Bill, we all struggle finding the up down and left right buttons on flat screens. I've made a template which fits over my screen which gives a positive location but seeing that you are considering improvements It seems to me that if the movement buttons were healthy thumb sized on an iPad and one at each at the four corners of the screen and everything else was arranged in the middle at the bottom below the horizon then it would always be possible to find the movement controllers (which are a most important function in the dark) without the need to look down. Can this be incorporated in any new version? Jeff.
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Bill Tschumy We have tried many different arrangements of the buttons. I don't see how having the buttons at the four corners would help (plus it would wreak havoc with the rest of the layout). There is not tactile feel to help you recognize the edge of the screen so how will having them in the corners help?
We decided on the current layout because you can position your hands once and reach all 4 buttons. I find it not too hard to develop a muscle memory for where they are then.
That said, I understand your difficulties. When I get a chance, I might play with some other schemes. I actually wanted to have a button on the scope control panel that would bring up a mode that made your whole screen a touch pad for mount slewing.depending on what quadrant you were pressing on, the scope would go in that direction. That idea was nixed by others.
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Jeffsharpe2015 Thanks for quick response....I am using an iPad with a leather cover which only shows the screen area so the corners are very tactile and easily found. Not so easy on my phone as you correctly say there is no screen corner definition. The concept of a button to set the whole screen in control mode would obviously be a great addition. My corners idea might be easier but only you know what issues are involved. I guess most people use the iPad and have a cover for outside use as it's easier to see the data so my option would probably work well for most people. I still think the iPhone users would find the corners and the top and bottom edges a useful guide because they could slide along until they made contact and would obviously know that they were no where near the opposite direction button which often and annoyingly seems to get first pick.....Enough said just thought it might be a helpful idea. Have a good day. Jeff
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Mario Wolczko Some time ago there was discussion about using the Watch app for scope control. Did that get implemented? Is it on the to-do list?
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Bill Tschumy Mario,
No, I don't think we ever decided to do that. To be honest I don't recall that discussion. I'm not sure how sing the watch will fundamentally solve the problem.
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Mario Wolczko It seems to me that the much smaller screen could be given over to just the 4 motion buttons, and being on the wrist it would always be "at hand" (!) -- whereas I find that reaching for the iPad when at the eyepiece can sometimes be inconvenient (depending on scope and eyepiece position), and as Jeff says, finding and staying on the buttons without actually looking at the screen can be a challenge.
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Jamie Bill, re " I actually wanted to have a button on the scope control panel that would bring up a mode that made your whole screen a touch pad for mount slewing.depending on what quadrant you were pressing on, the scope would go in that direction. That idea was nixed by others. " I think that would be a great idea if possible and would welcome regs Jamie
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Christopher Mortimer i ordered some steel series gaming buttons for touchscreens, ill let you all know how it works for telescope control....would be cool to even have a bluetooth device that has telescope control buttons. possibly a custom cell phone case or ipad case for use with these added technologies .
using the telescope control arrows in the dark while looking through the eyepiece is the only frustrating part of skysafari for me.
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Keiron Smith Hi Christopher,
Please link us to the steel series gaming buttons you ordered - and very much looking forward to your review. We recently discussed bluetooth joystick control for SkySafari (no promises at this time). Your feedback will be very helpful.
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Pepe Paco Tarifa Any further news on gamepad or Joystick support on new beta version?
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Bill Tschumy We are not currently planning on adding joystick or gamepad support. In SkySafari 6 we have a new "tilt to slew" feature where you tilt the iOS device itself to move the scope. We are going to see if that addresses the issues.
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Pepe Paco Tarifa That's a shame, I think a wireless gamepad would be more accurate for controlling small movements to centre objets in the dark. Tilting is a step forward, let's see how it works, it should have several sensitivity settings I hope.
Otherwise we will have to continue using the mount's wired hand controls to centre objets.
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Bill Tschumy Nothing is ever going to be as precise and responsive as the hand controller. There is always some latency involved when talking via SkySafari (even with a gamepad). Please give the "tile-to-slew" a chance. I spent a night using it without touching my hand controller, and I really didn't miss the HC.
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Pepe Paco Tarifa Thanks Bill,
I am looking forward to trying it (tilt to slew). I have been using a wireless gamepad with NEXREMOTE , it works very very well. Sadly NEXREMOTE support stopped years ago.
How soon will we be able to download the Beta?
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Bill Tschumy If you have been selected for beta testing, the iOS version should be available in a couple of days.
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Pepe Paco Tarifa Thank you, will you be sending me a registration or special download code?
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Jeffsharpe2015 This sounds worth a try especially if it works with the phone too. I’m not able to try it for the next two weeks but after that would be great. Good to hear of the development. Well done. Hopefully there is a sensitivity adjustment. It should be a great help.
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