Sky Commander & Guide via laptop

sandymc456@aol.com Apr 4, 2000

This is probably a simple question but I need some help from anyone who has
successfully gotten their Guide 7 program to communicate to the Sky Commander
DSC via a laptop computer (laptop is a Pentium IBM ThinkPad running Win 95;
Sky Commander is on a 12.5-in dobsonian reflector). I've been setting up to
begin an age of "paperless" observing: with a laptop outside, I won't have to
drag out all my books, references, preprinted charts, log books, etc since
they will all be a mere click of a button away!

I have all communications parameters on both computer & Sky Commander set
correctly as far as I can tell (baud rates match, serial port enabled for Com
1, start/stop bits and parity OK, laptop reports no interrupt conflicts) and
STILL get a message from Guide that the port is not answering ("error reading
port 1! 1 characters read: <-#>)? <grumble/mumble>. If someone has this
configuration working, and doesn't want to bother others on the list, you can
email me privately with some advice on what I'm missing?

I know this is minor (I've got Guide running great and configured to personal
preferences on the laptop and the Sky Commander works well also on the
telescope). All I need is Guide to "go to" where the telescope is pointed.
And I know I can tell Guide this manually .... its just the principle of the
thing that I can't click on "slew Guide" and have it go where the telescope
is pointing. I just get irritated when my computer tells me it refuses to do
something it should be perfectly capable of <g>.

Cheers,
Sandy Mc.

Sandra McNamara
Stanford, IL N 40d 26' W 89d 13m
EMail: SandyMc456@...