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Mount with Onstep Controller suddenly stopped working

Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 Equipment GoTo Troubleshooting
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Haakon Rasmussen avatar
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
I bought an old mount (Vixen Polaris) with Onstep Arduino Mega2650 controller. It has been working great, but yesterday i tried it with PHD2 with no success, and today it won't slew anymore. It tracks, but The GoTo function doesn't work anymore . I have been using it with APT. I have the distinct feeling that PHD2 somehow messed something up. It was only working with the old 1.50 Onstep driver. I hope someone can help me with this.

CS Haakon
John avatar
John avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
What version of OnStep were you using? Mega2650 is a pretty old OnStep controller but you should be able to control it via the web interface with the wifi server.
Well Written
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
It says 1.14. Yeah pretty old…
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Maybe you should upgrade it to 3.16. So old I can't remember whether it has a web interface. Try the following and see whther it recognizes it (through the ASCOM driver):

http://www.stellarjourney.com/index.php?r=site/software_sky
Astrojet avatar
Astrojet avatar
You should upgrade to 4.24, because 3.16 have lots of connection issues
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
You should upgrade to 4.24, because 3.16 have lots of connection issues

I have 2 OnStep with 3.16 and none of them have connection issues, at all. Besides, I don't think 4.24 would fit a Mega2650.
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
Hallo Astrojet,

i am afraid to ask. How do I upgrade? If I install the newest driver 3.16 (the OnStep ASCOM unified driver version 1.0.29) and above the onstep is not recognized at all. I am sorry to say that i understand very little of this. I bought a used Onstep in the hope it would function, now that it doesn't ,i am pretty lost…

CS Haakon
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Haakon Rasmussen:
Hallo Astrojet,

i am afraid to ask. How do I upgrade? If I install the newest driver 3.16 (the OnStep ASCOM unified driver version 1.0.29) and above the onstep is not recognized at all. I am sorry to say that i understand very little of this. I bought a used Onstep in the hope it would function, now that it doesn't ,i am pretty lost...

CS Haakon

The how is well described in the above-linked OnStep group home page (and those linked to) but in brief is about downloading the right software, connecting to a USB port on the controller (you might have to open it up and remove one or more boards) and let Arduino IDE compile and upload the new software onto the controller. Obviousy you can buy an off-the-shelf solution but it is going to cost a bit more (maybe quite a bit more).
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
Haakon Rasmussen avatar
Ok, Thank's Andrea!

CS Haakon