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Last updated: 17 June 2007
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Last updated: 17 June 2007 |
Subject: Prolific-based USB serial adapter Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 14:44:06 From: John Hall (john_d_hall@hotmail.com) I eventually updated a LX90 Autostar to 4.3Eg and it -does- appear to have fixed a problem that was occurring. As it happened, I had a major problem doing the update. I have a Prolific-based USB serial adapter that works fine on the Autostar 497 that came with my ETX-90, but the 497 on the LX-90 was having none of it! It would connect okay, but fail the firmware download (usual symptoms). I even tried Starpatch to no avail. Fortunately, he had a really old PC down there with Windows 98 and a 'real' serial port - that got me out of trouble, using the 'safe load' mode. Odd that one Autostar should be more touchy about the comms than another? Before encountering this problem, I would have told people that Prolific-based adapters work okay on the 497, but it looks like things are more complicated than that! Best regards, John.
From: Richard Seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com) Just as you updated the firmware on the Autostar, you might maybe check the Prolific website for an updated driver for your USB adapter. have fun --dick
Subject: Prolific Adapter and Linux Sent: Friday, June 2, 2006 23:14:38 From: Patrick W. Gonzalez (pgonzalez@moduleight.com) Just wanted to let everyone know, I run Fedora Core 5 (2.6.15-2054smp) on a new Lenova 3000 N100 laptop and use KStars to control my ETX-105. I recently purchased a Prolific based USB to Serial adapter from www.newegg.com. I have been extremely pleased with the performance of the cable thus far. On initial connection it was recognized as /dev/ttyUSB0. After configuring KStars with the new port information, it connected right to my Autostar and away we went. I have also connected it to a windows box in order to update my Autostar, no problems there either detected right away, and after a quick driver load was detected as COM4. For those few open source gurus running Linux....Prolific is a good choice. -Patrick W. Gonzalez Morehead, KY
Subject: USB to Serial adapters Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 11:25:21 From: FORGIEL Bob (BFORGIEL@fillontech.com) I was reading through the comments on your web site concerning the USB to serial adapters. There was a comment by someone about the cable only working in one USB port. If you look in the Windows Device Manager, it will show what com port Windows is calling it. If you plug it into another port, the port number will also change. I think the adaptor that I have was made by Eagle or something like that and by default it called it com5. I changed the properties of the port so it was recognized as com2. I should also add that I saw in Meads manual for the DSI an illustration of the telescope tab in their software. It clearly showed "comm2" typed in the box. I have always used one "m" in the word "com" and Windows calls it "com" with one "m". I never tried it with two M's but I would guess that it wouldn't be able to find or open that port. Keep looking up but watch out for the mean cloud people. Bob F. Coventry Rhode Island
Subject: Re:USB to serial port adapters Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2006 21:03:34 From: mhogansr@comcast.net (mhogansr@comcast.net) Re: "Information on the Autostar and USB" Topic. I also have had very good results with a Prolific-based adapter with one exception. I use it with a Dell 1150 Inspiron and if I leave it connected when the machine goes to "sleep" or "standby" mode, it will not wake up. The only recourse is to do a Power Down by holding the Power button and then a restart. This is definitely not recommended, as it's possible to corrupt the hard drive. You just have to remember to unplug the adapter from the USB port before letting the machine go to Sleep. Whether this problem is unique to my computer or the Prolific drivers or whatever, I have no idea. Just something to keep in mind. Mike
Subject: USB to serial port adapters Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 19:14:51 From: hbjr@optilink.us As always - love your site! I found another adapter that works reliably w/ my 497/ETX125 and my LX200GPS. It is the house brand of Best Buys - Dynex. Model No. DX-UBDB9. It uses the Prolific chip set. It was a bit flaky at first but a quick search of Prolific's web site netted me an updated driver and now the adapter works 100% of the time. Of course I am using all of the advice posted from the web and from your site: reducing FIFO buffers and manually assigning a COM port to the adapter. Thanx for a great resource... Hank
Subject: USB Adaptor for "list" Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 14:32:07 From: Pete (petei@blueyonder.co.uk) I've had no problems using a NewLink USB Serial Adaptor (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29968&doy=search) from a Windows XP machine with USB 2.0 ports to download data and updates to the Autostar. I had to use the driver from the Meade site as I had problems trying to get the supplied driver working. Regards, Pete
Subject: re: Meade ETX 125 trouble Sent: Monday, April 17, 2006 20:02:49 From: richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com) I would recommend making the FIFO buffer sizes much -smaller-. The 'receive' buffer should be zero or 1 if possible. (otherwise, the USB adapter waits for the buffer to fill before sending the bytes to the ASU program... which times out). Another approach is to use a non-Meade Updater: StarPAtch available as a free download from http://www.stargps.ca (follow the links to StarPatch). It is -much- smarter about talking to the Autostar than Meade's updater. Also, when in Safe Load mode, the Autostar does -not- respond in the usual ways to the 'auto probes' of ASU. It is far better to -tell- ASU which port has the Autostar. (but try StarPatch first... it's better...) good luck --dickMike here: Hum, wonder if StarPatch is more tolerant to the "bad" USB-serial adapters?
