Sky-Watcher Synscan Hand Control - Manual (Page 3)

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PART I : INTRODUCTION
Multi-Purpose Port: Connects to an external device such as a com-
puter, a GPS module, a camera, etc.
Mount Port: Connects to a Sky-Watcher telescope mount. The hand
control can get power supply from the mount via this port.
LCD Display Screen: It can display two lines of text, 18 characters
per line. The contrast and the brightness of the red backlight are ad-
justable.
Buttons: ESC, MENU, ENTER , directional, number/shortcut keys,
and scroll keys.
A SynScan hand control and its interfaces are shown in Fig. 1.1
1.1 Outline and Interface
1.2 Connecting to a Telescope Mount
Fig. 1.1
Connect the 8-pin (RJ-45) “Mount” port of the hand control to the “Hand Control” port on a
Sky-Watcher mount using an appropriate cable. The table below lists the “Hand Control” ports
on different Sky-Watcher mounts.
Mount Model Hand control Port “Hand Control” Port on Mount
EQ6 Pro
8-pin RJ-45
D-sub 9 Male
HEQ5 Pro, EQ5 Pro, EQ3 Pro,
AZ-EQ6 GT, EQ8 8-pin RJ-45
All Alt-azimuth mounts 6-pin RJ-12
1.3 Slew the Mount with the Direction Keys
In many situations, users need to slew the mount at different speeds with the directional keys.
Here are the guides for this operation:
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Full Feature Mode:
The flow chart of the “Full Feature” operation is shown in Fig. 1.4a.
• The left and right keys are used to control the movements of the Right Ascension (R.A.)
axis (for an equatorial mount) or the azimuth axis (for an Alt-azimuth mount).
• The up and down keys are used to control the movements of the Declination (Dec.) axis
(for an equatorial mount) or altitude axis (for an Alt-azimuth mount).
• In most cases, pressing the “ RATE/2 ” key will invoke the operation of choosing a slewing
speed:
» The LCD screen will display “ Set Speed ”, followed by the current speed as “ Rate = *x ”’.
» Press a number between “ 0 ” and “ 9 ” to select a new speed.
» Press the ENTER key to return to the previous display.
» If the user does not press the ENTER button, he/she can continue to change the speed
while using the direction keys to slew the mount.
» If there is no keypad operation in 5 seconds, the most recent speed will be kept and
the LCD display will return to the previous ones.
• The following table lists the available speeds:
• Rate 7/8/9 is primarily used to quickly slew a mount.
• Rate 5/6 is primarily used to move a target in the field of view of a finder scope.
• Rate 2/3/4 is primarily used to move a target in the field of view of an eyepiece.
• Rate 0/1 is used to move a target in the field of view in high magnification observations,
or manual-guiding.
Note:
*1: Speed is represented as multiples of the Earth’s rotation speed.
*2, *3: For Equatorial mounts, the speed is the drift speed of an object in FOV while the mount’s
tracking is turned on; it is not the axis’s rotation speed.
*4: Maximum speed varies on mounts. For most Sky-Watcher mounts, it is higher than 800X
(3.4 degrees/sec).
Rate 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Speed *1 0.5X *2 1X *3 8X 16X 32X 64X 128X 400X 600X Max *4
1.4 SynScan Hand control’s Operating Mode
The SynScan hand control has 2 operating modes: Full Feature Mode and Easy Tracking
Mode.
Initialization Alignment
Observing or other
operations
Fig. 1.4a
Locate a celestial
object automatically