Hi,
I am writing an ASCOM driver for the TEMPer or TEMPerHum devices that can be obtained from
ebay or other places cheaply. Currently such driver can be used by SGP and the support in APT is coming before the end of the year. I am not sure what other software supports ASCOM ObservingConditions interface as it is relatively new.
The source code for the ASCOM driver will be released as open source with GPL license so anyone can use it as long as they keep their modifications open. I believe this will benefit the community the most.
I got my device yesterday and already got the basic ASCOM driver working. However, I would like to include the other variations of the TEMPer(Hum) devices. To call it variations is actually misleading, really the only similarity sometimes is the misuse of the name. They can have different sensors and talk different protocols and some even appear like identical but incompatible devices.
So, if you have such device I would like to help, my plan is to first find out who has which type of device. Then I would write some basic software that can read temperature/humidity from that particular device, which you will need to test. Once/if this is working the temperature/humidity code will be ported into the ASCOM driver which again will need testing.
First I need to know which type of device you have. To get the information:
On Windows:
1. Connect your device
2. Go to device manager
3. Expand the Human Interface Device section by clicking on little plus or arrow next to it.
4. You may see more than one device there. If you do you will need to find the right one. Start from the top and work your way down until you find the right one. Some devices may even appear more than once.
5. Right click on the device and select properties.
6. Properties window will open. Click on Details on the top.
7. Under Property you will need to scroll down (a lot) and find Bus reported device description and select it. In my case the value is
TEMPer1F_H1_V1.4
Look for something that start with TEMP... this will tell you that you have the right device. If you see something like USB keyboard, that is obviously not it. If you don't have the right device, close the window and go back to step 4 and pick the next one from the device manager.
8. Back under Property select "Hardware Ids" (usually 2nd from top). You will see something like
USB\VID_0C45&PID_7402&.....
In this case VID = 0C45 and the PID = 7402. Note that the numbers are hexadecimal and may include letters A to F.
I will need the description and the two numbers to identify the device.
On linux:
Open shell and run lsusb -v|less |grep TEMP
You should be able to see PID, VID and the device information that I need.
If you can send me those two findings by PM or post here that will get the ball rolling. I will try to find information about your device and, if it is different than the ones I already have and if I can find information how to talk to it, I will send you a small program that will test reading of temperature/humidity (If you don't want to run executables from me I can send you a source code and you can compile it yourself using free Visual Studio from Microsoft).