Star-Mate is a short range RF enabled Remote Control Device.
Intended to reduce wires and the Scope and make like easier!
Star-Mate consists of two parts.
1. Handheld Remote. Used to make all Control requests.
2. Control Box. Attached to the mount with wires to hook-into the mount/focus/camera controls. (Shown as Gray box in picture below)
Control any ST4-enabled Mount. Eg. Losmandy G11 / GM8
The primary fuction of the Star-Mate is to provide wireless control of the Telescope Mount. The Star-Mate has been designed primarily for use with Losmandy Digital Drive System, but should work on any Mount that has an ST-4 compatible control port.
Some examples include...
+ Losmandy: G-8 and G-11 (with and without the Gemini box)
+ Meade: LX-200 & LX-90
+ Celestron: Nexstar i-series, Celestar 8, & Advanced Series GoTo
+ JMI NGT
+ WinCTC Goto Controllers
+ Tom O. Equatorial Platform.
Control Motorised Focusers. Eg. JMI NGF-S etc.
Using dedicated focus Relays, any motorised focusser can be controled by Remote.
Control any ST4 Mount from PC using LX200 commands (Auto-Guiding)
The Serial port on the RF Control box provides one RS-232 port that is LX-200 command set compliant. This allows a PC to control the Slewing for Goto, or AutoGuiding.
Control Exposure Shutter Release on Canon EOS Cameras
Buy using the Remote, you can control the Bulb Setting on any Canon EOS camera, without touching the camera or anything connected to the camera, thus eliminating the chance of movement interferring with the photo.