How To Connect A Celestron Mount With CPWI and N.I.N.A
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- Using your Celestron mount with CPWI and N.I.N.A
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I see that most comments were made one year ago. The Astronomy Club I belong to has an older C-8 SCT mounted to an older Celestron Advanced GT mount which uses an older hand controller; NexStar+ (HC: GEM 5.31.9200 & MC: 15.20. 5.20). The telescope is in a Dome and on a permanent mount. It is polar aligned also. Due to the age of the mount and hand controller, we have found that CPWI version 2.4.2 works. Connection to CPWI is done by selecting the hand controller option. The mount does not have a USB type port, so you have to use the mini-USB on the hand controller. Guide scope is using a USB type connection not the ST4 connection. .
Now, I have tried star alignment before with either; the hand controller’s two star or CPWI’s star alignment. I have found, due to the limited sky we have at the observing field, that using the hand controller’s two star is much easier than CPWI’s. Many times, the lower stars are obscured by the trees, and we have to get stars high in the sky. Sure, wish CPWI would allow a custom horizon file to be used in it like other planetarium software allows.
After an issue with two shutdowns last night, I decided to start over. After connection to ASCOM and CPWI, not doing a star alignment and in the parked position (which is facing North and the GEM set on its index marks), I just used NINA to slew to an object I chose. NINA slew the telescope and plate solved on the object. Maybe this only works when you have a permanent mount system. Sure, beats being a contortionist, at my age, to find a star in the red dot almost straight up for star alignment. NINA tracked and photography from there.
Some things I did notice. NINA will not park the telescope using this method. CPWI will park the telescope, but I have not figured out how to change CPWI’s home position to face North and leave the telescope at the index marks. CPWI may have issues with parking anyway, if I did not use it for star alignment. Most times I just close all programs, shut down and manually move the telescope back to the index markings.
I’m going to pin this comment in hopes it can also assist those with this mount. Thank you for your detailed insight and explanation.
Just got a Nexstar 6 for my grab & go after having my APO setup running & working in N.I.N.A nightly. Want to get this up & running so this video is so timely I can't tell you! Thanks very much , mate!
Thanks Steve! I was initially frustrated with this, but your video cleared up the procedure and I'm loving not having to use the HC!
Your very welcome, glad to be of some assistance.
dude!!!!! thank you so much for this video !!! you made my day! I finally got my CGX mount to work with NINA, for some reason though i can only operate it through the hand controller and not through the usb on the mount but I will do some research and find out. but thanks again!
Your very welcome, glad to have helped.
Thank you
Nice video, I was interested in the section where you said you got drop outs when using the CPWI ascom driver in NINA. I’ve never experienced this. But I will bookmark this just in case it does start happening
What do you use for your web cam? Very clear video.
In this video I think I used my Nikon Z30
Thanks Steve. I had the same issue you had when using the Celestron driver and NINA. Now I am setting up as you mentioned in the video, and my tracking issues are solved. However, when connecting with this method I can't seem to get the 3 point polar alignment to work in NINA, when it did work before. I've worked around this by aligning the scope with the Celestron native drivers, then disconnecting and reconnecting with CPWI. I don't know why the two don't seem to play well together.
I’m glad you found this helpful. If your referring to the NINA polar alignment plug-in I too have recently had some issues with that since updating to the latest version of CPWI and NINA. However my imaging sessions don’t drop out so that’s the main thing.
Thanks for the movie Steven. I have an AVX mount, SkySync GPS device and StarSense hand controller and camera. CPWI is installed on my laptop. Can you tell me where to find the proper version / drivers that I would need. I didn't see it one for AVX mount on the ASCOM site. I don't have the SkyPortal wi-fi but I have SkyPortal app installed on my iPhone. I've just been using StarSense hand controller to do my alignments at this point, so CPWI / laptop or working from my iPhone is next level for me. Any suggestions on how to get up and running and which device/method would you recommend? (iPhone/SkyPortal or laptop/CPWI)
Hi Steve I’m from Adelaide also! Great videos
I just started using cpwi via usb serial cable to my evo 9.25 (for more secure connection)
My question - because I don’t have gps or internet at dark sites, I have to enter my coordinates manually through cpwi,
I’m struggling with this because cpwi displays coordinates in a “00:00:00” style format however they are displayed on my phone as “34.0006° S” format
when I go to type this in cpwi, it resets and only displays the “00:00:00” format which naturally throws off my location by miles.
