USB Drivers for NexStar+ and StarSense Hand ControlsHand controls manufactured since April 2016 have a USB port on the bottom which provides an interface for your Windows, Mac or Linux PC/laptop. This port is actually a connection to a USB to serial adapter inside the hand control. As such, once you connect to it, your computer will have a serial port that your astronomy software will interface with. Windows, Mac and Linux will all require a driver to create this serial port. Once the driver is installed, a serial port, designated by a number, will be present on your computer. Configure your astronomy software to connect to this port. The USB port on NexStar and StarSense hand control uses a mini-B connector connector. The easiest way to ensure you get the right cable is to search for the cable used for a Canon Rebel digital SLR camera. In some cases, once you connect your PC/laptop to the hand control, a driver will be automatically loaded. If so, a serial port will then be present on your PC/laptop. If you do not find a serial port present after making this connection, you should manually load the driver. The adapter inside the hand control uses a Prolific PL2303 chipset. You can search at the Prolific website and download drivers from either of these locations (unfortunately Prolific's website is a mess so there is no telling where they might put the drivers as they post updates:
Alternately, you can download the version of drivers available in July 2020 from here:
Note for MacOS: MacOS High Sierra (10.13) introduced a new feature
that requires user approval before loading new third-party kernel
extensions. Go to System Preferences - Security & Privacy and click Allow -
more details here:
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