Subject: Meade ETX 125 trouble
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 00:38:21
From: Magda Manea (magy68@yahoo.com)
Hello, my name is Catalin and I visited your site, which I found very
good.
I have some trouble with my Autostar controller, and I hope that you can
give me some tips about it. About one day ago I tried to upgrade my hand
controller with some comets, satelites etc. via the Autostar updater. I
thougt everything was just in order as the screen displayed:
"downloading, do not turn of". After approx. 30 min. nothing had change
on the display. But I didn't do anything to change the message. After
another 30 min. the screen changed and it displayed:
" (c)05 Meade [41E]
AUTOSTAR
I tried to get into the controllers menu but nothing happend, the
controller was locked. I turned the telescope of and on several times,
but the display still showed the same "message".
I hope you have time to answer me and just give me some clues about what
the problem is.
Sincerely
Catalin
Mike here: It sounds like you actually were doing an upgrade of the Autostar ROM (which normally takes about 30 minutes) rather than just updating object information. But it appears that the upgrade failed for some reason. By any chance was the Autostar connected to your computer via a USB-serial adapter and if so, which one? At this point you will have to put the Autostar into SAFE LOAD mode and redownload but, if you are using a USB adapter, before you do that let me know about the adapter.
And:
Thank you very much for your answer. Yes the hand-controll was connected to the PC with a USB adapter. The adapter is just a normal adapter (USB to RS-232 cable) which was connected to the COM4 gate. I'm afraid I don't know what the Safe Load Mode is, so I hope that you can help us with it. PS. If I didn't tell you in our message, the scope is connected to a Laptop DS. Regards CatalinMike here: You can to see if the communication through the USB adapter will work reliably but some adapters just don't work too well with the Autostar. See the article "Autostar and USB" on the Helpful Information: Autostar Info page. Which adapter do you have?
And:
I've got a VS Com USB to RS-232 cable with 128 byte Transmit and 384 Byte receive FIFO I've alredy tried the Safe Load trick, and the screen displays Flash Load 3.0 Ready, exactly as you said. Then I started ASU and made an auto detect of all the COM ports on the laptop. Sometimes the program found the used port and sometimes not. But the problem is that the display doesn't change, it's "ded". And the the handbox side in ASU does'n get active, I can't Retrieve, Send or Connect to the handbox. I can't press the Upgrade Autostar Software now either because it's not active. Hope you haven't lost your patience with me. Sincerely CatalinMike here: As noted in that USB article, only a few adapters seem to work well. I suggest you replace the adapter with one of the known good ones. Alternatively, you can check for an updated adapter driver from the vendor's web site.
