IMPORTANT: this firmware is recommended only for the original Star Adventurer and NOT the newer version: 2i with wifi. On the unit with wifi I’ve been told that you can access and configure all those features using the app
Glad you got this out for the older mount, but you really need to clarify that this is ONLY for users of the older mount. I see several people with the newer 2i mount attempting to upgrade their firmware because of this video. That will cause a lot of problems for their mounts. The newer 2i version, allows control of all these settings (and more) via the app - and much more easily (and visually). For those having the 2i mount, do not try and upgrade the firmware - you might run into issues.
This stuff all makes my head hurt LOL. Thank you for breaking this down down. I got my Sky-Watcher a few years ago and haven't really played with it because it was a bit overwhelming, but your videos will be helpful in breathing life back into my interest in this kind of photography.
People don't really appreciate how awesome this little tracker is. Because it's also a full blown timelapse machine. It gets even better when you add a slider, and attach the SA on top of it :) I have the Konova P1 120cm motorized slider. I have attached the SA onto it and configured it to shoot at a 90 degree angle, just like you explained. What you end up with is a nice parallax effect with a lot of movement. The frame moves from left to right, and it also pans from left to right. The only limit is your imagination. And your battery life :) GLHF
Yeah absolutely. A motorized slider is something definitely on my wishlist! Did you see what crazy things did I do with SWSA? Chcek it out: ru-vid.coma-mttqQd88c?feature=share
Hey! Great video my friend. I'm gonna have to watch it a few times to get all the information you put in there. Sometimes reading the instructions isn't as good as "seeing" the instructions. Thumbs up. Thanks!
This firmware is 5 years old! If you have the newer 2i you can do this all using the app saving yourself a headache trying to remember how it all works.
Definitely worth for Star Adventurer 2 owners, but for 2i owners there is no match with the SAM mobile app (from SkyWatcher). Way more flexible and easy to use, and no need to to change firmware, dials, and so on.
Correct - he really should have mentioned in the video that this is only for the older mount and not the newer 2i mount. I see several people on here with the 2i mount attempting to download this firmware into their 2i, which will probably cause issues. Hopefully at the very least, he will pin a comment or put it in the description box, that this is only for the older mount.
As a newbie with this SA, a video showing how you setup and use the settings (from the Moon to the astro timelapse mode) would be clearer to someone like me that needs visuals.
Hi. Thank you very much. Always nice to know more and more ways to maximise use of our astro gears that really cost much. More so, it gives us opportunities to shoot something during those cloudy days..been off astro for weeks now due to deficiency of clear skies ! Cheers
Great video, Kamil! Looking forward to your next videos about using the Star Adventurer, as I'm planning to use the SA more and more for (astro) timelapses and astrophotography.
Dude, this is really good, but please add a preface mentioning this is NOT for the 2i model that can use the SAM app. This is applicable only for older non WiFi model.
You need to ensure u give enough time for ur DSLR to write the image to SD card, if the time between shots is not long enough this can cause exposures to be less than what was programmed in the star adventurer or any intervalomter. I had this issue and was resolved with increasing the time between shots to 5-6 seconds minimum
Tip: I did not see this step mentioned, but I had to install a USB-to-serial driver, which is linked to in the "Accessories" section of the Sky Watcher site, just below the "Motor Controllers" section. Without the USB driver I was getting an error message when I tried to run the motor controller. After selecting the firmware upgrade file the motor controller software was telling me that it could not find a motor controller. Once I installed the USB driver I was successful.
Thanks Kamil! Your explanations are always very clear and technically esaustive. I will install the new firmware straight away !! Can we go back to original firmware if something goes wrong?
Hi ! And thanks for this video , we can normaly make dithering now but when i wrote parameters i have an error and nothing work .. have you got idea of how proceed for using this cheap dithering system please? 😊
Hey kamil, thanks for the video. Would you happen to know why on my star tracker the two buttons left and right arrow keep blinking? I haven't yet updated anything
when you mentioned that the actual exposure time was off by two seconds I wondered if you are using an Olympus camera with the shutter set to anti-shock mode? I have that experience when shooting with intervalometers because the anti-shock mode will open first curtain before activating the electronic shutter mechanism, so it's off by a couple seconds. If I need 120 seconds, I have to set intervalometer for 122 seconds or something like that when using anti-shock mode. Also, I will see if I can use this firmware on the Kenko SkyMemo S tracker which is basically a rebranded version of the Star Adventurer Pro.
@@kamilkp oh, I realized after I sent that that you use Canon mostly. Hmmm. Well, it was interesting because I get same results with my external intervalometers using a shutter mode to reduce vibrations but maybe it's something as you say, with the way the tracker's timer works. I've used various intervalometers and they don't all have exact same timings for some reason. But as you say, I usually don't worry too much about 2 seconds over 2 minutes as it usually wouldn't be an issue. Well, I'll play with this some this year. Just installed the advanced firmware so will study the manual and watch your video a bunch of times. Haha.
