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Cannot commuinicate to SkyFi 3 on my home network

I have been using the direct access for a while with my SkyFi 3 device without any issues. Last night I decided to connect it to my network and I got a message from my Xfinity XiFi application that a new device was found using the IP Address of 10.0.0.139. My Xfinity application shows that it's connect to the network and the SkyFi device performs a reboot and I am able to ping the address 10.0.0.139 from one of my PC's so the SkyFi 3 is on my network.

But when go to http://10.0.0.139, I am not able to connect using my browser to look at the SkyFi 3 settings. I did a scan on the forums and somebody else had this problem and he also posted it to Cloudy Nights working will Bill. He was using some kind of Apple Router and never was able to get it to work. My router is provided to me from Comcast.  I am also not able to get the SkyFi 3 device with my assigned IP address of 10.0.0.139 to work with the HW VSP3 Serial Port driver so I can use Starry Night or Sky Safari.

So I changed the wireless setting to go back to my original setting using the direct mode of 10.0.0.1 and the device re-boots and I can then connect again using my browser and Starry Night.

Any idea what is preventing me to access the device when it's on my home network? I noticed that the configuration screen is changed to my home network, it has 'client' on the configuration screen.

30 comments

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    Conrad Sanders

    Any updates ???

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill or Kieron,

    Can you please respond to my issue where I am trying Use my Home Network with SkyFi III?  I am able to connect to my home network using my internal WiFi on my Evo mount with the new CPWI application just fine.

     

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    Conrad Sanders

    I am still having issues with connecting my SkyFi III to my home network.

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    Conrad Sanders

    I should also mention that I finally got Sky Safari Pro to connect to my home network which just leaves the SkyFi III that won't connect to my home network.

    It only works in direct mode using 10.0.0.1 address.  I guess I should also be changing the address of COM2TCP to use 10.0.0.139 because it was setup to use 10.0.0.1 using port 4030?  Either way I can ping the address 10.0.0.139 but cannot connect to the device from my home network.

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    Conrad Sanders

    Opened  new case # 48475 because I have not had any response since Mid April.

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    Bill Tschumy

    Conrad,

    Sorry no one has gotten back to you.  I no longer follow all the forums and rely on the Simulation Curriculum support staff to tell me when there is something that needs attention.

    Are you pretty sure that the 10.0.0.139 device is SkyFi 3?  If so, all I can think of is that there is some file wall issue going on that is preventing the connection.

    I'm a bit confused by what you mean here: "I should also mention that I finally got Sky Safari Pro to connect to my home network which just leaves the SkyFi III that won't connect to my home network."

    Are you saying that SkySafari can talk to SkyFi when it has joined the home network?  If you join the home network from whatever device is running SkySafari and then tell SkySafari to "Detect SkyFi" (in the Scope Setup settings), does SkySafari find the device at 10.0.0.139?

     

     

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill,

    When I say I got Sky Safari Pro to work with my home network it's when I have the mount in 'Access Point' mode and I am using the internal WiFi on the Evolution Mount. I accomplish this by moving the switch on my Evolution Mount from 'Direct' to 'Access Point' mode so  my Ipad can join my home network instead of using the Celestron-XX internal WiFi  connection..  I then change Sky Safari Pro to use one of the Celestron Nexstar  choices on the Telescope Setup tab to connect.

    When I decide to no longer use the internal WiFi on my mount in 'Access Point' mode and use the external SkyFi 3 device instead for wireless connectivity, I am unable to communicate to the scope even though I see the SkyFi 3 device connect to my network.  Whether it's Sky Safari Pro or Starry Night Pro from a laptop the SkyFi won't communicate to the scope.

    Some people ask me why I have two ways of connecting wirelessly it's mostly because I wanted a wireless solution for my laptop and not so much the Ipad but I have tested various devices and the bottom line is I cannot get SkyFi 3 to communicate to my scope using my home network.  I would only find this convenient when I was in my backyard so I would still have internet access outside while controlling my scope.

