[Kstars-devel] Celestron Advanced GT problems

[James Tappin]

I'm trying to connect to a Celestron C6-NGT (Advanced GoTo series)
from Kstars using a machine running Pardus GNU/Linux. (KDE 4.3.4,
Kstars 1.5..3).

According to the manual, the mount system uses the NexStar control protocol.

However when I use the Devices->Device Manager and try to start the
NexStar service it fails to indicate success. The Celestron GPS
service does start.

On trying to connect to the telescope with the telescope wizard:
If I use the NexStar protocol, it just hangs with the connection
progress bar at 100%
If I use the GPS protocol, then the progress bar goes away and the
INDI control panel comes up, but with an error in connecting, and the
instruction to check read & write permissions for the device.

I have checked the following:
1) /dev/ttyS0 is set to 9600 baud.
2) The device has permissions crw-rw---- owner root, group dialout
3) I am a member of the dialout group
4) The behaviour is identical irrespective of whether I have the GPS
unit connected.

The computer is an HP2133 netbook with an express card serial port. (I
have also tried using a desktop machine with a built-in serial port
with identical results).

Does anybody have any suggestions or ideas for further diagnosing the
problems [it's been a while since I used a serial device so I've
forgotten most of the tricks]?


James