Guide Port Interface Adapter User’s Manual Model GPINT-PT Revision 2.
Introduction The Shoestring Astronomy Guide Port Interface Adapter is designed specifically to work between the parallel port of a desktop or laptop personal computer and the autoguider port that is a feature on many different telescope mounts. It is a small but important piece of a total system that allows you to economically autoguide your telescope for long exposure astrophotography.
Is my scope mount compatible with this device? Unfortunately, there is no universally used standard autoguider port interface. However, many scope mount manufacturers do use a port that has become somewhat of a default standard.
How can I be sure that my computer can control my telescope mount through this adapter? Shoestring Astronomy provides a simple software application called GPINTCheck that will allow you to verify that your computer, the GPINT-PT, cable, and your mount are all working together. This procedure should be performed before you go out to try to autoguide and can be done indoors without a guide imager attached to the computer.
very subtle and may not be noticeable by just looking at the mount. Usually the best way to tell is that you will hear the sound of the tracking motor change. 7) Click the other RA button. Now the mount should behave the opposite of what it did in step 6. 8) Click the RA buttons so that both are red to end corrections along the RA axis. 9) If you have a declination drive on your mount, click one of the Dec buttons on GPINTCheck.
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Guide Port Cabling Revision 1.0 Copyright 2005, Shoestring Astronomy Many telescope mounts are capable of autoguiding, or can be modified to add this capability. Unfortunately, there is no standardized interface that all manufacturers (or even within a single manufacturer) use for this function. However, most mounts do use a de-facto standard that for lack of a better name is referred to as ST-4. This refers to a popular model of autoguider from Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG), the ST-4.
