**I know why Magellan never worked in Skysafari 5 - see next posting**
I have communication to my Magellan 2 hand controller by using telnet through my Skyfi 3 and Skysafari 6. Please see photos below. Once I used Skysafari to set the correct baud rate(300) and connected to the port through telnet I was able to directly type in the commands and get the responses expected. I have monitored the baud rate when executing the connect command through Skysafari and found that it was changing the baud rate to 9600(LX200 Classic) immediately after the connect button was clicked on. I monitored it by using the refresh button on my laptop to keep checking the 10.0.0.1/serial.html page while executing the connect command. If this baud rate problem can be corrected I am confidant that Skysafari will be able to communicate through Skyfi to the Magellan 2 and probably Magellan 1. The only other issue I see, which may not even be a problem, is that the documentation for the LX200 Classic shows the return data string may have a "+" character in the :GR# command which the Magellan does not have. Please help us resolve this issue. See below if anyone wants to verify their cables and equipment.
The photo below shows the correct cable configuration for the Magellan to Skyfi unit. Please note the RJ11 pin assignments used by Meade are not the same as a standard telephone RJ11 pinout. Some older manuals did not make this very clear. The cable pinouts on the Simulation Curriculum are also correct but this diagram is more easy to read and is specifically for the Magellan.
Telnet is not preloaded on your computer. You will need to search "telnet installation" to get the setup procedure for your Windows or Mac; Windows is simpler. You can also use PuTTY but you may still need telnet anyway, can't say for sure as I already had it loaded. On a Windows computer you can open Telnet by pressing the "Windows Key + R" to get a command prompt and then type telnet which will open a screen like the first photo. You then type "open 10.0.0.1 4030" and you will be connected directly to your Magellan. Hopefully by this point you will already have aligned your scope(must be done; see below), turned on the serial port on the Magellan and configured your Skyfi for 300 baud. You can configure your serial port from the Skysafari or your computer; don't forget to connect the WiFi to Skyfi. If all this has been done you should be able to start typing in commands like :GR# and it will respond with the data string as shown in the manual. Now all we have to do is hope they fix the baud rate problem.
If you don't know how to fake/bench-top align your telescope it is very simple. Set the telescope to a declination of 90 and start the alignment procedure; execute the pole alignment; choose your star #1 and then you will need to set your scopes declination to the same as the selected stars declination value and set it; choose the same star for #2 again without moving the scope and set it again and you should have a alignment of 100.
