5 replies to this topic

[alvacouch]

As some of you may know, the USB-to-serial driver for the iOptron 8402 handset/controller was forcibly removed from the windows 10 driver list by replacing it with a dummy driver.

 

The reasons for this were unbelievable: pirates were selling a pirated copy of USB-to-serial chip in the handset, that was so convincing that one could not tell it from the original. To deal with this piracy, the original manufacturer of the USB-to-serial chip asked that the driver be removed from windows 10 in 2012. This disabled ALL USB-to-serial chips of that design, and not just the counterfeit ones.

 

AFAIK, iOptron had nothing to do with this nonsense. 

 

I just happen to have one of those 8402G controllers, so I am out of luck at connecting it to Windows 10 unless I disable updates on Windows 10 and load an old driver, which would affect all of my drivers. Not a good idea. 

 

But my mount -- the iOptron cube-A (not the II) -- also supports the 8401 controller, which is still sold. It contains a different USB-to-serial chip. So, I wonder if the problem would go away if I bought an 8401 handset. 

 

Is anyone who has an 8401 handset using it with an up-to-date copy of Windows 10? 

 

Thanks for any information in advance!

[Dynan]

I bought this and it's working fine:

 

https://smile.amazon...bb-8a79de2d236f

[alvacouch]

Update: I finally bought an 8401 controller and was pleasantly surprised: 

1. The patent issues that disabled the 8402 do not apply to the 8401. 
2. The 8401 USB2COM works properly in Windows 10. 
3. The 8401 ASCOM driver is 32-bit, but otherwise works well with 32-bit planetariums in Windows 10. This includes Deep Sky Planner. 
4. The 8401 ASCOM driver does not work with 64-bit planetariums including Cartes du Ciel.

So, a happy ending for this thread. 

[alvacouch]

I bought this and it's working fine:

 

https://smile.amazon...bb-8a79de2d236f

Thanks for the hint. Where do you plug it in? The 8401 and 8402 handsets have only a USB port. Does this plug into the cube instead of the 8401/8402? 

[Dynan]

I plug into my Black Box hub, which connects to my computer.

[rnshagam]

What ASCOM driver are you using for the 8401?  I have an 8401 for an older (c. 2008) SmartStar PR EQ mount and was never really able to get it to work under the current ASCOM driver, and the older driver seems to be no longer available.  Out of frustration, I built an OnStep controller, converting the mount to stepper drive.  It works (sort of) fine, but I feel guilty having $500 (retail) in essentially 8401 GOTO NOVA parts sitting around waiting to go out to the dump or for sale on Cloudy Nights.