Optec Hand Control

Being mainly involved in deep sky imaging with automatic focus control, I somewhat lost the feeling for visual observing objects of our solar system. Therefore, I purchased a highly portable Alt/Az mount for my visual gear. All refractors are equipped with Feather Touch focusers and make use of Optec’s FocusBoss II, which can drive all my focus motors. Despite of the fact that focusing by hand is easy with the above-mentioned focusers, a relaxed sitting position during planet observation - imho essential for satisfying observation results - and focusing in parallel is sometimes cumbersome. Consequently, I decided to purchase the FocusLynx Hand Control which is a perfect fit to my FocusBoss hub and is a relief for acrobatic focuser handling during observing. After ordering the hand control at Baader Planetarium, it arrived already next day. I was expecting a plastic gimmick and was really surprised: The aluminium housing feels extremely premium, the finish is perfect. I immediately connected the hand control to the hub with different focus motors attached – all motors worked perfectly after setting the correct values in the hub software (the software offers the most common motor types). With a computer attached to the hub, I computer-synched the motors at different positions, which was immediately reflected in the hand control display (this hold also true for and vice-versa synching). De-connecting and re-connecting the hand control works without any flaw, parallel use (hub attached to hand control and computer in parallel) is void of any issues. Focusing can be achieved using the turning knob or the “in” and “out” push buttons – I personally preferred the old-fashioned push buttons (the buttons behave in an accelerating manner when holding them down). By pressing the turning knob down, focusing speed is toggled between 1x -> 10x -> 100x speed (1x = single step resolution, 10x = ten step movement with each encoder tic, and 100x for high speed and longer travel moves), a nice feature! The top left button is the “mode” button, used to cycle between the “firmware information screen”, “focuser 1”, “focuser 2” and the “home/sync” focuser screens. The focuser screen will display the focuser nickname (to be set in the hub software), the current position in steps and temperature (if a temperature probe is attached). Using my Optec QuickSync focus motor with an internal temperature probe confirmed the expected display read-out. And here comes the major downside of the hand control – obviously the hand control display was designed for nighttime use – during daytime (solar observing), the display is NOT readable. It would be great if Optec could add a dimming function to this hand control, then it would be perfect for me. The hand control comes with two standard coiled telephone handset cables (long and short) which attach to the RJ22 socket on the bottom of the hand controller – a nice feature for everybody who prefers to tailor-crimp his/her own cables. In summary, I am very delighted with this hand control and can really recommend its purchase and use.