How am I meant to convert my google map coordinates into this specific style “00:00:00” format correctly into cpwi? What am I doing wrong
Hi Steven ,great video and easy to follow ,but in none of the videos i've seen on this subject doesn't say if this is a one time setup or if we have to do this every time we setup this mount,thanks again ,Clear Skies
Once I set mine up this way it retained the settings. It becomes part of your profile in NINA.
That’s all well and good, but how do you connect a laptop to the mount by USB? I have the standard go-to mount that comes with my Evolution. (I have yet to find any names describing Celestron mounts!). I’ve been told that the USB port on the mount can’t connect to my computer because both ports are female. What cable can connect other than the cable running thru the handheld controller? I don’t like that because I must then have the handheld in place snd it has repeatedly been caught in the wedge requiring me to fix the damaged wire.
Hi again m8, I'm retwatching your vidoes now as I am about to undertake my CGXL / RASA journey! I have been lucky enough to acquire a CGXL along with an 11" V2 RASA. I know you have 8s but I reckon I can learn a lot from your journey, so thanks for sharing it with us here.
I'd like to try and get CPWI & NINA playing nicely together and I'll use the set up you did on the ASCOM hub and see what happenes. Have you tried using Stellarium in conjunction with CPWI & NINA? If so, any issues? I ask because I like Stellarium and would like to try and keep using it. Have you used any other software with CPWI, such as APT? Or just NINA so far?
Cheers m8, clear skies!!
Your very welcome 😊 I hope my journey can also help others and we can all make each other’s life easier.
I haven’t used CPWI with Stellarium as they are both essentially planetarium based software… stellarium is visually nicer though.
For me CPWI just assists NINA with where things should be pointing and I select my targets through NINA.
I haven’t really used anything else other than the software you see me use because it’s cost effective and works really well.
Hope this helps 😊
Still running this way Steve? I picked up an avx for a small second rig so I should be running it tomorrow night. Thanks as always
Yeah mate still running my system like that. Love those AVX mounts!
This video would have been more useful for new telescope users if you had included a better explanation of the HW hookup. Can’t have one without the other.
Good to see how this works Steve. One day I'll upgrade my Heq5pro for something with a higher payload and the CGX sits in a spot between the Neq6 and Eq8 so it's good to see how the nuances of connection work. It looks like a solid mount, I heard there were some issues on early models which have been ironed out now. Are you generally happy with its performance?
Cheers and clear skies.
Ollie
Hey Ollie,
The CGX fits right between those mounts and still portable, I love my CGXL and I haven’t pushed my mount yet in terms of performance as I’m still getting used to these new software changes besides that the mount is a solid performer I believed but like every mass produced item there will always be some flaws, it’s just what your willing to accept. The skywatcher mounts are quieter than the Celestron mounts though.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Very true thanks Steve.
Anytime mate
I have a Celestron CG5 Advanced GT but I cannot connect to N.I.N.A. also with CPWI installed on my Windows Computer. Do you have any tip or suggestion for it? Thanks in advance
I have always done all my connections direct to CPWI, so 2 or 3 connections, maybe explain some of the lockups I've seen in CPWI. One issue I have had with both the CGX and the CGX-L is they don't do as they're told, like track and stop tracking, I have always left the handset connected, so wonder if they are both fighting with each other. Also, seen alignment being lost, mount doesn't know where it is pointing the next session. Doing the quick align (home switch only) and it's many 10's of degrees out. Never had this when I first got the CGX, so don't know what's changed to cause this, but see it with both mounts.
I’ve never seen any lockup’s in CPWI but doing things this way has fixed my mount disconnect issues.
Only time I’ve had an alignment issues is after an imaging session then it goes to park through NINA and that causes the alignment to be a little lost.
Hi Steven
Thanks very much for this very helpful video. I have too have been getting multiple disconnects with my telescope, a CPC1100, when connected to CPWI. I'll try the hub configuration and see what happens.
