If there's no support for Lx200 over TCP, we can use socat

[10110111]

Do I understand it correctly that Stellarium doesn't support Lx200 over TCP? At least, I couldn't find a way to enable this from the GUI. So for those who want to make this work anyway, below is a workaround for Linux. If this is useful (i.e. there indeed is no built-in support in Stellarium), I think it could go to the User Guide. (Of course, ideally built-in support for this should be implemented.)

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First, use socat to create two endpoints of a virtual serial port:

sudo socat -d -d pty,link=/dev/ttyVA00,echo=0,perm=0777 pty,link=/dev/ttyVB00,echo=0,perm=0777

Connect your TCP-enabled telescope to the PC, and, assuming its IP address is 192.168.123.123 (replace with yours), here's how you connect it to one of the endpoints of the virtual serial port:

socat TCP:192.168.123.123:10001 /dev/ttyVA00,b115200,raw,echo=0

Now you can add a new telescope in Stellarium's Telescope Control plugin, choosing

• Telescope controlled by: → Stellarium, directly through a serial port
• Device settings → Serial port: → /dev/ttyVB00
• Device model — whatever protocol you have (I used Lx200 to work with my emulator on localhost)

After setting up all the rest options as usually you can press OK and connect to the telescope.

[alex-w]

Do I understand it correctly that Stellarium doesn't support Lx200 over TCP?

Yes, this is correct - no Lx200 over TCP

[gzotti]

Yes, the classic support was LX200/Serial. But most likely users would connect TCP-connected telescopes via ASCOM or INDI now.
(Hehe, it's not Telescope Connection Protocol :)

Wow, that sounds like an interesting solution! Must go into the User Guide please!

[10110111]

Do you have any real hardware to test this instruction on (maybe not Lx200, but something from the list of protocols in serial mode)? I've only used it with my python-based emulator running on localhost, it would be nice to make sure it works with read HW before putting it into the Guide.

[gzotti]

No, my NEQ3 is connected with Serial interface (SynScan), no IP. I have a few observers in one of my clubs, not sure if they want to waste a few hours with testing for the community though. And -- sigh -- "of course" they are all on Windows AFAIK.

If you can write clear instructions in our general Google group, or on CloudyNight forum, maybe some subscribed reader can help us.

[10110111]

Actually, it appears that at least on Linux this is solvable by using indiserver and connecting to its INDI connection. The server has to be configured using KStars though, because Stellarium doesn't provide any UI for this, but after the config file has been created (an XML file in ~/.indi/), the server can successfully run, and Stellarium does connect via it.

It seems from some discussions online that indiserver doesn't run on Windows well, at least because of lack of support for USB forwarding to WSL, but we don't use USB here, so it might work as well.

So, I suppose, this instruction based on socat may be of little use to the general public.