    I do remember seeing that 'Detect SkyFi' setting somewhere in the Scope Setup on Sky Safari Pro but I looked today and I could not find it.

     

     

     

     

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    Bill Tschumy

    Conrad,

    Do you realize that when you are connecting to SkyFi 3 you need to change the scope type to "Celestron NextStar GPS/SLT/SE" (or one of the other NexStar types).  Only then will you see the "Auto-Detect SkyFi".  Presumably since you have gotten this to work where SkyFi is operating standalone, you know to make this change.

    What device are you running SkySafari on?  Presumably it is iOS or a Mac?

    Let's leave Starry Night out of the discussion for now and focus on connecting via SkySafari.

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill,

    I could not remember where I saw that but that sounds correct.  As yes you are correct I can get Sky Safari to work in 'Direct Mode' (standalone) with Sky Fi 3 on my telescope just not through my home network.

    I am running Sky Safari Pro on my Apple Ipad.

    I make all the changes using the 10.0.0.1 IP address for home network use in standby mode. Then the SkyFI 3 reboots and I see the IP address of 10.0.0.139 connect to my router and I can ping the IP address on my network but I cannot get Sky Safari Plus to communicate using my home network to the telescope.  I am also not able to use the http://10.0.0.139 address from my PC to go and look at the SkyFi  3 Menu Settings when I make this change.

    I believe that I also have to put the switch in the access mode position on my Evolution Mount after I make the changes to the SkyFi Menu to use my home network.

     

     

     

     

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    Bill Tschumy

    You shouldn't need to do anything on the evolution mount.  You are totally bypassing the Celestron Wi-Fi when you use SkySafari.

    So you still haven't told me if Auto-Detect finds your SkyFi at 10.0.0.139.

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill,

    I changed the SkyFi 3 to use my home network and the reboot occurred on my SkyFi 3 device and I checked my router and the IP Address was 10.0.0.139 like it was before.  I also noticed from my Comcast XFi Application that the device was connected to my home network and I was able to ping 10.0.0.139 from my PC and got a response so I knew the device was on my network..

    I then went over to Sky Safari Pro on my Apple Ipad and went into setup and changed the Scope Type to Celestron GPS/SLT/SE and noticed Auto-Detect SkyFi was checked (green) with the IP Address of the SkyFi 3 which is 10.0.0.139.  SkyFi Name was SkyFI and the Port Number was 4030 so everything looked good.

    I then went back to the Sky Safari Main screen and clicked 'Connect'  and I get a Connection Failure:

    SkySafari 6 Pro can't make a wireless network connection to the scope.  Make sure you've joined it's Wi-Fi network, and entered it's IP address correctly.

    So the status has not changed from when I first reported the issue.

    By the way none of this is documented anywhere including the SkyFi 3 Quick Start Guide and I found some documentation that you put out on Cloudy Nights  a few years ago with another user reporting the same issue.

    By the way,

    How do I get the SkyFI 3 device to go back the default of using the SkyFI Network using 10.0.0.1 so I can continue to use the device now that I have made this configuration change and now the device is unusable?

     

     

     

     

     

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    Bill Tschumy

    Well, that is somewhat good.  The app is able to find the device on the network properly.  But for some reason the app is unable to communicate with it.  I assume you get a blank screen when trying the "SkyFi Settings Web Page" item in the Scope Setup screen?

    All I can think of is that there is some firewall setting on your router that is  blocking this.  There is not much else I can do to help debug this without the router to play with.

    To get back to using a direct connection at 10.0.0.1 you have two choices:

    1. Temporarily shut down your router so SkyFi can't join it.  That should cause SkyFi to start up in standalone mode and you should be able to join its network and change the configuration. If you don't want to shut down the network, you can take the SkyFi out of range of the network and start it there.

