SeeStar Firmware 2.71 - Only Scenery Mode Works

AstroHam

I just updated my iOS app and the SeeStar firmware. Any mode except scenery mode wants me to input my lat/lon. When I click “done”, it stays on the homepage and will not go to the camera display, will not seek the sun, etc. Am I doing something wrong?

Smont

AstroHam
Had same problem.
I deleted the SeeStar App from my iPhone, then reinstalled it.
Works now!

Apercu

I have the exact same problem. The app will not accept my location info. Seestar only works in scenery mode.

Help!!! My viewing plans for tonight are ruined.

AstroHam

Apercu , I discovered it is the version 1.20 app. I had the old 1.19.3 app on my iPhone and it still works. I’ve turned off automatic app updates on my iPhone. I also emailed zwo tech support about the issue. You might want to do the same.

Apercu

AstroHam

I thought it might be app related. My iPad has the older app and still works ok. Thanks for the heads up!

Bug report submitted.

jv

If you tap on the upper-right corner of that part of the screen, where your city name usually appears, the app will pop up a set of spinners that can be used to set your location. Enter your latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes, and don't forget to set north or south for lat and east or west for lon as appropriate. You can obtain your position from a gps app on your phone. This trick is useful when your Seestar cannot otherwise determine where it is. I have only had to do this when using my Seestar with an iPad. When controlling it with my android phone, the S50 always seems to know its location.

AstroHam

jv I do that, click “done”, and it stays on the home screen. Everything worked great until I upgraded to version 1.20. I cannot get to the camera “live” display screen anymore.

casati

1.20 Firmware update not possible on SEBBE S23 Android 12 and REDMI A3 Android 14, Only exiting app possible. Switching between Seestar Hotspot and local Intranet in station mode doesn't help.

Pls. fix asap! TIA!

Although I'm very happy with my two Seestars, I (and potentially more users) would applaud, if in future you keep old software versions on your company servers accessable once revised on Google Play - and allow for fallback towards older firmware versions.

PhilInBris

casati I agree with this request. The current release is problematic and only those that save old downloads from your website can roll back.

drmike

Same issue here .... only Scenery mode works. I have a Seestar brick. Wasted an entire great evening last night trying to figure out what was wrong. Rebooted Seestar 5x and rebooted ipad. No change. This is a MAJOR defect in this new release. How could it possibly pass through testing? Sent in to Seestar support...probably a month at least until release a correction.

Tailspin45

Same problem. Restarted Seestar, restarted app (1.20), restarted iphone (17.5.1).

Only Scenery mode usable. Any other mode ask for lat/long and then does nothing except ask for lat/long again.

PNWFUN

Same here. Installed the app (v1.20) on an iPad Pro last night. Only works in scenery mode to take photos. Had the app installed on an iPad a few weeks ago. It works just fine and took photos in other modes last night.

Grey Mouser74

Does anyone know a way to load the old version of the app? Same thing is happening to me. Is this only happening on iOS?

PNWFUN

Grey Mouser74 Was just thinking about that. I would like to know as well.

many_scopes

OK, so it's not just me. Really ridiculous. Updated, now can't use. Is ZWO out there paying any attention to this? Does anyone know how to email them?

many_scopes

So I emailed ZWO (three email addresses on their website) and got this very helpful reply:

Dear all,
Thanks for reaching out to the ZWO team.
We are out of the office for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday from 7th June to 12th June. Sorry that we can not reply to your emails timely.
We appreciate your understanding and wish you a nice day.
ZWO team

Ferenc75

many_scopes
It seems like they are always celebrating something. The last time they had some serious issues, it was the Chinese New Year and they were out of office for a week, or more.

many_scopes

Anyway, the new firmware aka "deadware" is on my iPad, but my iPhone still has the older firmware and I just took some snaps of the sun. So the old firmware still works (as expected).

Tailspin45

many_scopes Just to avoidf any confusion, the firmware is installed in the Seestar. Your iPhone runs the app and does none of the image capture or processing. It just sends commands to the scope.

As AstroHam reported earlier, the issue is with V1.2. of the app. V1.9 works fine, as you discovered.

drmike

Wow…I have never seen that kind of customer response. Time to rethink the ZWO eco system and products.

Tailspin45

New app 1.20.1 available fixes the problem.

many_scopes

@Tailspin45, thank you, yes, now that you point that out, it is "obvious"!
So given that, I checked and my iPad is indeed running v1.2 of Seestar, and my iPhone is running 1.19. Re-reading @AstroHam, now I get it 🙂
I went to "version history" on my iPad but can't seem to find a way to retreat back to 1.19x. Any thoughts, anyone?