Wow thanks! I was trying to find a video for this after hearing about the firmware upgrade in your other video just this morning! Anxious to watch! Thanks again! But I’m guessing this won’t work on IOS systems. I have an iPad Pro?? And no access to a computer ?
Hi Kamil, Thanks for the extensive video on the advanced firmware. One thing I did notice was that the firmware appears to be quite dated. The file date stamp was 9-13-16 . What are your thoughts about this? Thanks, Pat
Yeah it’s quite old, but so is the Star Adventurer itself. This is not something they actively develop and provide new and fresh features via firmware once in a while. If it’s from 2016 than it is what it is 😃
is there a way to do this on the Star Adventurer GTi somehow. I am disappointed that GTi which is an advanced version of the 2i mount, doesn't seem to have any time lapse mode. :(
This is amazing! I just got my star adventurer sky watcher 2i pro. Btw for astro timelapse, even when the the mount goes back to it's original position, wouldn't tue ground be blurry for the time of exposure for example 2 mins?
You do not need this firmware for the new mount (2i) as these features can all be controlled via the app - which is easier as you can simply input all the settings directly into the app.
I have the Star Adventurer 2i and have tried to update to the new advanced firmware. It doesn't matter which motor controller I download I keep getting "The firmware file is not for this motor controller" Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong?
Kamel - First, let me say that your videos are great! I just received the Star Adventurer 2i for my birthday. I could not locate a procedure to update the advanced firmware using the WiFi function so I used the USB cable method you displayed. After running the software loader on my Win10 computer, I attempted to load the advanced firmware and received the error message that this version of firmware is not compatible with my model. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
This video should have clarified that this firmware is only for the prior version of the Star Adventurer (without Wi-Fi). You have the new version where you can control all of this very nicely with the app. You don't need this firmware to do any of the stuff as your mount has a much nicer and visual way to control these features.
I am a bit confused about the default behavior of the SA when it is in Astrophotography mode using the advanced firmware. I see that the default setting for the EXP parameter in star (sidereal) mode is 180 sec for exposure and 180.5 for shutter interval but I am a bit confused how to interpret these settings when using an intervalometer. I would assume that in Astrophotography mode the SA will rotate continuously without stopping and the EXP setting will have no affect in that case. In other words, if I want to use the SA with the advanced firmware for non-timelapse astrophotography and I am using an intervalometer I would just need to set the SA to Star / Default dial setting and none of the configurations will matter. The SA will rotate in sidereal time and operate the same way it would with the non advance firmware. Yes?
What time-lapse compiling software do you use/recommend? The firmware upgrade allows you to do pretty much everything that you can do with the 2i app, but you didn't mention the Dither function. Is that also possible?
@@kamilkp Hi Kamil. I have the SA 2i and it allows you to use dither when controlling the camera from the snap connection and mobile phone app. I have played around with the settings and found that images are improved by using dither. I used the following settings: Aim to Dither a minimum of 12pixels. d = 35 x p / F d = dithering in arcmin for Sam console. p = the pixel size of your camera. F = focal length of lens.
Using 100% of European A4 paper size instead of 100% Letter size used in the Americas will give you a larger image. Maybe the dial mode printing works better printed on Letter.
@@stevenrobinsonpictures The mode is there in the app and when you first choose it, it gets downloaded into the dial. You need to read the instructions to understand your new mount.
@@thewanderingsoul71 yeah i noticed this. Imo a step backwards. In the field i want to be able to go between modes much faster than connecting to a hotspot going into an app changing a setting. The 1/2 dial is missed here.
Quick question, which option to choose if I want a regular star tracker for deepsky photography? In the old firmware I just choose the "star logo" option, what about in this one? The same question with the "App" option. Thank you for your explanation.
Small piece of constructive criticism: the info in the video is good, but the order in which you tackle the different subjects is a bit off. E.g. you start by explaining the process of how to download and install the firmware on the tracker, but we're almost 8 minutes into the video before you start explaining what the firmware adds that wasn't present in the stock firmware. So you spend 8 minutes demonstrating how to do it, before even explaining _why_ we'd want to. Another bit where the ordering was a bit weird was between when you finally explain the modes, and how every mode has a secondary mode where we can change the parameters. And then, instead of explaining how that's done, you leave us wondering for more than 10 minutes between introducing the "5 configurable parameters" and telling us how to change them. I think it would've been better if you tackled every mode separately, and in depth: this is the mode, this is what it's used for, this is how you change its parameters. If the way you set a parameter is similar to something you've already covered (which it is), you can abbreviate the explanation: "it's similar to this setting, but now the first digit means this, the second that, and the third the other". Cheers, and thanks for the info. Too bad I didn't find out this firmware was mostly irrelevant for my model, as I didn't see your pinned comment until after the video. 🤣
@@kamilkp brakuje na polskich kanałach jakiś przewodników jak używać SWSA, w Polsce jest jeszcze mało popularny odnoszę wrażenie a masz tutaj mega dużo ciekawych materiałów tylko nie po polsku :( pozdrowionka. Super kanał!
