Ports and Connectors on NexStar 4/5SE Scopes
Click
here for a diagram
by Larry McNish depicting NexStar cable/port connections.
- RS-232 or USB Port - located on the bottom of the hand control.
Hand controls manufactured prior to 2014 are RS-232; those manufactured
starting in 2014 are USB. The RS-232 port is presented as an RJ-22
jack (looks like a small telephone jack). The USB port is a
mini-USB as found on devices like digital cameras, not the more common
micro-USB found on smartphones. The
primary usage of this port is for controlling your scope with the wide
variety of astronomy software available for PCs, Macs and PDAs. A
secondary usage is for updating the firmware in the hand control or
mount's motor control
- details are found here.
Details about the required connector cables are found in
this section of the website.
- HAND CONTROL Port - located in the hand control recess in the fork arm.
The primary usage of this port is for connecting the hand control,
however, this port is actually the same as the AUX port on the base of the
scope, and so, the hand control can be connected to that port as well.
The connector is a 6 conductor RJ-12. The signaling is TTL and so a
serial port on a PC should not be connected to this port.
- AUX Port- located on the top of the base of the scope. This port
is designated for "smart accessories", for example, the optional CN-16 GPS module - Celestron part
number 93963. Also, as noted above, the hand control can be
connected here rather than in the fork arm. The connector is a 6
conductor RJ-12. The signaling is TTL and so a serial port on a PC
should not be connected to this port. See below about the
Auxiliary Port Accessory Kit.
- CAMERA Port - located on the top of the base of the scope.
This port is designed for connecting to many digital SLR cameras.
This allows the telescope to slew through a list of objects, taking timed
exposures of each object. The connector for this port is an RJ-12 and
the pin designations are found
here.
- POWER CORD Connector - located on the lower part of the base, right
above the tripod head. This is the connector for the power source
driving the scope - details on this connector are found
here.
Also, it should be noted that Celestron offers an Auxiliary Port
Accessory Kit (part number 93965) that can be connected to the AUX port and
then provides the following ports:
- AUX 1 and AUX 2 Ports. Two AUX ports with the same function and
description noted for the AUX port above.
- PC Port. This port can be used with two software packages
from Celestron. The first is for upgrading the motor control
firmware, though with hand control version 4.13 or higher, motor control
firmware can be updated via the RS-232 port on the bottom of the hand
control as well. The second is for a PC-based virtual hand control
called NexRemote - details are found
here. NexRemote can also be used by
connecting the PC via the RS-232 port discussed above - the PC port just
has the advantage of not requiring the real hand control to even be
connected. The connector for this port is an 8 conductor RJ-45.
The signaling is standard RS-232 levels. When using NexRemote with
the PC port, you need a "programming cable", not the standard RS-232 cable
used to connect to the port on the bottom of the hand control. Click
here for details on the cable used to connect this port to a PC.
|