    2. You can revert the SKyFi to factory default settings.  From the quick start guide:

    RESETTING SkyFi III TO THE FACTORY DEFAULTS
    1. Power on SkyFi III.
    2. Press and hold the center button for 5 seconds, then release. The data
    LED (4, Fig. 1) will begin to flash slowly. When SkyFi III has completed the
    reset it will flash quickly.
    3. Release the center button and SkyFi III will power down.
    4. SkyFi III has now been configured to its factory settings.

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill,  

    I replaced my Comcast Router with a different router for different reasons than to try and fix this problem so I thought I would try it again. I can see by the MAC address of the SkyFI 3 device and the device that was assigned an IP Address of 10.0.0.55 after checking my router.  Like before, I am able to ping the IP address from my PC so I know that the SkyFi 3 device is on my network and it's no longer on the SkyFi Internal Network.

    After I get the message Connection was Successful, Device is Rebooting (Sky Fi 3 device) and the SkyFi 3 is now longer connected to the SkyFI network.  I also try to go to 10.0.0.1 and I do not get a response so I would expect that since the SkyFi 3 device has joined my own network.

    But when I go to Sky Safari Pro on my Ipad I never see the 10.0.0.55 IP  Address when I have Auto-Detect SkyFi checked.  Instead of seeing the IP Address I get 'Not Found'.  I had intermittent problems before with the old router where I would see the IP Address and other times I would get 'Not Found'.

    The bottom line is I have never been able to get the SkyFi 3 device to talk to my own network and only seems to work on the dedicated SkyFi Network which is disappointing because I would prefer to use my own network when I am at home in my backyard.

    I believe I tested this earlier but if I use the built in Evolution WiFi and switch the switch to Access Point Mode which uses my own network, I am able to tell Sky Safari Pro to use the Celestron WiFI connection and I can use my own network.  So I am puzzled if I can get it to work just using the built in WiFi on the evolution mount, why won't the SkyFi 3 work?

     

     

     

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    Conrad Sanders

    I did another test without using the SkyFI 3 device.  I had done this in my prior tests but I wanted to check out my new router.

    I put the Evolution Mount in 'Access Mode' which tells the Evolution Internal WiFi to join my home network and it connected to Celestron's Sky Portal and Sky Safari Pro Apps both in access mode using my Ipad.

    So with this final test, I don't see how I could have a router issue when I can connect with another device.

    I think there is a bug in the SkyFi 3 device or in Sky Safari Pro when attempting to use a home network with this device.

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    Bill Tschumy

    With the new router and SkyFi 3 configured to join the network, what happens when out go to 10.0.0.55 (or whatever address the router assigns to the SkyFi 3) in a browser window?

    I'm just not sure what is going on.  We have lots of folks using this feature without issues.  What brand/version is the new router?  Also, do you know what firmware version you have in SkyFi 3 (you will probably have to go back to standalone mode to see this)?

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    Conrad Sanders

    Question : With the new router and SkyFi 3 configured to join the network, what happens when out go to 10.0.0.55 (or whatever address the router assigns to the SkyFi 3) in a browser window?

    Answer : That's the first thing I tried and I don't get a connection in my browser.  I suspect if I don't get some kind of screen, that it won't work with the SkyFI 3 either.  If this worked, what should I expect using the browser, the Sky Link 3 Menu like I would get using the 10.0.0.01 without using my home network?  I did find the MAC Address on the Sky Link 3 device and verified through my router that the IP Address is 10.0.0.55 on my network.

     

    Question: What brand/version is the new router?

    Answer: ARRIS Surfboard (24x8) DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem Plus AC1750 Dual Band Wi-Fi Router and Xfinity Telephone, 1 Gbps Max Speed, Certified for Comcast Xfinity Only (SVG2482AC)   

                                                                                                                         

    Question: Also, do you know what firmware version you have in SkyFi 3 (you will probably have to go back to standalone mode to see this)?

    Answer: I did look this up last night when in stand alone mode but I will have to check and get back to you.

     

    By the way for me to get the SkyFi 3 back into 'stand-alone' mode, I just power it off without needing to do a reset and I am back in stand-alone mode and I can successfully connect and control my scope that way but would like to have the option of using my own network.

