From: "doobisary" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: August 25, 2009 6:56:30 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Autoguiding Gotonova USB?

Milton:

Okay, Steve Forbes (who I bought the kit from) says that iOptron will be coming out with an upgraded HC that'll include a guide port early next year, and that I can upgrade my HC at that time (for a price).  Since I have other mounts, I think I'll wait for autoguiding on the gotonova/Super Polaris.  ...or use the AO-7 and the SBIG camera when imaging on it.  

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

Hi Tim;

I'd want to have one of those units here for testing and need the  

company that makes it give me all the information on how to talk to  

it (including command codes).

And I have strong reservations that it will be any good for guiding,  

especially if it's really just a USB to Serial converter (from an  

engineering standpoint,. that's really silly to limit yourself to  

serial port speeds). Serial devices tend to have really poor response  

times as they are running at top speeds of 9600 baud or slower.

If they require a long command sequence or are forcing you to read /  

write request over it, you get pretty horrific delays.

Most serial protocols  also can not handle multiple command requests  

at the same time either, whereas using a GPUSB (which is just a  

glorified switch box) with an ST4 port works just fine.

Milton Aupperle

On 25-Aug-09, at 11:55 AM, doobisary wrote:

Milton:

I recently added an iOptron Gotonova goto upgrade kit to my Vixen  

Super Polaris mount (http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ 

showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2459781/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/ 

fpart/all/vc/1).

The goto is great!  I love the iOptron HC, as it has a multi-line  

display that doesn't require the user to wait for text to scroll  

across a small screen.

The HC has a USB port on it, that according to the folks at  

Carinasoft is essentially a serial-USB converter inside the HC  

internal electronics (since fewer PC laptops are being made these  

days with serial ports, this makes sense).  Folks tell me that the  

gotonova can't be autoguided, but I wonder if that's necessarily  

true (or if it is, if it's something that can be "corrected" if  

they become really popular for astrophotographers)?

TIA,

-Tim.