Were you getting the disconnects when connceted to CPWI & NINA or did you get any when connected to CPWI only? Cheers
Hi Mate,
I never had an disconnect issues when connecting to CPWI only, I only had disconnect issues when using NINA and CPWI together, as soon as I connected via the hub it was ok.
I hope this helps.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Ok thanks. Clear Skies to you.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Btw, my wife watched your video with me, the one where you first get your CGXL mount and you comment about 'the legs'. She reckons you're not not a leg man but something else with how you have your twin RASAs set up!!! hahahaha Cheers m8
Ha ha ha twins Bazel….. twins. ( referring to the movie Austin Powers) lol
Can you connect an Ethernet to usb, will that work? I have a cgx and want to run everything through Ethernet wire to router that way I’ll have fast speeds or do i have to run a long usb cable, the Wi-Fi connection on the dongle are so slow.
I do agree that wifi connections can feel a bit slow, I’m really not sure if that can be done. Hopefully someone else reading these comments can chime in. I would also be very careful with Celestron electronics as I have blown mounts in the past trying stuff.
When I choose cpwi in nina program , nina program would say that if you like to connect cpwi to telescope or nina to telescope since the coordinates are no the same. Do you know which one that I would choose? Thank you
If you have placed your location details into CPWI then I would go CPWI to telescope. It means your telling NINA to take your location details from CPWI.
I have AVX mount. I use CPWI, but I connect via hand controller and use manual alignment with 4-5 stars. This improve guiding.
Problem is NINA doesn’t understand what is Park for AVX. I don’t know it either. How do you set Park in CPWI?
Thanks
That’s interesting you mention you get better guiding when you do a 4-5 Star alignment. Do you use 3 point opal alignment in NINA?
I’ve never done the 4-5 star alignment and have no issues with guiding.
Star alignment is mostly used for a pointing model.
Regarding the park function I can’t really say as I only use home position and at the end of the imaging sequence I go to home and disable tracking. In the advanced sequencer.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Polar alignment in Sharpcap. Best approach from all tried one.,Yes, it tracks and guides well better.
I am new to NINA. Could you elaborate? It is in home position. When I start NINA, it should slew to target and center. It doesn’t. When I run short mock sequence, it should go home. It doesn’t. Please tell step by step what do you do?
Have you set up the plate solving in NINA? Using ASTAP as the plate solver. It requires you to download some additional software to set it up.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Yes, I did. I use ASTAP for NINA and SharpCap. What additional software? You need just database H18.
So, I can chose slew to target and center in NINA. No problem. It is all about parking. How do you tell parking position for AVX?
@@StevenMorrisPhotography I understand that Park position should be set in sequencing software, for example people do it with SGP. When you finish sequencing, your Celestron parks. Right? How do you tell parking position for Celestron mount in NINA?
Hey Steven I connected my CPWI up the way you show in the video and it now looses single. Would you happen to have any idea what's going on?
It looses signal? Not sure why to be honest.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography I believe that it drop from the battery being low because shortly after the single dropped the battery died. And once I charged it back up it worked just fine. I have one of those Celestron lithium batteries and I was using the the wrong output port to run my mount and it was disconnecting. I have another issue that I wonder if you could help me with? I can't see anything out of my guide camera whenI connect it to sharpcap. I don't know if it's a software issue or hardware. Do you own anything about this. Just so that you know I'm new to this hobby. So please forgive my ignorance.
No that’s completely fine, I haven’t had a lot to do with sharp cap so I’m not sure. If your connecting your guide camera up through sharp cap to test, you may not be seeing anything if you back focus and focus isn’t correct.
Another option is to take the cap off the camera and in a room with the light on your cameras image should be white. If that’s the case then your camera is working and it could be a focus issue. If your cameras image is black under a lit room then I would say there is something not working with the camera
@@StevenMorrisPhotography I solved it thanks for your time and support my man. I will be hitting you up in the future if it's no problem. And just fyi I didn't have the camera in focus
Your very welcome my friend, anytime I can try to assist I will…. I’m far from knowing everything but I’ll try.
But what about WIFI?