    I am assuming when I use Sky Portal or Sky Safari Pro apps and I have the auto detect ski fyi checked that port 4030 is used?  I have attached am image in what I see on the telescope setup.

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    Bill Tschumy

    By the way for me to get the SkyFi 3 back into 'stand-alone' mode, I just power it off without needing to do a reset and I am back in stand-alone mode and I can successfully connect and control my scope that way but would like to have the option of using my own network.

    This seems suspect.  If you power off and on again, it should remember the previous settings and join the home network again.  The fact that this is not happening may be clue.  After power cycling does the configuration page still show it is configured to join the network?

    You should be on firmware 1.3.3 or 1.3.4 (looks like only 1.3.3 is on our website but I'll get that changed).

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill.

    I powered on my SkyFi 3 and did a few screen shots.  I did not reset the box and these should be the settings after it supposedly make the change to join my home network.  If this really worked, shouldn't I be able to do a http://10.0.0.55 from a browser and get the configuration screen?




     

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill,

     

    I also found this on your forum with other users have the same kind of problem back in 2017.

     

    Cheyenne Wills

    Hey Bill, I'm running into the same problem SkyFi 3  Firmware 1.3.

    Here are the symptoms (btw... I do systems programming... so I kind of know my way around network stuff..)

    Anyway.. the device is configured as wireless client, dhcp.  My router (ASUS) sees the signon and assigns the ip address (10.0.0.37) that I have given to MAC address.  I can ping the ip address from within my network just fine, however if I try to http to the address it just spins.

    What is interesting is that the SkyFi 3 is still presenting it's own access point.  I can connect to it and from there I can pull up the status screen from the http://10.0.0.1 address  The status screen shows that the device is configured as a wireless client and that it has the ip address that it got from my router.

    I believe that you are still in my neck of the woods.  (I work out on the Diagonal) if you want to try to meet up and I can give you my device to look at..

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    Bill Tschumy

    Were these screen shots taken after power cycling the SkyFi?  I'm trying to understand if the changes are persistent or not.  If they are not then that might be a hint as to what is happening.

    Yes, over the years we have had a few folks that have never been able to get this to work.  We don't know why.

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    Conrad Sanders

    Yes the screen shots were taken after the SkyFi 3 was cycled and I was able to see the 10.0.0.55 IP address on my router and I could ping it.  That would explain that it is really is lying to us because I did not have to do a hard reset to put it back to the factory default mode. Also the fact that if i type in http://10.0.0.1 and I still get the configuration screen and when I type in in http://10.0.0.55, I get nothing from my browser.

    So does this screen look correct to you?  I would say not.

    By the way I am a network guy during the day and I do understand networks very well so if the vendor needs any additional diagnostics for the SkyFi 3, I would be willing to provide them additional information like a Wireshark trace.

    I am wondering if I changed the default subnet in my network to 192.168.0.1 as my default gateway if that would fix the problem like it did for the guy back in 2017?  I would prefer not to do that  since I just got everything working on my new router.

     

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    Bill Tschumy

    OK, interesting.  The firmware behavior has changed a bit over the years so I just tried this again with my setup.

    I successfully was able to join my network and SkySafari detected the SkyFi at 10.0.1.141.  Even though SkyFi joined my network and I was able to see the config page at 10.0.1.141, the standalone SkyFi network was still active as well.  I could connect to the SkyFi network and talk to it at 10.0.0.1 just as if I was not also connected to the home network. (this is relatively new behavior I believe).

    I was *not* able to connect to SkyFi at 10.0.0.1 if I was not joined to the SkyFi network.  You seem to imply that while joined only to the home network you could still connect via 10.0.0.1.  Is that really correct?

    From what I can tell, all the screen shots you sent look correct.

