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tonyv8
newbie
Reged: 11/03/12
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Anyone able to connect the LX80 to PC serial port?
#5502385 - 11/03/12 01:02 PM
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I am unable to establish communication between the Meade LX80 and my PC's RS232 serial port. With the same PC I can connect to my Meade LX200GPS and remote control the telescope with Starry Night, and I am sure all the cables are good. Has anyone had success doing this? If yes, I would like to learn what your configuration is.
Mine is: 9600 baud, 8 date bits, parity:none, stop bit 1, flow control none. I am using a Meade 505 cable, connecting the AudioStar handset to the Serial Port, while the AudioStar is simultaneously connected to the telescope. (i.e., two cables going into the HandBox.)
The only sign of life I get is when I power up the mount, my HyperTerminal program receives an X (an upper case X) from the mount. (HyperTerminal is a basic serial port communication program in Windows XP.)
I am sending commands listed in the Meade "Serial Command Protocol" document available here:
www.meade.com/support/TelescopeProtocol_2010-10.pdf
For example, I will type in ACK, then hit ENTER, and nothing is returned from the mount.
I have tried two different brands of USB to Serial port converters, and also plugged directly into the Serial port without using USB. It's a Dell D430 with a docking station. All Windows XP software is up to date and I am 100% sure the serial port is working properly because it works not only on my Meade LX200GPS but other serial port controlled hardware as well.
Thanks, Tony
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Mkofski
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/19/11
Loc: Greenfield, Indiana, USA
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Re: Anyone able to connect the LX80 to PC serial port?
[Re: tonyv8]
#5502455 - 11/03/12 02:01 PM
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Sorry to hear you are having trouble... I'm using Windows 7 and an inexpensive USB/Serial adapter I got from Amazon. Haven't had any problems with PHD or the Meade suite that came with the mount. The only time I've had a problem was when the software was set to the wrong port. Using the adapter I have, the port assigned cnahges between 3, 4 and 5. Since you have the same problem using it with the serial port, I would suspect a software setting somewhere.
It would be better to hear from an XP user.
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tonyv8
newbie
Reged: 11/03/12
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Re: Anyone able to connect the LX80 to PC serial port?
[Re: Mkofski]
#5502502 - 11/03/12 02:37 PM
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Hello Mike, Thanks for the reply. I also have a Windows 7 PC which I will try now. Are you using a Meade 505 cable, or something else? Does your cable go into the handset plug beside the cable that connects it to the scope? Regards, Tony
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Mkofski
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/19/11
Loc: Greenfield, Indiana, USA
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Re: Anyone able to connect the LX80 to PC serial port?
[Re: tonyv8]
#5502596 - 11/03/12 03:55 PM
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Quote:
Hello Mike, Thanks for the reply. I also have a Windows 7 PC which I will try now. Are you using a Meade 505 cable, or something else? Does your cable go into the handset plug beside the cable that connects it to the scope? Regards, Tony
Tony,
Yes, I'm using the Meade 505 cable to go from the small (RJ22) connector on the hand set to the USB/Serial connector which is plugged into the computer. Are you using the Meade software suite or PHD or somthing else for software?
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OzAndrewJ
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/30/10
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Re: Anyone able to connect the LX80 to PC serial port?
[Re: Mkofski]
#5502628 - 11/03/12 04:29 PM
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Gday Tony
You cannot type "ACK" as the scope wont recognise that.
ACK really means a single byte of hex #x06.
Did you try any other commands like say :GC# ???
Some Meade 505 adapters came out miswired a few months back, so have you checked it the wiring is correct???
If you see an X on boot, that is normal and means at least one wire is OK.
Andrew
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tonyv8
newbie
Reged: 11/03/12
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Re: Anyone able to connect the LX80 to PC serial port?
[Re: OzAndrewJ]
#5502684 - 11/03/12 05:28 PM
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It now works when I switched to a Windows 7, 64 bit PC.
I bought a Radio Shack USB to Serial adapter, and the Vista drivers it came with. I am using the AutoStar Suite software that came with the mount. Thanks Mike.
Andrew, I did use the :GC# command, and still got nothing.
However, now that it is working with the new PC and Windows 7 I will retire the old Windows XP PC. Thanks.
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