Ports and Connectors on CPC 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 on the top of the base of the
scope. The primary usage of this port is for connecting the
hand control, however, this port is actually the same as the two AUX ports
on the base of the scope, and so, the hand control can be connected to
those ports 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 1 and AUX 2 Ports- located on the top of the base of the scope.
These ports are designated for connecting "smart accessories", however, Celestron has
yet to release any applicable to the CPC scopes. 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.
- AUTO GUIDE Port - located on the top of the base of the scope.
This port is designed for connecting a standard autoguider - generally
based on a CCD camera. The connector for this port is an RJ-12 and
the pin designations are found
here.
Also, you can build or buy a manual hand control that allows manual
guiding or fine movement control and connect it to this port - details are
found
here.
- PC Port - located on the top of the base of the scope.
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. All other software on the market either communicates via
the RS-232 Port discussed above or communicates with NexRemote which in
turn communicates with the scope via this port. The connector 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.
- POWER CORD Connector - located on the top of the base of the
scope. This is the connector for the power source
driving the scope - details on this connector are found
here.
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