ozarchie

Great news.

While the thread is about EQ8, that mount uses the MC015, and the site has a lot of other MC015 information.

It would be helpful f you could post your experience with the MC015 upgrade on that site.

Have a look at this thread 

Hi mimmo,

No, I have not bought this upgrade kit.

I live in Australia and was involved in the early EQDIR interface.

The photo is from this website in Australia:

https://www.siderealtrading.com.au/product/neq6-pro-motor-control-board/

In Europe, it may be different but look at:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-replacement-motherboard-with-usb-for-eq6neq6-pro-mounts-inc-non-usb-models.html#about_this_product

A reviewer says that the cable is supplied:

Good luck!!!

I replaced my Atlas EQ-G motor controller with this and am very pleased with it so far. It will add a power locking connector, SNAP DSLR port and a USB port to the mount. it still has the hand controller port but its no longer a 9 pin din its a RJ-45 connection which a coiled cable is supplied for your hand controller. There is a Cigarette lighter 12v cable included as well, for the new threaded power connector. The Polar LED connector on the motherboard is different and it comes with a replacement LED assembly you pop in to replace the original. It does change the sound of you RA and DEC motors to a whirl sound as they spin up, its a unique sound. I installed this on a Rowan Belt modded unit so the whirl sound could get drowned out with the original grinding of the original configured gears, I think you would still hear a difference. But this is just an observation not a compliant, I assume the stepper motor pulse are different to make the sound. This should work for several of the EQ6 models, it looks like its an EQ6R board mounted to a square plate, for the Atlas it is white and your mount is black, no biggie for me and it helps me differentiate my non Rowan Atlas and this my Cadillac modded unit. I think I will go ahead and get one of these for my older Atlas too, the built in USB and threaded power is nice. Thanks...

(Google translate!!)

Salut mimmo,

Je pense que le câble RJ45 fourni connecte le nouveau MCB au contrôleur manuel.

Pour cette mise à niveau, vous utilisez l'USB pour vous connecter au PC (à 115 200 bauds).

Il est possible de construire un câble RJ45<>PC, mais vous devez convertir la sortie TTL du câble RJ45<>HC en RS232 ou USB pour le PC.

(C'est ce que fait EQDIR, mais avec une allocation de broches différente.) Le RJ45<>HC fonctionne à 9 600 bauds.

Hi mimmo,

I think the supplied RJ45 cable connects the new MCB to the handcontroller.

For this upgrade you use the USB to connect to the PC (at 115200 baud).

It is possible to construct an RJ45<>PC cable, but you need to convert the TTL output on the RJ45<>HC cable to RS232 or USB for the PC.

(That is what EQDIR does, but with different pin allocation.) The RJ45<>HC runs at 9600 baud.

The Upgrade Kit includes:

• New Motor Control Board
• New Face Plate
• New Power Cable
• Replacement Hand Controller Cable
• Camera Shutter Release Cable
• Replacement Polarscope LED

Hi Denis

I hope you are well and have had some starry nights.

I apologise for not updating you with this guess at the schematic for 020/015.

Unfortunately, I cannot verify it as I do not have 015 or 020 boards. 

The guess is based on photos from SGL.

Thankyou for the other version. It seems similar, but does not have enough resolution to read the small text.

Cheers

Schematic_SW-MC020_2023-11-17.pdf

Hi Denis,

I hope yoy are doing well after the Covid epidemic.

Attached is a file that shows the start of the schematic for the MC020 (almost identical to the MC015)

It is not yet complete, but approximately correct.

I don't have a board so it is deduced from the photos

Cheers

Archie

Schematic_SW-MC020_2023-02-28.pdf

Some useful links for the bootloader

http://electronics-diy.com/bootloader-for-16f87x-pic-microcontrollers.php#:~:text=A bootloader enables download of,program memory (self programming).&text=The user can download his program into the remaining memory space.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/tinypicbootload/

https://groups.io/g/EQMOD/message/53115

https://groups.io/g/EQMOD/message/53115

Sorry, I cannot find how to edit the post once it is sent.

The command should be - ":e1<CR>"

The response should be - "=020400<CR>"

8 minutes ago, ozarchy said:

Hi Denis,

Here are the documents that describe the commands that you send to the motor contol board.

You need a serial program set to 9600 baud. You can just type the commands, as the program does not time out ..

An example is the command 'get Version' command
:: e1
The motor control board will Then sponds :
= 020,400

 

See this thread on EQMOD:

https://groups.io/g/EQMOD/topic/hello_new_to_eqmod/75657196?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,75657196

 

Cheers

Archie

 

skywatcher_motor_controller_command_set.pdf 787.72 kB 0 downloads synscanserialcommunicationprotocol_version33.pdf 686.51 kB 0 downloads synscanmobile_command_set_version_10.pdf 1 MB 0 downloads

An example command is the 'get version' command:

: e1
The motor control board will then respond :
= 020400

Hi Denis,

Here are the documents that describe the commands that you send to the motor contol board.

You need a serial program set to 9600 baud. You can just type the commands, as the program does not time out..

An example command is the 'get version' command:
:e1
The motor control board will then respond:
=020400

See this thread on EQMOD:

https://groups.io/g/EQMOD/topic/hello_new_to_eqmod/75657196?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,75657196

Cheers

Archie

skywatcher_motor_controller_command_set.pdf synscanserialcommunicationprotocol_version33.pdf synscanmobile_command_set_version_10.pdf

Hi Denis,

Earlier you mentioned that you need software for your project and information on the software.

EQMOD has developed a lot of software based on the Synta Motor control protocol.

There is a French version of the manual.

https://groups.io/g/EQMOD

Here is a link to the Synta protocol.

https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/skywatcher_motor_controller_command_set.pdf

Below is an open source arduino project, and you may be able to convert the software to your board.

https://github.com/vsirvent/Open-Synscan

Cheers

Archie