ASIAIR and Skywather Virtuoso

The-Vman

Here is what I have learned so far with the new SkyWatcher Virtuoso Alt-Az telescope and ASIAIR v2.0 or v1.9.

I have been attempting to get the ASIAIR to work properly with the Virtuoso telescope with varying degrees of success.

Using the "SkyWatcher Virtuoso Alt-Az mount:
I can connect the telescope WiFi or USB2R12 wired to the telescope. It connects and pivots. Tracking is unavailable and it appears that slew speed is faster than it should be. 32x moves like 600x. To get this to work properly, I need to manually plate solve and then use the Sky Watcher App to get this to work. I have to do this several times and after many attempts and cold boots.

Using the "SkyWatcher Alt-Az Wedge"
I know this is for EQ mounted telescopes, but I've been trying everything to see if I can get a good fit. I can connect with this mount on the Virtuoso WiFi , or USB2R12 wired, and it works Exactly like the SkyWatcher Virtuoso Alt-Az mount to a tee.

Using the "SkyWatcher AZ-GTI/SynScan Wifi" mount
This mount seems to be a better fit than the ones above, except for one issue. It slews the Azimuth direction in reverse. Tracking works on this. I can turn tracking on. The slew speed seems more accurate 32x does not move the telescope at full speed. But, because the tracking is in reverse (left is right, and right is left) tracking, GoTo and manual slewing, all go in the opposite direction, so it is of no use. Up and down are in the correct direction. It appears to me, this driver is a better fit for the Virtuoso, expect for the flipped Azimuth.

Using the "SkyWatcher SynScan" or "SkyWatcher SynScan Beta" with a SynScan V5 Hand Controller
I have the SynScan v5 hand controller and attempted to get that to work as an alternative to connecting directly to the telescope. When I first selected these mounts, it instructed me to "use the HC to do a single bright star alignment then continue". After, I have never seen that message again, even after multiple cold boots. Connecting the ASIAIR to the HC with a USB2R12 cable or a USB to USB 2,0 cable to the USB on the HC, I get the message "failed to connect". I've tried all the baud rates, and no difference.

I know this is a newer telescope, but does anyone have any ideas of how to get success from it. I barely can use it as is as tracking turns off constantly or the ASIAIR loses it orientation and I have to restart the alignment process with a cold boot of everything.

PMTeam@ZWO

The-Vman Thank you for your effort. This would be helpful.

dickson

@ASIAIR@ZWO#60167 "It slews the Azimuth direction in reverse. Tracking works on this...The slew speed seems more accurate 32x does not move the telescope at full speed. But, because the tracking is in reverse (left is right, and right is left) tracking, GoTo and manual slewing, all go in the opposite direction, so it is of no use."

I think there are some fix required to allow ASIAIR to work usefully with AZ-GTI in Alt-Az mode.

The-Vman

Using the "SkyWatcher SynScan" or "SkyWatcher SynScan Beta" with a SynScan V5 Hand Controller Update
I have an update using the SynScan V5 hand controller with the Virtuoso Telescope. I assume V4 of the Hand Controller and the AT-GTi SkyWatcher mount in Alt-Az mode should work the same.

One very important thing to note. There are 2 alignment processes in the Hand Controller, "Brightest Star" which is a 3 star alignment, which I did not know. And the 2 Star Alignment. I used a USB 2.0 from the Hand Controller to the ASIAIR USB 2.0 port.

IMPORTANT: Before you can even connect the mount in the ASIAIR app, you MUST complete an alignment, even a bad one. It will FAIL to connect to the mount if you do not complete at least one of the alignments.

SkyWatcher SynScan mount setting
I did not spend too much time with this one as it did not have any tracking options available for it. It did however let you manually slew in different speeds from 1x to Max (about 600x).

SkyWatcher SynScan Beta mount setting
This mount setting seemed to be the best fit from all the mounts and connections I have tried so far. I first star-aligned the telescope using the Hand Controller and the laser finder on the telescope and the 2 star alignment option. Once that was completed, I worked my way on the Hand Controller to Menu, and Tracking to make sure tracking was set to "Sidereal" and that tracking was on.

After I ran the ASIAIR app and connected it using the SkyWatcher SynScan Beta mount in Serial mode and 9600 baud. It connected right away. I then GoTo'ed my first target and it was off by a little. Plate solving worked well and the tracking light was on and green. Make sure your HC is not in the middle of a star alignment or other setup option or it might not turn on tracking correctly. Also you do not need the PC direct option here.

I could manually slew, but from 1x to 6x speed. It only went to 10x speed, but at 7+ the manual slew buttons no longer rotated the telescope. Since I'm using GoTo, which does slew much faster, this was not much of an issue for me although it should still be fixed.

It tracked properly and I was able to EAA the moon, mars, and M31 without any problems last night.

If you have a Virtuoso and want to run Alt-Az but cant wait for ZWO to fix the other mount settings I described in the previous post than this may be the way to go.

If you have the AT-GTi and want to run it in Alt-Az mode this may also work for you as the hand controllers seem to be the same between these 2 telescopes.

dickson

The-Vman The AZ-GTI does not come with SynScan V5 Hand Controller and it is expensive ($150), so I am waiting ZWO to fix the issue instead of considering to use SynScan hand controller as the bridging device.

The-Vman

I need to make a slight correction with the SkyWatcher SynScan Beta mount. i can slew up to 9x. 10x does not move. Also 9x slews much faster than 9x sidereal, so its just a label correction, plus remove or get 10x to work correctly. 🙂

The-Vman

dickson Totally understand, it is expensive and won't be needed once the issue is fixed. I ended up buying the Hand Controller so I could use my setup.

croessus

I have new Virtuoso GTi which is also Alt/Az and had similar issues with mount options, slew movements in the wrong direction, and tracking disabled. I have had decent success using the SynScan Pro app on iPhone/iPad as primary controller for alignment and tracking. I put ASIAIR into station mode by connecting it to the SynScan Wi-Fi not the normal ASIAIR Wi-Fi using the Virtuoso mount option selected. IP is 192.168.4.1 with port 11880 and UDP protocol selected. Keep both apps running simultaneously. Even though ASIAIR has tracking disabled, SynScan Pro seems to control the tracking. I am able to use ASIAIR slew controls however and GoTo works from either app. You may need to sync on object first in ASIAIR app to get the planetarium bit pointed to same object as SynScan Pro app. You may need to use option Align with Sync and keep it open for ASIAIR to sync properly. Hope this info helps others having troubles. May also work with AZ-GTi but don’t have it to test.