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Last night, at a star party, I set up my G11T and plugged my hand controller into the wrong port. It didn’t work of course, but when I noticed it and plugged it into the HC port it would stall out within the first?
few pages at startup. It stalled on the quick start/cold start etc. page or the mount selection page and would not go farther. I have been using my CGX-L mount recently and it isn’t picky at all about where I plug in the hand controller. It isn’t a great excuse but it’s all I’ve got. I tried unplugging everything and waiting for a minute or two a bunch of time, but?had no joy. Does anyone know of a fix short of getting a whole new Gemini 2 setup??

Jeff

I will be interested to hear the answer, because I feel strongly that equipment should be designed so that plugging something into the wrong socket should not cause damage.? (An engineering best practice that seems to be unknown to astronomy equipment manufacturers.)? I have tape over all the sockets I don't use on my Gemini.

What's intriguing is that it partly works.? There may not be much wrong.

I used spare modular plugs I had laying around to fill in the empty jacks. Tape was too ugly.?

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Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?

? ?Astropheric Weather Forecast - South Pasadena, CA?

Hi Jeff,

Which port did you plug it into? The two ports (HC and Serial/GPS) are both serial connectors. There's no difference between them, other than the default baud rate setting. Plugging in the HC into the serial port will not damage the HC or the Gemini unit, but the HC may not connect to Gemini if the baud rate is not what it expects.

You may have some other issues with your HC, like a loose micro-SD card or just a bad cable.

Regards,

? ? ?-Paul

It was one of the top two ports.?

Covering the other ports is a great idea. I had to tape over one of the ports on a large variable battery after instantly burning out an astronomy camera. I am not going to worry too much about how ugly it is.

It may have just been coincidence that the HC stalled out after plugging it into the wrong port. It might have happened anyway.?
I have had more than a few mounts glitch out or die on me in the last few years. I am dreaming of a simple, dummy proof, bullet proof, mount that will support over 100 pounds and isn’t expensive!?
Am I asking too much?

I think Ports E and F are serial ports similar to the HC port, and the ST-4 autoguider port is just switch closures (probably really FETs) and wouldn't supply power or do damage to anything plugged into them.?? I'm thinking the problem might be something else, maybe your cable.

Someone at Losmandy can confirm this.

On Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 07:18 PM, jeff marston wrote:

It may have just been coincidence that the HC stalled out after plugging it into the wrong port. It might have happened anyway.?
I have had more than a few mounts glitch out or die on me in the last few years. I am dreaming of a simple, dummy proof, bullet proof, mount that will support over 100 pounds and isn’t expensive!?
Am I asking too much?

?YES.you are.?

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Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?

? ?Astropheric Weather Forecast - South Pasadena, CA?

Jeff,

Going forward it's probably best to block the jacks. Instead of jack ends or tape, I use the rubber inserts shaped like the sockets.

Not sure how you can get the HC plug into the other jacks since they are a bit different in size and believe me, I have tried in the dark too :). Just thinking what this could have done, like draining the coin cell or corrupting volatile memory? Perhaps re-flashing the SD cards in Gemini and the HC might help. Can you get to the reset to HGM defaults selection?

I think I fried my Gemini PC board a few years ago when I did a hot unplug/plug switching the RA and Dec drives. Now a $500 part :(.

Would booting with the HC disconnected do anything and running off a laptop? Just thinking out loud. This is not the first I have heard of the boot up getting stuck, but the solutions were varied as I recall.

John



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Losmandy G11G2 on pier; SkyShed design roll-off observatory; ZWO ASI2600MM-P; ZWO ASI071MC; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED; Celestron C925 Edge HD with 0.7XFR, William Optics Zenithstar 61 APO; PHD2, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight user

Hi jeff

depends upon which vet Gemini 2 you have, I suspect G2 mini. ?So one port , the Au ?th o guider is 6 pin the other Port F is 8 pin?

Yes it’s possible to fit a 6 pin plug in an 8 pin socket. ?Don’t feel bad it happens.? I'm sitting down going thru the cctry diagrams and thinking of the possibilities....here's my take as a Tech repairer.? FWIW.

Ok , if you plugged the HC into Auto guider port, guide lets see the results electronic wise they are both 6 pin plugs sockets):
Guider pin1: Goes thru a 100r resistor and thru beeper to 5V.? So yes this can put 5V limited current to the HC (as this is same as HC power pin, +5V)....it might "beep" if you do this, hard to say buy more important may have been enough to power the HC and RS232 etc internal in the HC.

