Can you use an app, like SkySafari, to control the mount?
Hi,
Yes, SkySafari can be used for connecting to mount, via WIFI connected.
Default WIFI SSID and password can be got from the scan of the SN label.
Default password 12345678.
SSID start with WARPDRIVE_
Regards.
WarpAstron Support
Good morning everyone, today I wanted to try to control the mount (wd20) through the mobile phone’s skysafary, but I don’t know what parameters to change, I can find the wy-fy network, and the password is also accepted.
Luca63 - once your device is connected to the WiFi network, you need to enter the IP address of Onstep. It appears in the Onstep ASCOM setup dialog. Mine was 192.168.0.1.
You set up something like Meade LX200 Classic and enter the IP address. The port number normally defaults to 4030, [updated] and you need to change to 9998
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Are you sure about the port# being 9998. The instructions that WarpAstron gave was that it is 9999.
JohnD
John, it will be the number after the colon on the IP address shown on the onstep ASCOM properties page. Mine was 9998
Ok thanks. I will check the ASCOM value. I had tried both 9998 and 9999 in both SkySafari and Luminos. The issue I am having is that the slew will not initiate. It just sits at the NCP. I got it to work once in Luminos but am unable to get it to work again. When I tried SkySafari it immediately dropped the connection. Will keep trying.
Bye the way it works great with Stellarium. You need to have the version with QT5 instead of QT6. QT6 does not work.
JohnD
OK it is 9998.
JohnD
I have found that the mount doesn’t like slewing unless tracking is on, either from park or home. Try tracking on first, then slew.
Did you connect it first with HC and set time/location? It will not slew if it doesn’t know where things are.
I do have tracking on. Do you mean set time/location in the hand controller? GPS should tell the mount where it is. When I looked at setting time/location manually and it is nuts. You can only change things one digit at a time unless I am missing something. When I connect to a computer, everything is picked up automatically.
JohnD
John - I’m just doing some experiments this morning and will report back.
Hi,
For getting update of time/location from GPS. The mount will automatically start GPS once it powered on. Normally it may require 3-5 mins for completing GPS update at outdoor. As GPS rely on the satellite signals, not like mobile phone with cell network assistance, it must be in outdoor, not on the balcony, to get these signals.
You can notice that UTC displaying on hand controller changed once GPS updating completed. UTC offset required to be set correctly for a GPS updating.
If another time source like time/location update from PC sync, the GPS will stop update and mount will use the synced info directly.
WarpAstron Support
In theory, the GPS in the mount should do it. After 10 minutes after power-up, however, the GPS in my mount had not succeeded (in an open observatory). This is not untypical. The GPS module in my Eagle5 Pro rarely connected either and that was with an external aerial too. (I found an old GPS module and it could not find a signal either). It is very easy for USB3 (of similar frequency) to cause interference. While it is likely the location is stored in NVM, the time is not kept when the mount is not powered.
So this is what I found on my WD-20. It would connect, but did absolutely nothing until I confirmed date and time using the handset (or through ASCOM) . After that, it was pretty shaky with the LX200 settings in the very latest version of SkySafari for iOS.
I recall the Pegasus NYX mount also uses OnStep and there is an NYX preset in SkySafari. That worked much better and I was able to slew to targets and it did not lose connection.
In both cases, the default 3 second timeout is possibly too short. The WD20 is slow to respond and I upped this to 5 seconds. The option in the telescope settings within SkySafari, to set the time and place on connection, did not seem to do anything. The handset still said the completely wrong time.
OK I am doing indoor testing so that is why things are not working although I was able to do it once. Possibly it had gotten the GPS connection then. Also I had the connection to the PC enabled so that could have messed things up as well. Trying to get information from this hand controller is not easy. It would be nice to see a display that says GPS is connected.
JohnD
You can, in a way. hit the centre button a few times until the time is displayed. As silenteagle said, when the time updates, you know the GPS is working.
Have you all had any luck with driving your mount using SkySafari from your tablet? I seem to have trouble maintaining a connection. Worked through all the other issues discussed in this topic. Plan to actually take the mount outside with a scope tonight and run things from the hand controller. Happy thanks giving!
JMD
Have you tried what I suggest a few posts ago? It is OK, but I wouldn’t want to rely on it at an outreach.