And:
OK, I saw that on your site, and I will try to find another USB adapter, but it's not so easy to find one of the recomended here in Sweden :( I've tried to connect the scope to my other PC without a USB adapter (to a serial port instead)but that didn't work to good either. ASU found the handbox on COM 1 when I did a Auto Detect (Options>Set Com Port>Auto-detect)but when I pushed the Connect, Retrieve or Send button it said it didn't found Autostar. I don't understand why the program founds Autostar in one way but not in the other way!!! Hope you still have time to help me! Thank you Catalin
Subject: AutoStar and LX200GPS Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 06:41:11 From: Henry (arcturus@cox.net) I have a 10" LX200GPS with Autostar II. I had the scope attached to my laptop via the cable which came with my DSI. It was connected to a USB port via a USB - Serial adapter. It was connected to the RS-232 port next to the port where Autostar plugs in. I loaded the ASU and it detected the handset. I then tried to Upgrade Autostar. It asked me to save any user data, then it asked where to get the info from and I got it over the Internet. It then loaded and built a file (seen on the status bar). The it asked if I wanted to proceed. It then worked for a couple minuted, then gave me the error. Then a box pops up saying 'No Response". When I powered down then back up, the handset froze at the splash screen stating Meade, copyright 2001. I since learned to get into Safe Mode, but I can't seem to update from there either. When I try to 'retrieve' something, I keep getting an error stating, "invalid access to memory location". Thats about it. I hope you can tell me what I did wrong and how to fix it. Thanks, HenryMike here: See the article "Autostar and USB" (this page) on the Helpful Information: Autostar Info page. It speaks to USB-serial adapters for the Autostar #494, #495, and #497. I don't know for certain but based on your problem I now suspect that the Autostar II has the same issue with USB adapters. Not all work reliably.
And:
Thanks for the info. It was the usb-serial adapter. Brought the scope inside and connected to a real serial port and it worked fine. Thanks, HenryMike here: Ah ha! Which adapter was it?
And:
Belkin. Someone mentioned getting a KeySpan adapter. Do you have any favorites/suggestions as to which adapters work? Thanks, HenryMike here: I could have guessed. Belkin is the most commonly reported brand with problems connecting (see that article "Autostar and USB"). The article also has alternatives; I use a Keyspan with my Macintosh and it works fine.
Subject: USB Adaptor for "list" Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 10:42:22 From: Gene Rozea (grozea@comcast.net) I've successfully used an ATEN Model UC-232A USB to Serial adaptor on both a SONY laptop and HP Pavilion to update the firmware and satellite TLE's to the 497 Autostar on my ETX-90. Have seen no hiccups at all. Regards, Gene
Subject: Meade #506 to USB Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2006 08:07:56 From: Smith, Marty (Charles) (SmithM@state.gov) I have just started to become involved with star gazing and purchased a DS-2130ATS for the family and was interested in connecting this baby to my laptop. I understand that the #506 is required, and because my laptop has no 9 pin serial port it requires the USB converter to make the connection. My question: Do I have to pay $40 for a Meade converter cable or can I pick up any 9 pin to USB converter cable like the one listed in this link.. Thanks a bunch!! Marty Smith http://www.callcct.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.94/it.A/id.382/.fMike here: The experiences of many others have shown that not all USB adapters will work. So far there are only two that I can recommend: Keyspan and Meade. Others may or may not work.
Subject: USB Adapters for Autostar Sent: Friday, January 6, 2006 05:15:58 From: Dave Wallace (d_wallace@ecrm.com) If you're going to start a list (like you did with power supplies), here's an entry: Adapter: Tripp-Lite model U209-000R Computer: Dell Inspiron 1100 Laptop O/S: Windows XP Home SP2 Software: Autostar Suite, Cartes du Ciel Note: The driver seems to only recognize the adapter if you always plug it into the same USB port. (This could be an adapter thing or it could be the Dell computer.)Mike here: To which I add the Keyspan Twin USB-Serial Adapter (for Mac OS X and Windows).
Subject: USB to Serial Adapters Sent: Monday, January 2, 2006 08:50:20 From: mhogansr@comcast.net (mhogansr@comcast.net) I've noticed a lot of messages recently about problems using USB to Serial adapters. This is likely to continue as most laptops these days are provided without serial ports. I doubt Meade is working very hard on a better solution since they can make more selling their overpriced adapter as an add-on. Perhaps you could create a new area or topic on this subject to consolidate the resolutions/recommendations on dealing with it. It seems most of the problems reported are associated with Autostar Update. I know from personal experience that the Belkin adapter has quirks in this area. It will work with Autostar Suite for controlling the scope, but not with Update. As a matter of fact, if you try to do an Update, you can end up corrupting the Autostar and have to do a Safe Load. This is a major problem if you have no other way except the laptop to do an update. I had to revert to my desktop machine with a real Serial port. I have since relegated the Belkin to my car where it works fine with the Garmin GPS/laptop configuration. The replacement is an inexpensive generic mail order adapter from Sewell Direct for $17 which works for everything. No doubt there are many others that work equally well. If you do decide to create a new topic, it could include vendors, prices, and most important, reviews and test results for various configurations, similar to your Power Supply section. It might make your life easier since you could refer questions to a specific area instead of replying on a case by case basis. Just my $0.02, FWIW. Happy New Year, MikeMike here: Yes, Belkin models seem to have problems, at least with Windows computers. Keyspan models seem to work reliably on Macs and PCs. Meade's is Windows-only.
