I am having trouble with Celestron's Skyportal Wifi adapter and am thinking about getting the SkyBt Bluetooth adapter instead but am worried about the claim that it is not Compatible with New Celestron USB Hand Controllers (comes with the Starsense autoalign camera). I would connect it to Celestron's aux. splitter using my RS232-to-Serial Cable with the other port of the splitter connected to the Starsense camera. The hand controller would stay connected - but would not be used. Any experience with this setup or advise would be so much appreciated before I go ahead and buy the SkyBt adapter.
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Bill Tschumy I don't think this will work. The USB-to-RS232 adapters generally require drivers installed to make them work. You can't stick one between the SkyBT and the USB hand controller and expect it to work.
Although it is more expensive, the SkyFi 3 is really what you need here.
I'm not really understanding what you are trying to accomplish with the splitter. The SkyFi 3 would connect directly to the Celestron USB hand controller via a standard USB cable.
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Paulin Larochelle Amazing how quickly you responded Bill !!!
I have an old RS232 to serial adapter: I would plug the serial end into the SkyBT (it appears that that is how it connects) and the RS232 end into one of the two aux. splitter ports. I would use the second port of the splitter to plug the Starsense RS232 end. The splitter goes into the SE8 mount aux. input. (thus the splitter is to connect the SkyBt and the Starsense camera). I would not use the hand controller (it has a usb input) at all but it remains plugged into its port. My plan is to connect and align using your Skysafari 5 with the Starsense through your SkyBT. I hope this clarifies my situation. Your advice would, once again, be much appreciated.
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Paulin Larochelle Ha, just googled rs232 and it it not what I thought it was. I mean the 'phone like jack thing...' that plugs into the Celestron Aux. input... sorry!!!
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Paulin Larochelle So I have a cable that would plug into your SkyBT (serial) and the other end can plug into the Celestron input. (phone like jack thing).
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Paulin Larochelle Found a link showing the adapter I would like to use.
https://store.simulationcurriculum.com/products/telescope-serial-cable
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Bill Tschumy Paulin,
RS-232 is a serial protocol. It does not refer to the type of connectors but rather the type of communication sent over the wires. There are several connectors that are commonly used for serial communication. The DB-9 connector is what the SkyBT uses. On the other end of the serial cable is a often called an RJ-11 connector (although technically it is an RJ-14 or 6P4C connector).
When you say you have an RS-232 to serial adapter, that makes no sense to me Do you mean a serial cable with a DB-9 on one end and an RJ-14 on the other? Like the one we sell on our store.
Anyway, I don't understand what you are trying to accomplish. Why use a splitter to go from the SkyBT to the StarSense camera? The StarSense talks to the mount, not to SkySafari.
To my knowledge it is just not possible to use the SkyBT with the new Celestron USB hand controllers. As I mentioned above, some people try putting a USB-to-RS232 adapter between the hand controller and the SkyBT, but that won't work because the adapter needs drivers to function. You really need a SkyFi with a USB output to go into the hand controllers USB port.
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Paulin Larochelle Understood. Just to be on the safe side, I should purchase the SkyFi 3 as long as I would be able to use Skysafari 5 Plus on Android to autoalign my Starsense autoalign camera on my SE8 without the major problems that my Skyportal Wifi adapter presented. You are confident it will work flawlessly before I spend so much money (I am in Canada and the exchange etc. is painful)?
Thanks again for your time and advise Bill.
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Bill Tschumy When you connect through the hand controller, you first do your alignment exactly as you would without SkySafari. You can do this with StarSense or just by doing a 3 star alignment. After you have aligned, you connect using SkySafari (via the SkyFi 3). Then you can control the mount either through SkySafari or from the hand controller. This latter point is a big benefit of using SkyFi 3 (in my opinion). With Celestron Wi-Fi you *have* to use the app for everything. With SkyFi 3 you can use either the HC or the app as desired.
I have found the SkyFi 3 connection much more stable than the Celestron Wi-Fi one. I don't know the reason for that, but disconnects should be very rare and if you do happen to get a disconnect you can just reconnect and nothing will be lost. That is because all the alignment info is being stored in the hand controller, not the app.
If you are not happy with the SkyFi 3, we will give you a full refund, so there is little risk.
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Paulin Larochelle That is perfect - exactly what I would like to do!!! I will certainly be buying your SkyFi 3 in the very near future. Thanks so much. :)
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Paulin Larochelle Bill, since I have many Apple products (with lightning connection), I was playing with the idea of getting the Skywire Lightning and not fuss with wifi anymore. I would buy Skysafari for Apple but am wondering if this unit can plug into the Starsense hand controller (usb). This would also save me a few dollars... Thanks again for your time.
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Bill Tschumy Nope, that doesn't work. SkyWire is RS-232 serial only. Sorry.
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