Hello,
I'm hoping could post what the default settings are for the 10 pin jumper block on the SkyBT. These are the jumpers inside the battery compartment.
Thanks.
Date
Votes
9 comments
-
Woody Steven,
I wish I could post or embed a photo because this is going to be hard to describe in just words.
Since I don't see any numbers, first I'm going to orient the device so we're hopefully seeing and describing the same thing.
I'm holding my SkyBT so the two batteries are at the bottom. The DB-9 serial connector is up at the top.
Going from left to right, the jumpers are as follows:
#1 Jumpered
#2 Jumpered
#3 The jumper is connected between the lower connection and middle connection. The top connection is empty.
#4 EMPTY -- no jumper
#5 Jumpered
I sure hope that makes sense. I see that there might be a way to insert an image. After submitting this message, I'll experiment with inserting an image.
Woody
-
Woody Steven,
Trying to insert image of SkyBT jumpers.
-
Steven Marty Thanks...I was hoping you'd reply. :)
I'm not sure what's going on. That's how my jumpers are set and now my original SkyBT won't allow telescope control on either telescope of mine. SkySafari Pro can connect to the adapter but it tells me the telescope is not responding. I just used it a couple of weeks ago.
My replacement RN-270F comes tomorrow so we'll see what that brings.
-
Woody Steven,
So now your SkyBT isn't working either? Oh dear. On the other hand, maybe this is a clue of some kind and will direct you or somebody to the actual problem.
I'll repeat myself. You have checked your SkySafari settings and it's set to Bluetooth and not WiFi? And it's set to the SkyBT Firefly and not the "new" RN-270 Firefly? As I've said before, I have one of each. And each one has a unique (or at least very different) Firefly number which you have set SkySafari to connect to. If/when I switch between the SkyBT and my RN-270, I have to go into SkySafari and change the Firefly device it needs to connect to. And if I forget -- it never connects until I make that setting change.
Since your original SkyBT isn't working now, I'm thinking more and more that this is somehow an operator/setting error and not hardware failure. And if so, the new RN-270 won't work any better than the first one -- until the real problem is discovered and corrected.
How about your phone? Have the Bluetooth settings in it been changed? Once again, you'll have two different Bluetooth Firefly devices in it -- and you have to connect to the current one.
For example. With my SkyBT and RN-270, my phone is paired to both -- and in my phone's Bluethooth connections I have FireFlyBP-07F3 (my SkyBT device) and FireFlyBP-2560 (my old RN-270 device). I have to make sure the phone connects to the correct one -- or SkySafari can't connect.
-
Woody Steven,
OOPS! There are two places you have to set which Firefly device you're using. One is in the phone, the other is in SkySafari. They both have to match -- and be correct for the Firefly device you're using. Each one has a unique number. And both the phone and SkySafari know the difference. So when you switch Bluetooth devices, you need to make sure the phone is connecting to the proper Firefly device first. Then you have to check and make sure SkySafari is connecting to the very same device.
I think I've unintentionally confused you. So I'm going to start over. When you only had one Firefly device (your original SkyBT) this was much easier as you only had one Bluetooth device. So it was easy to connect it to your phone and then to SkySafari. But now you have two -- and they almost have the same names -- and you not only have to pick which one you're using when you connect it to your phone, but also in SkySafari. And if either one is wrong, nothing works. Both your phone and SkySafari have to be connected to the proper Firefly device.
In my phone I'm paired to both devices. And both of them show up in my phone's Bluetooth paired devices screen. Both say Firefly, but the numbers after that are different.
SkySafari also needs to connect to this same Bluetooth device -- not the other one. So after connecting your phone to the proper device (let's say your original SkyBT for now), you have to go into SkySafari's scope settings and make sure it is connecting to the SAME Bluetooth device. My SkySafari seems to remember the last one I used -- and that's the one it tries to connect to again -- unless I change it. And this is where I suspect you're going wrong. After trying to get your new RN-270 working, your SkySafari is remembering that Firefly number -- and not the old SkyBT number. So you have to change it back.
When you go into SkySafari SETTINGS, and then scroll down to Scope Setup, look at your Communications Settings. You should have two, Connect via Bluetooth and Connect via WiFi. You want to select the top one -- Connect via Bluetooth. So tap that and the radio button should turn blue. AND it should tell you which Bluetooth device it's connecting to. For example, mine is currently showing (FireFlyBP-07F3), which is my SkyBT device. If this number doesn't match the device you're currently trying to use (and the one your phone is now connected to), then you need to tap this field -- which displays all your phone's paired Bluetooth devices. And then you go down that list until you find the correct Firefly device and tap its number.
As I mentioned earlier, when you only have one of these things, it's simple. You can't get confused. But when you have two of them, you have to change settings in two different places -- first your phone, then SkySafari.
I have two setups that have StarSense and use these Bluetooth devices to connect to SkySafari. And even though I use these setups at least a couple of times a month, I always forget to change at least one of these settings as I use the same phone -- but different Firefly devices. And I kick myself every time.
So lets start all over..
1) Turn Bluetooth ON in your phone.
2) Turn the SkyBT device ON.
3) In your phone, tap the Firefly device you think is the SkyBT. Or maybe if you're not sure, delete all your Firefly devices and start over and re-pair. I believe the pairing code for FireFlies is 1234. Your next RN-270 replacement will have a new number anyway, so might as well delete them all now and start over clean.
4) In SkySafari's SETTINGS, check Scope Setup and make sure SkySafari is set to the same Firefly device as the phone. If it's not, tap that field and find and select your Firefly device (SkyBT). The radio button next to Connect via Bluetooth should now be blue, and under this it should list the correct Firefly number you're currently using.
