Connecting SCT to desktop

Hi. Our club just finished a new observatory. It houses a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a wedge and permanent mount. We got
the scope connected to a laptop using the serial port to run the scope and the parallel port for the web cam.

We want to hook the telescope to the desktop computer in a nearby building. We have two 100' cat5 lines from the new observatory to
the building with the desktop. Question. What's the best way to control the scope and web cam from the desktop?

Could we hook the desktop to the laptop? The laptop's ports are used up, but could we hook up one of the cat5 lines to the USB
port? Could we remote control the laptop from the desktop? Both computers are XP and both have USB ports. Any advice would be
greatly appreciated...Dennis

"Dennis Allen" wrote in
:

Hi. Our club just finished a new observatory. It houses a
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a wedge and permanent mount. We got
the scope connected to a laptop using the serial port to run the scope
and the parallel port for the web cam.

We want to hook the telescope to the desktop computer in a nearby
building. We have two 100' cat5 lines from the new observatory to the
building with the desktop. Question. What's the best way to control
the scope and web cam from the desktop?

Could we hook the desktop to the laptop? The laptop's ports are used
up, but could we hook up one of the cat5 lines to the USB port? Could
we remote control the laptop from the desktop? Both computers are XP
and both have USB ports. Any advice would be greatly
appreciated...Dennis

If the distance is that short, you could try 802.11b/g wirless networking.

If you run Ethernet to the remote location, and put a low-cost hub
there, a single ethernet cable will enable you to control several
devices.

Although a remote desktop is probably more flexible....

Robert Sheaffer

Roger Hamlett wrote:


"Dennis Allen" wrote in message
...
Well, the serial/parallel ports on the laptop are used, but
we could use the USB to do ethernet (see
http://store.yahoo.com/priceshock/smc2206usbeth.html )

Question. Could we controll the telescope directly with one
ethernet cable and run the web cam with the other? We have two cat5
lines...Dennis
You'd end up spending a lot more, more, and probably having more problems
than just using remote desktop to control the laptop over one ethernet
cable with the USB-Ethernet adapter.
However one key question is whether the USB port is USB1.1, or USB2. If it
is USB1.1, then your ethernet 'rate' will be limited by the USB speed to
only 12Mb/sec (and in practice a lot less than this). Now this can be
unacceptably slow when using remote desktop, with a reasonably large
colour depth, and image size. Generally, a PCMCIA network card will give
much better performance, in this case, and would be the 'better' solution
(you do not mention PCMCIA ports on the laptop, but it should have at
least one such port). If the USB port is USB2, then the performance should
be fine, but I'd still prefer a PCMCIA card if possible!.
USB, is still to my mind a bit of a 'dog'. It is perhaps worth reflecting
why there have been five different releases of USBport driver for XP so
far released. Unfortunately to keep the cost of peripherals down, USB cut
corners, and while on some combinations will work fine, it can at times be
a pig....

Best Wishes