Updating Celestron Advanced VX Firmware (and fix bricked hand controllers)

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The NexStar+ hand controller for my Celestron Advanced VX computerized mount bricked the other day and it became unusable. The message I received was "Bootloader Invalid Pkg: 0020".

I believe the error has something to do with something becoming corrupt within the firmware. So I decided to update the firmware and show how I did it. Like a lot of my how-to videos, this is mostly a future note for myself.

I have the older NexStar+ hand controller with the old phone jack plug. The newer ones have a microusb slot so it's much easier to update. With the older version, you'll need a celestron RS232 to phone jack adapter plus a different RS232 to USB adapter so you can connect it to your computer.

Get the RS232 to USB Adapter here: https://amzn.to/478waiN

You will also need the Celestron firmware manager, you can Google it in case the link has changed or find it here: https://www.celestron.com/pages/drive...

The process is super easy, only took a few minutes and as you'll see in the test, the go-to functionality is working as expected.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:15 A look at the Hand Controller
1:05 Adapters needed
2:04 Installing Sabrent Driver for serial adapter
2:46 Download and Run Celestron Firmware manager
3:26 Run the update
3:44 Checking and initializing the hand controller
4:07 Quick test of alignment
5:37 Go to Vega
6:25 Go to Alkaid
7:25 Go to Situla
7:53 Real life test
8:10 Find Jupiter
8:53 Find me Saturn
9:35 Conclusion

I probably could have sped up the dry runs in my basement, I apologize for the length. Hopefully the chapters help!

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Have questions? Ask below! Be sure to check out my #Astrophotography at https://www.Naztronomy.com!

#Astronomy #Celestron

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