5) Check the SkyBT. Is the green link light flashing fast or slow? Depending on how long you've taken, it might have timed out and gone into standby mode and the green light has slowed down. Then it's almost impossible to connect. If it's still flashing fast, try to CONNECT in SkySafari. If the green light is flashing slowly, turn the SkyBT OFF, wait a couple of seconds, then turn it back on. The green light should be flashing quickly now. Tap the CONNECT button in SkySafari. It "should" connect. Sometimes I have to tap the CONNECT button a couple of times before it connects.
I think this should work.
When the new RN-270 arrives, pair it, and then remember that when you connect to it, you have to tell the phone to connect to it and not the other Firefly in the list -- which is your SkyBT. AND, once you've done that, you have to go into SkySafari's settings and change that Bluetooth setting to connect to the new RN-270 also.
YEEHAW. Are we having fun yet?
Woody
-
Woody Steven,
I'm amused and ashamed to say that I just got caught by the same problem -- after telling you how to solve it. I switched the settings in SkySafari from my SkyBT to the RN-270. But I forgot to switch them in my phone. So of course SkySafari never connected.
Last weekend I used my phone to control my mobile observatory which uses a SkyBt. Everything worked fine. This evening I did an outreach event using my much smaller setup which uses my RN-270 -- and the very same phone. And as I said above, I forgot to switch the phone's Bluetooth setting to the RN-270's Firefly number. So the phone never connected. After three tries and going through the settings in SkySafari I gave up and used the SS HC.
I didn't "get it" until I got home. I did a hand to forehead slap, checked my phone and sure enough -- it was still set for the SkyBT's Firefly number. I changed it, fired up the mount and SkySafari -- and it connected the first time.
What can I say? I'm blaming it on another Senior Moment.
-
Steven Marty OK, things are pretty much resolved. I had a couple of things going on...
1. In the course of getting back into the hobby, I had ordered two brand new Meade #505 cable sets. The cable has a six pin connector on one end (that goes into the DB9) and a four pin connector on the other end (that goes into the hand controller). Come to find out, the four pin connector on BOTH of the new cables was not properly crimped. The four gold connectors were not pushed down far enough into the plug to pierce the insulation of the wires. This resulted in two issues...
a. The cables were bad out of the box and would not work with either of my telescopes - unknown to me at the time.
b. Since the gold connectors were slightly proud of the plug, when I plugged one of the cables into the hand controller on telescope #1, it bent the pins in the jack - also unknown to me at the time it happened.So, until I discovered the issue with the hand controller, nothing was going to work on telescope #1 - even going back to my original cable and SkyBT. Unfortunately, this was the more accessible telescope of mine and the one I was primarily using for all of my testing and troubleshooting.
Once I discovered the two bad cables (thanks to the continuity test on my multimeter), I removed them from the equation. I went back to my original, working cable that I used a few weeks ago and turned my focus to the hand controller. Using some dental picks, I was able to pull the pins back and get them realigned.
So now with a working cable and a good hand controller jack, I decided to just try simple Autostar commands via the serial connection before reintroducing my original SkyBT. I used a program called Tera Term on my laptop and was able to communicate bidirectionally with the Autostar via the serial connection. PROGRESS!
Now I reintroduced my original SkyBT. No joy. I could connect to the SkyBT module but SkySafari would report that the telescope is not responding. Knowing now that the serial connection to the hand controller is good because I just verified it with my laptop, something is wrong with the SkyBT sending commands to the telescope. I turned on logging and after reviewing the log file, it was sending the commands but getting invalid responses. I decided to plug the SkyBT back into the serial connection on my laptop and check the settings on the SkyBT itself. What jumped out at me was the baud rate was set to 115200. From all of the other testing and reading I did, I knew the Autostar needed to be 9600,8,N,1. The confusing part here is that the command line interface for the SkyBT works just fine at 115200 - the Autostar is what can't handle it. So I set the baud rate to 9600, disconnected it from my laptop and plugged it into the hand controller, and tried to connect with SkySafari. BAM! IT CONNECTED! OMG, that was a moment of joy.
Sooooo...as I mentioned initially, I had a couple of things going on...
1. Two of the three cables I was using were bad.
2. The bad cable bent the pins in one of my hand controllers.
3. My "known good" SkyBT got its baud rate reset to 115200 - probably from a factory reset I did when troubleshooting the bad RN-270 I got.Oh, and speaking of the bad RN-270...as you may recall, the first one I received would only stay powered on for about 10 seconds and then would power itself off. I received the second one and believe it or not, the power button on that one does not work at all. No movement or feedback when you press it. I took a small jumper wire and shorted the two legs on the non-functioning switch and the second RN-270 would power on and stay on (as my original SkyBT does) so the board appears good but the power switch doesn't work. UGH!
I ended up returning both and will revisit getting a second/backup SkyBT at a later date...maybe. I'm kind of over it right now.
Woody, thanks again for your help and input along the way.
-Steve
-
Woody Steve,
Wow, you must have super bad quality-control JuJu. Two bad cables and two bad RN-270 adapters. I've been quite lucky with quality control lately -- perhaps at your expense.
Glad you're back in business.
Now have some fun.
Woody
-
Steven Marty Yeah, no kidding. The Amazon reviews for the cables are littered with quality control complaints so in hindsight, that's not really a shock to me. However, I'm pretty surprised about the two bad RN-270 adapters. Sure wish Simulation Curriculum would sell them directly again (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). :)
Please sign in to leave a comment.