     

     

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    Bill Tschumy

    I'm all glad to hear you are a network engineer.  That makes the possibility of a mistake much less likely.  I may have to turn you over to the person that wrote the firmware.  He is not part of Simulation Curriculum, but another company that builds the SkyFi 3 for us.  There would be a better meeting of the minds between you two.

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    Conrad Sanders

    Bill,

    I decided to do what the other network guy did back in 2017 when he encountered the same problem.  Since my router was fairly new, I decided to copy what he did which is I changed the default subnet IP Address range of my router from 10.0.0.1 to 192.168.0.1 and it worked.  You may want to check with the vendor why they have trouble dealing with the 10.0.0.1 subnet range.  I also tested Starry Night using the COM2TCP program and that also worked.

    So can you tell me what is best way to get the SkyFi 3 back the way it originally was set so when I don't have Internet access available at a remote site and I can use the Sky Fi 3 internal network instead of my network.  You would think they would have a switch on the box like Celestron does to flop back and forth.

     

     

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    Bill Tschumy

    Conrad,

    My router uses 10.0.0.X addresses and I have no problems joining my home network.  It is not just as simple as it not working with that range.  I'm glad you have it working but I will forward this thread to the firmware guy to see if he has any thoughts.

    The SkyFi 3 should still allow you to access its own network even when it can't connect with the home network.  You should still be seeing a "SkyFi" SSID to connect to.  If you do what to reset the SkyFi back to factory conditions.  I posted the instruction back on May 27, 2019 09:02 in this thread.  Here they are again:

    RESETTING SkyFi III TO THE FACTORY DEFAULTS


    1. Power on SkyFi III.
    2. Press and hold the center button for 5 seconds, then release. The data
    LED (4, Fig. 1) will begin to flash slowly. When SkyFi III has completed the
    reset it will flash quickly.
    3. Release the center button and SkyFi III will power down.
    4. SkyFi III has now been configured to its factory settings.

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    Bill Tschumy

    I've emailed with the firmware guy.  He is not sure but possibly there is a problem when the home router and the SkyFi both use the same IP address ranges.  Rather than you changing the range in your home router, he suggests you could probably just change the default IP of SkyFi when in standalone mode.  Rather than 10.0.0.1, try making it 10.0.1.1.

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    Pkarlstr

    Hi Bill & Conrad,

    Bill, you may remember our past dialogues over network problems with the SkyFi3 ...

    Conrad's description is quite like the problem I have with the skyfi 3, I can connect direct to it, but cannot use it as part of a home network, so it must be used only in AP mode so controlling devices then cannot use the WWW to look up data etc....  Problem exists on any combination of iPad & skyFi 3 or PC & skyFi 3... I have given up on the device, it doesn't do what I want it to, so it gets left in its box...

    I was hoping that this was all sorted by now and that new firmware would release the demons and make it work...  The world is well on the way to I.O.T. connectivity...

    I have also been a long time in IT & Networking industry...

    Regards

    Paul Karlstrand

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    Conrad Sanders

    To get around the problem, I decided the only way this was going to work on my home network was to change the default subnet range from 10.0.0.1 to 192.168.0.1.  But like you Paul, I hardly ever use the device because I bought it for wireless control and it hangs periodically with my laptop so I use a wired control to the bottom of the hand control.

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    Pkarlstr

    Unfortunately Conrad, it sounds like this product is basically "Un-supported" in terms of the firmware, as there has been no update since v1.3.4

     

     

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    Robert V Johnson

    Fast Forward over FOUR YEARS... Same firmware version: 1.3.4. I found this page in my quest to find out how to control the scope via SkyFi from my laptop in the house, while still retaining Internet access on my laptop. I'm already sad that I'll have to create a Virtual Serial Port in order to use my paid-for Starry Night Pro Plus 8 software to control my CGX-L over the SkyFi 3. But I've learned that using the COM2TCP software I might actually be able to use ANY ASCOM-based software, like N.I.N.A.. We shall see. I may just end up running a NUC on the mount, because even 2 old PCs somehow can communicate with each other natively over a network.

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