSBx for HC, /dev/ttyACMx for direct USB), I can control the motor in both KStars device manager and Ekos.

One odd thing: I had been using the focus motor through the hand controlle's buttons until yesterday. It was calibrated. However, when establishing an INDI connection for the first time, it said the min and max limits were both 0. I performed a calibration through the celestron_sct_focus driver in kstars, and after that, I got sensible limits, and could move the focuser at will using either the USB connection, or the connection through the HC. And I can also still move the focuser using the HC's pushbuttons.

For good measure, I also tried all the above again through my RPI3 with astroberry. Both connecton modes also work through the 2 indi drivers in astroberry, and the limits were set correctly (no need to calibrate again). Only issue is, the power from the USB port alone on RPI3 seemed not quite enough, as the focus motor was struggling a bit. But it still got to the desired focus position in the end :)

So all in all, both drivers are working well for me!

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