SkyWatcherRSS

SkyWatcher

All SkyWatcher & Orion Mounts, including EQMod driver. 

Before connecting to your mount

  1. Ensure the mount firmware is the latest as provided by your manufacturer.
  2. Ensure mount has proper and suffcient power to operate. This is often a primary source of issues connecting to mounts.
  3. Read the mount manual and learn about the mount startup or Home Position. This is the mechanical position the mount must be in before you turn on the power to the mount. This basically falls under two categories:
    • Equatorial Mount: Telescope should be looking at the Celestial Pole (Polaris for the Northern Hemisphere) with counter-weights down.
    • Alt-Az Mount: Telescope should parallel to the ground looking exactly North (for Northern Hemisphere) or South (for Southern hemisphere).
  4. Decide on how you will connect to the mount. Is it using a cable to the handset? or cable directly to the mount? WiFi? Bluetooth?
  5. If connecting over WiFi, then ensure the device where you are running the INDI driver (e.g. Raspberry PI4) is on the same network as your mount so they can communicate with each other. Such mounts can be configured to run in two modes:
    • Mount Wireless Hotspot Mode: The mount hotspot acts as the router and you can connect your devices to the mount's own network (e.g. your Raspberry PI and iPad). 
    • Mount Wireless Station Mode: The mount joins an existing WiFi network (e.g. your home WiFi network or StellarMate hotspot). The IP address assigned to the mount is determined by your router. It is best to know the IP address assigned to the mount so that you can enter it in the IP address field in the driver Connection tab. However, this is not strictly necessary since the driver can automatically scan the local network for mounts, albeit this operation may take a few minutes to complete whereas if the IP address is known beforehand then the connection is immediate.

Selecting the correct driver

Selecting the appropiate driver for your mount usually depends on two factors:

  • Mount model.
  • Connection method (Cable, WiFI, Bluetooth..etc).
 Mount  Driver  Connection Method  Comments
  • HEQ5
  • EQ6 \ EQ6R Pro
  • AZ-EQ5 \ AZ-EQ6 Pro
  • EQ8 \ EQ8 Pro
  • EQ3 Pro EQM-35 Pro
  • Orion Sirrius \ Orion, Atlas
EQMod Mount

EQDirect Cable

This cable is a DIRECT cable from mount to your device. No handset is connected nor required in this setup.

 

  • HEQ5
  • EQ6 \ EQ6R Pro
  • AZ-EQ5 \ AZ-EQ6 Pro
  • EQ8 \ EQ8 Pro
  • EQ3 Pro EQM-35 Pro
  • Orion Sirrius \ Orion, Atlas
EQMod Mount

Bluetooth

Use a Bluetooth adapter from Mount to your device. You must pair and trust the Blueooth dongle first from your PC/Device. The dongle should create a serial port (e.g. /dev/rfcomm0) that you need to select when connecting to the mount.

Quite a few EQMod blueooth dongles have been obsoleted. Therefore, it is generally NOT recommended to connect to your Mount using bluetooth.

  • HEQ5
  • EQ6 \ EQ6R Pro
  • AZ-EQ5 \ AZ-EQ6 Pro
  • EQ8 \ EQ8 Pro
  • EQ3 Pro EQM-35 Pro
  • Orion Sirrius \ Orion, Atlas
EQMod Mount

Synscan Wfi Adapter

Select Network in EQMod Connection tab. Ensure IP address is correct before establishing connection to the mount. Do not use EQMod Mount driver to connect to any Alt-Az mount via the dongle, EQMod Mount driver can only operate Equatorial Mounts. 

  • AZ-GTi WiFi (With Equatorial Wedge)
AZ-GTi Equatorial WiFi WiFi AZ-GTi mount must be running firmware v3.37+ (Right ARM, AZ/EQ Dual Mode).
  • AZ-GTi Wired

WIRED cable from AZ-GTi RJ12 port to USB

For Equatorial mode, AZ-GTi mount must be running firmware v3.37+ (Right ARM, AZ/EQ Dual Mode).
  • AZ-GTi (Alt-Az)
  • All SkyWatcher Dobsonian GOTOs
  • All Orion Dobsonian GOTOs
SkyWatcher Alt-Az WiFi WiFi (Native) or Synscan WiFi Adapter WiFi Native is the WiFi that comes with the mount built-in without any external adapters. 
  • Any SkyWatcher/Orion with Synscan Handset (HC)
Synscan
  • Older Synscan HCs come with RJ11 plug. You need Serial-to-USB adapter  cable from HC to PC/Device.
  • Modern Synscan HCs come with USB Type-B port that you can connect directly via a USB cable to your device (no serial to USB adapter is required).
Synscan driver offers a limited subset of features compared to other drivers. If possible connect using EQDirect cable or WiFi.
  • SkyWatcher Virtuso
SkyWatcher Virtuso WiFi  
  • SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i WiFi WiFi  
  • SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i WiFi USB Direct USB cable from Mount to PC/Device.
  • SkyWatcher Star Adventurer
SkyWatcher Star Adventurer NA This driver is the INDI Telescope Simulator. It can be used just as a placeholder if you have the older non-GOTO Star Adventurer mount.
AZ-GTi Equatorial Wedge WiFi Only

www.indlib.org

Installation INDI AZ-GTi Driver based on EQMod driver and is released as a 3rd party driver and requires INDI Library >= v1.7.5. To Install the driver under Ubuntu: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get ...

EQ-6 MCU Update

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EQ-6 MCU Update

Installation lx200basic is included with INDI v0.6+ Features The LX200 Basic supports most functions of the EQ-6 MCU Update: Project Website Project Support and Community Operation It works with all firmware ...

EQMod

www.indlib.org

Installation The EQMod Mount driver is available for download as a 3rd party driver from INDI's download page. Under Ubuntu, you can install it via:: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ind ...

SkyWatcher Alt/Az

www.skywatcherusa.com/products/sky-watcher-flextube-250p-syn

Installation: INDI Skywatcher Alt-Az Driver is installed by default with INDI. To install under Ubuntu: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppasudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indi-bin  Features The driver uses SkyWatcher prot ...

SkyWatcher Synscan

skywatcher.com

Installation INDI Synscan Driver is installed by default with INDI. To Install the driver under Ubuntu: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indi-bin Features The driver can control any moun ...

Skywatcher Virtuoso (Alt/Az)

skywatcherusa.com/sky-watcher-virtuoso.html

Installation Included with libindi v1.4.1 or later. To install it under Ubuntu: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indi-fullNote: the old name of the driver is Skywatcher API Mount (executabl ...