Guider pin 2: Common. ? Is a 100R resistor to AGND.? On the HC this is Rxd receive from HC to max232 so no issue here it is not receiving data just GND thru a resistor.?? No problem caused by this.

Guider Pin 3/4/5/6: Are all tied hight to 3,3V thru 3.3K resistors, also tied to Gnd thru zener protection cct and to 74HC14 Schmitt trigger? buffer IC.?? I cannot see that any HC pin passed thru these will cause any issues to the HC or Autoguider port.

IMHO plugging it into the autoguider port, the HC and Gemini cctry should survive ok.

Ok lets look at the scenario of plugging it into the "Port F" an 8 pin socket (remember the HC is 6 pin).?? Firstly its a little hard to predict as which pin touched? which so i'll try cover 2 pins at a time?
Port f pin 1 (5V), Pin 2 (AD, Analogue to digital converter): 5V tolerant goes to ARM and zener diode protection network.?? All should be ok
Port f pin 3 (AD), pin 4, (Txd TTL) from CPU.? I do not think HC pin 2/3 (Rxd or Gnd) could cause issues here as the line is 5V tolerant.
Port f pin 5 (rxd4), pin 6 (Txd4).? Both TTL 5 V tolerant to ARM and protected by zener cct.? The HC pins GND or Txd would be placed upon this, which IMHO will not cause any issues.
Port f pin 6(Txed3), pin 7 (Rxed3).? Again as above 5V tolerant and zener protected to ARM putting HC pins Txd or LLTxd on this.? I'm pretty sure LLtxd is out of cct byt jumper.? So putting Txd to this shouldn't be an issue as the RS232 is not transmitting!
Port f pin 8 (gnd).?? So the only pin that the HC plug could touch this would be LLtxd (again its not connected as said).

So it looks to me that plugging the HC into port F should cause no damage.? My only issue is if plugged into Autoguider it supplied enough 5V to power the HC and RS232 IC and 3.3V onto the HC Gnd pin....which may be enough to cause unknown issues.

Ok you say...one of the top 2 ports...if you plugged it into "Port E" then I'm sorry, you probably put 5V on HC Rxd line and or 5V onto HC Gnd pin.?? There will be damage in the HC internally.?? Then, plugging this HC into the proper HC port....may transfer damage to that port....sorry to say.? But this needs to be confirmed.? If the issues continue, do a factory reset see if that fixes it.? If not I do not recommend plugging your HC into the serial port 2 to test as you may transfer damage

Normally power damage is catastrophic aka blown ICs, caps etc.....if you open your HC you may be able to determine if there is such damage and maybe out of desperation try the serial 2 port (remember to set this port to ).

So if the issue continues, see to a local repairer ()? or Losmandy.??

Get back on how you go.?? Yes its always an issue with many similar plugs and sockets.?? You can bet someone will do it...in fact more than one.? But there is a distinct lack of differing connectors.? Also Autoguider ST4 is a std interface you just cannot change it has to be this way.? Also the other ports serve such different purposes its impossible to make all ports compatible.

All you can do is as stated, fill the unused sockets with plug blanks.? Been discussed a lot.

Good luck get back if you need more info or help....I'll help as much as I can

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Brendan

Thanks Michael! I appreciate your input.

Maybe if I left off the inexpensive part and just put “money is no object” instead? It’s all okay. We generally get what we pay for.

At this point I would have no idea how to run my mount with my PC. I have crossed my Dec and RA but didn’t have any issues except for some confusion when up/down turned into left/right.

Jeff crossing Ra/DEC cables is an oldie but a goodie that everyone does, me, more than once.

As for connecting to a computer.....? Start at the first page, read it al especially the tutorials and watch the videos and ?? .? There is lots to absorb Many ways to connect, the easiest is thru the "USB B? port" (not the USB A)? and use Gemini ASCOM.??? The preferred way is using the as its much more feature rich.??

My question.....did you try the Serial/GPS port with the HC??? Did it work or is it working with the HC port?

You have to get into the web interface first and set the .? If you have trouble look at the videos and or ...yes you need the HC for this.
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Brendan

I would also suggest replacing the coin cell in the Gemini-2.? If somebody told me their Gemini-2 would partly boot up and then get hung, that's what I'd think the problem is.? It's possible your cabling mishap had no real effect at all, but the coin cell happens to have run down.? It's the main cause of Gemini-2 weirdness.

I think that if you had killed your hand controller or port, you would not have seen any Gemini menus on it at all.

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Michael A. Covington, Ph.D.
Consultant, Covington Innovations, Athens, Georgia, USA