Subject: USB-to-Serial Problem & Fix Sent: Thursday, August 4, 2005 23:07:01 From: mhogansr@comcast.net (mhogansr@comcast.net) I've had problems updating and uploading my Autostar with my Dell 1150 laptop using the Belkin F5U109 adapter. I finally decided to try another adapter and found one that works with no problems. It's from SewellDirect.com, PN# SW-1301. Cost is $17.95 + $4.95 s&h in the US. Mine arrived 2 days after ordering. The problem I had was that ASU indicated the Update was complete in about 2 seconds, but Autostar stayed hung in the Downloading mode. The only recovery was to use Safe Load and do an Update using my desktop machine. I've seen messages from others with similar problems so maybe this will help. Regards, Mike Hogan
Subject: USB to RS232 Converter Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 04:42:16 From: Robbie Harris (robbie.harris@btinternet.com) Just a quick note to let you know that I've tried EasySync US232B Cable converter from http://www.easysync.co.uk/products.html and it seems to work fine. I've a Sony Vaio laptop with XP and The Sky 6 connecting to my ETX-90 via the Autostar. The converter cable comes with a driver disc, but XP didn't seem to need them it just installed automatically as soon as I plugged the cable in. Meade's own converter retails for 35 here in the UK and from a previous post (http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/usb.html) doesn't sound like its anything special, the EasySync is 20 and was delivered next day. RobbieMike here: So there are now several solutions: Meade, Keyspan (which I use with my Macintosh), Belkin, and EasySync.
Subject: Astrofinder Software With Microsoft XP Blues Sent: Sunday, January 5, 2003 13:52:07 I purchased in December 2002 an ETX-125 UHTC with Autostar. Worked well out of the box after I found and purchased a real user-written manual that showed me how to set it up. I see the ETX book on your site that I will purchase straight away. Last week I integrated the ETX with a Sony VAIO laptop with Microsoft Windows XP onto which I loaded Meade Astrofinder software (Starry Night) that includes Astronomers Control Panel (ACP) plug-In software. A nasty problem occurred as I dealt with the fact that the laptop has a USB serial connection and the Astrofinder wants the "phone jack" end of a DS-9 serial interface. This requires a physical connector conversion as well as USB to DS-9 protocol conversion. This may not be new issue, but I thought a detailed description of the fix could save others a day and a half of pain that I endured.... Like many laptops, my Sony has a USB connector and does not have a 9 pin serial connector. I bought a cable from Meade providing a USB to DS-9 serial bridge with embedded conversion firmware. The Meade document SAID the cable (really its imbedded frimware) was MS XP compatible. I loaded it all up and the ACP software did not talk to the telescope' Astrofinder (message was no scope connected). After much pain and searching, I found an XP compatible load at the Prolific Technology who buils the Meade cable and firmware (http://tech.prolific.com.tw). The trick was getting the software that came with cable that I had loaded in the laptop completely uninstalled so the new load would work. Normally a software house will tell you how to do it, but I could not penetrate their defenses. Ultimately, I did a System Recovery process under MS Windows that resets (recovers) the laptop to an earlier date - effectively completely wiping out the USB to serial bridge software load the was incompatible. I then downloaded over the internet the replacement XP-compatible firmware load from Prolific Technology and unzipped the folder (simple doulbe click of the zipped folder transfer over the internet form Prolific). I the re-loaded the Meade "Astrofinder" CD that includes Starry Nights and Astronomers Control Panel (ACP). I followed the set-up instructions and it ran fine. By the way, the Astrofinder voice command and output is not functional with MS XP. Also the date on ACP page on the laptop is fixed in February 2006 ? Are their any fixes ? David HailsMike here: There is an ACP update that fixes the date problem.
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