Weasner's Meade Autostar Information

ANDROID SKYSAFARI & SKYFI

Last updated: 23 June 2013

Subject: AutoStar controlled directly by SkiFI (WIFI) on android with Skysafari Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 12:38:57 From: joseic_EUE (joseic_EUE@hotmail.com) I`ve read some posts everywhere saying that its hard to control Autostar with SkyFi and android by means of WIFI as Android phones do not support Ad Hoc WIFI. Its true. The solution is: "Alternately, you can join both SkyFi and your Android device to an infrastructure WiFi network, such as provided by a typical home router - but then you'll need to carry that router with you, and find a way to power it, when you go to your remote observing site." as stated on the SkySafari web page. BUT there is another way to control skyfi with Android! And it is very easy: Activate WIFI hot spot on your android mobile and connect Skyfi to hot spot. The only problem I have found is Android cant access to Skyfi configuration at the beginning of the procedure so you need iPhone, iPod or iPad only once. Procedure is the following: You need: -Android mobile with WIFI hotspot capability (very usual) and with SkySafari installed on it. -SkyFi (of course) -iPhone or iPad or iPod (I used an Ipod) with no special software, for the first time. Method: 1. Activate WIFI hot spot on your android mobile (remember the name of the hot spot of your mobile. You can define a password if you want, I didnt) 2. Power on SkyFi. Once powered on, SkyFi creates its own 802.11 wireless network. By default, this is an open wireless network called "SkyFi" 3. Go to WIFI set up menu on Ipod and join to SkyFi network. With Safari (iOS web browser) access to SkyFi page (http://10.0.0.1), change the SkyFi option about WIFI access and select the Android Hot Spot (the name of your mobile hot spot) (if you stated a password in step 1 you have to enter the password now). Now you can exit (you need ipod no more). 4. Start SkySafari on your Android mobile. Access setting option in lower menu. Select "Telescope Set Up" menu and in the window "Scope Setup Settings" select "Connect via WiFi" and "Auto-Detect SkyFi". If everything goes well you mobile has detected SkyFi and then you can connect your Scope as usual in the program SkySafari. Dont forget select Scope Type and Mount Type in Scope setup! When you finish your astronomic session, just power off everything. The next time you power on SkyFi, it will look for your mobile hot spot and youll be able to control your scope again. I hope this information be useful. You need iPod for the first time to access SkyFi network as Android mobile cant. My equipmet is: Samsung Note Android 4.0, iPod 16G iOS 6, StarSeek (exactly the same than SkyFi but purchased from Orion Telescopes) and Autostar #497 on Meade LXD55-75. Jose I.

Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 14:27:57 From: joseic_EUE (joseic_EUE@hotmail.com) I sent an e-mail "AutoStar controlled directly by SkiFI (WIFI) on android with Skysafari" in march 2013. Now I can add some more information. Its possible to control autostar with an android device without iPhnoe/iPad at the beginning. You can use a laptop computer with WIFI, instead of iPhone/iPad, if the computer is able to connect to SkyFi adhoc network. I used a laptop with dual boot: windows XP and Windows 7. With the internet explorer (nevermind which OS starts) you can access to http://10.0.0.1 and modify the SkyFi configuration in the same way as with iPhone/iPad. So, the method is exactly the same as I sent in march but using a laptop insted of iPhone/iPad in step 3 of the previous method. I tried to do the same with other laptop with windows 8 but it failed. Although the computer detected the SkyFi adhoc network it was not able to connect to it. I dont know if it was a hardware or a software problem. I hope this information is useful to autostar community. Sincerely José I. Cuende

Subject: Re: More about "ANDROID SKYSAFARI & SKYFI" Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 12:45:38 From: joseic_EUE (joseic_EUE@hotmail.com) More and more. Ive been looking into new ways to connect android devices to skyfi. Android tablets without mobile capabilities (SIM card) usually do not have hot spot wifi option, so the previous solution is not factible. But there is another wonderful solution to use SkySafari on android tablets in order to get a bigger screen than a mobile screen. WIFI technology allows to use WFI capabilities in only one way at once: direct wifi, adhoc wifi, hotspot wifi (wifi zone) or accessing to a wifi network (the usual way). What happens when my android device has normal wifi capabilities but not hotspot? The solution that figures in SkySafari webpage is to use a(n infraestructure) wifi network. But it is no possible to carry my house router to outdoors. The solution is to create a wifi zone with a mobile and connect skyfi and android tablet to the wifi zone. And Eureka! You can control your telescope with the big screen of a tablet running SkySafari. This solution does not depend on mobile coberture. The mobile can create a zone wifi without a sim card. This solution is so flexible that I have controlled my telescope with to mobiles at the same time: one mobile creating the wifi zone and the other connecting to wifi zone, and both mobiles running skysafari. (Do not ask me why I want to control my telescope with to mobiles, just for fun) Best regards, Jos I. Cuende