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SkySafari 6 Can't Connect To Meade LX90 ACF

I have a brand new Meade LX90 ACF 8" with Meade Stella WiFi module and 505 cable set. I have tried without any success to get SkySafari working with the telescope. I've browsed this forum and found lots of trouble with connecting to a Meade LX90 in the past, but no definitive solutions.

- The WiFi is working fine, I can connect to the web page at 10.0.0.1
- SkySafari reports that it can connect to the WiFi but that the telescope isn't responding
- The telescope was aligned properly before turning on the SkyFi
- I have tried SkySafari Pro from iOS, and SkySafari Plus from Mac with same results
- Cables are connected correctly (RJ11 end to controller, RJ10 to DB9 to Stella module)
- Have tried various "fixes" I found here such as restarting the app with no luck

Here's the log file I got from SkySafari on the Mac:

Sent ASCII at 2020/06/10 16:57:46 with error 0:
:GR#
Received ASCII at 2020/06/10 16:57:49 with error -13:
Sent ASCII at 2020/06/10 16:57:49 with error 0:
:Sw4#
Received ASCII at 2020/06/10 16:57:52 with error -13:
Sent ASCII at 2020/06/10 16:57:52 with error 0:
:GD#
Received ASCII at 2020/06/10 16:57:55 with error -13:

6 comments

  • 0
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    Brian

    I think that is a timeout while waiting for a response.  

    I had similar problems with my new-ish LX90ACF and it was due to the meade handbox randomly not responding to requests.

    I had skysafari completely out of the loop using a program I wrote to send serial commands over a hardwired connection (I'm a software dev by trade).

    Most of the time it responded to get requests for RA position (etc) but sometimes it just ignored it. It seemed to happen most frequently on the 1st request after a somewhat long period of no commands being sent.... but couldn't find a definite pattern. 

    It would be a nice feature if SkySafari would retry a command a certain user defined times before giving up. 

    I have a thread on it here, I ultimately had to throw in the towel.  

     

     

     

  • 0
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    Ben Davenport

    Any recommendations for a way to communicate via the SkyFi using a terminal on a Mac (or some other software)? I don't have a Windows PC at the moment. I tried doing a telnet to port 4030, and would occasionally be able to connect, but trying to speak the Meade protocol didn't result in any responses coming back.

  • 0
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    Ben Davenport

    Alternately, are there older models of AutoStar controller other than the 497 which are known to work with the LX90 ACF, and which are possibly more reliable in talking to a SkyFi?

  • 0
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    Brian

    I used Putty for just messing around sending commands over serial. I wrote some testing software that would constantly send commands and see how many would fail to respond. 

     

    You *may* have some settings on the wi-fi module that you can configure the timeout. This helped me with my wi-fi-serial converter to never working (timeouts as you see) to sometimes working. If I remember, it seemed like if it failed to respond to skysafari - it thru up an error and quit trying.... but I don't remember exactly - so that may not be true. 

    I tried desperately to get it to work since I paid for the app but never could. 

     

     

     

     

  • 0
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    Ben Davenport

    Has anyone who had problems getting this to work with SkySafari tried using Starry Night Pro, and gotten that to work?

  • 0
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    Brian

    For what it's worth,  I use Stellarium. That seems to work well for me. 

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