Southern Stars now offers two different telescope-control solutions for your Apple mobile device: SkyFi
and SkyWire. SkyWire is the simplest way to turn your iPhone into a
21st-century telescope controller. This brand-new "Made for iPod"
accessory adds an RS-232 port to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch - and
lets it connect directly to the serial port on your telescope.
SkyWire requires zero configuration - just plug it into your iPhone,
iPad, or iPod Touch. It doesn't need batteries - it's powered by the
phone, and consumes almost no power when not in use.
SkyWire isn't just a "dumb cable". It is a true "Made for iPod"
accessory that meets all Apple specs. Unlike other "iPhone serial
cables" available on the internet, you don't have to jailbreak your
iPhone to use it. It's the simplest, most reliable, and most affordable
way to control a telescope from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
SkyWire accessory connected to an iPhone 4 running SkySafari 2.1. Click to enlarge. On shipping SkyWires, the sticker is on the back side of the connector!
Most telescope models will require an additional cable to adapt
SkyWire's standard DB9 connector to a telescope-specific RJ-11 serial
connector. If you already have a "PC serial cable" for your telescope,
you don't need this additional cable from us. If you do need this
cable, we can provide one for you - with free shipping if you order it with SkyWire!
Specifications
Really, SkyWire is pretty simple. Here's everything you wanted to know about SkyWire, including:
Weight: 40 grams (1.5 ounces)
Length: 1 meter (39 inches)
Connectors: 30-pin iPhone/iPod/iPad connector, DB9 male RS-232 connector.
Color: any color you like, as long as it's black.
Power Use: < 50 mA under continuous use; < 5 mA when not in use.
Baud Rate: maximum 57.6 kbps
Data Bits: 7 or 8
Stop Bits: 1 or 2
Parity: None, Even, or Odd
Flow Control: XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS
Modem control signals: CTS, RI, DTR, DCD, RTS, DTR
Certifications: FCC part 15B, CE, RoHS, MFi (Made for iPod)
iPhone compatibility: any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 4 or later.
Telescope compatibility: any telescope model with an RS-232 serial port.
Effect on battery life: At most, SkyWire uses an iPhone 4
battery 20% faster than an iPhone 4 running alone. This "worst-case"
scenario assumes that both SkyWire and the iPhone are running
continuously. When plugged in but not active, SkyWire consumes almost
10x less power, and should have near-zero impact on battery life. An
iPad battery, with its much higher capacity, won't even notice a SkyWire
connected to it!
Telescope Compatibility
SkyWire can connect to any telescope with a standard RS-232 serial
interface. Models that have been tested and are known to work with
SkyWire include:
Meade LX-200 Classic and GPS
Meade LX-90, ETX, LXD, LX-400 ACF with AutoStar #497 controllers
Lumicon SkyVector, Takahashi Super Navigator, Dave Ek Box
Orion Intelliscope, Orion SkyWizard
Some Meade ETX models (60/80) ship with the Autostar #494 controller.
To make SkyFi work with these scopes, you need to replace the #494
Autostar controller (which does not have a serial port) with the #497
Autostar (which does). Contact Meade to upgrade your controller.
The only models that do not work with SkyWire are those that lack an RS-232 serial interface. Such models include:
iOptron SmartStar and MiniTower mounts with GOTONova controllers
Meade ETX-LS
Vixen mounts with StarBook controllers
These telescopes have USB or Ethernet interfaces, which cannot be physically connected to SkyWire.
Using SkyWire with Other Apps
SkyWire was the first in a family of serial cable accessories for iOS devices. It was specifically designed by Redpark Product Development to be used with our SkySafari
iPhone app for telescope control. But it's also a true RS-232 serial
port that can - in theory - be used with other serial devices. Redpark
sells a similar cable that is licensed by Apple for hobbyists to develop such serial applications.
Please note that due to Apple's policy restrictions, you can only
develop apps that work with Redpark's cable for your own personal use.
Such apps cannot be sold on the iTunes Store. If you want to sell an
iOS app which uses Redpark's serial cable, you'll need to develop your
own "flavor" of the cable. Contact Redpark for more information.
Using Other Cables with SkySafari
Other flavors of the Redpark serial cable include Orion's StarSeek Telescope Control Cable, and Redpark's own C2-DB9 Serial Cable.
For similar reasons, these cables cannot be used with SkySafari.
Redpark's and Orion's cables identify themselves to iOS as different
accessories than our app expects. Even though all of these cables are
physically identical to SkyWire, this firmware difference is enough to
prevent our app from recognizing the other cables.
Due to Apple's restrictions, we cannot change our app to recognize
Redpark's or Orion's cables; and Redpark cannot change its driver or SDK
to recognize SkyWire. Apple's policy is very strict in this regard -
each accessory is specifically designed for one app, and vice-versa. We
cannot sell SkySafari on the iTunes store unless we adhere to Apple's
rules!
