Do you use equipment which does NOT have an ASCOM driver?

[Eden (Brett)]

Hi all,

If you happen to use a piece of equipment in your regular setup which isn't supported by ASCOM (i.e, the manufacturer simply doesn't provide an ASCOM driver for it), kindly list it here in this thread.

Please be sure to mention what the equipment type is (mount, camera, focuser, etc), the model and manufacturer. Homebrew gear excluded.

[White Rabbit]

I have a meade DSI II camera that I use to use for auto guiding. I was really happy with it but had to stop using it because I moved from phd to TSX. PRO for guiding and meade would not provide Software Bisque with a driver nor would the release an ascom driver. I don't think I'll ever buy another piece of meade equipment again because of it.

Cheers
Sandy

[Eden (Brett)]

Thanks Sandy, this is useful to know.

I'm trying to get a "big picture" idea of what hardware products require specialized support for them to be written into a software program. Is this a camera which is seeing a lot of use out there in the community?

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

What's ASCOM and why do I need it?

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

What's ASCOM and why do I need it?

You need it to run EQMOD, the old way to interface a computer to mounts of the EQ series. Not really necessary now with synscan controllers.

However it can also be used to interface other equipment to a computer that does not have natural drivers.

Been around for a long time and runs very sweetly these days.

Barry

[g__day (Matthew)]

Do you count software as equipment? The Sky6 Professional Edition wasn't too friendly with the ASCOM drivers (nor MaxPoint) if you tried to share your mount via any of its drivers (directly or via the dreaded - by me - TelescopeAPI option.

It took ages to realise you simply had to direct connect the Sky 6 to your mounts driver, then have everything else point to the (ASCOM) A Sky controlled telescope. Even this set up prevents Astro Tortilla from sending sync's to a Sky6 controlled mount on successful plate solves.

The Bisque team put out a pretty strong statement that ASCOM is an industry initiative, not a standard, that not all all folk ascribe too. They when on to give their view as to how and where it falls short of being a standard. We live in an imperfect world!

[Eden (Brett)]

ASCOM, in software development terms, is an Interface.

It's a contract that defines a set of methods and properties that software developers can use to target a wide range of hardware from different manufacturers without having to write unique code for each and every one separately.

ASCOM is good for astronomy because it means the developer only has to call a single function like -- in the case of a camera -- StartExposure() and it will behave the same way regardless of manufacturer or model, so long as that manufacturer provides an ASCOM driver.

Write once, run on many.

Having to support each device and manufacturer separately without a standard like ASCOM not only means much more work, but it also makes it difficult to effectively maintain software if manufacturers change their drivers in any way.

Synonymous to this is the PC graphics card. In the 1990's, 3D graphics cards became available for the PC and there was no single standard programming interface, so you had OpenGL, Glide, DirectX and a couple of others. Games programmers, in order to reach the whole market, had to target all of these. After much ado, DirectX remains the dominant standard for Windows and OpenGL for other platforms.

[frolinmod]

Originally Posted by g__day

Do you count software as equipment? The Sky6 Professional Edition wasn't too friendly with the ASCOM drivers...

Notice the past tense. TheSky6 has been obsolete for many years now. Anything Steve Bisque may have written about ASCOM twelve years ago that may have been highly accurate at the time is also long since obsolete though you can doubtless still find it online.

TheSkyX 10.2.0 build 8114, the current version of TheSky, has good ASCOM support. Software Bisque is an ASCOM Initiative Partner and has been for many years. Evan Warkentine, who wrote and still maintains TheSkyX ASCOM interface code is in the ASCOM Hall of Fame. Note that TheSkyX also has good X2 support which allows it to interface with some equipment on multiple platforms, not just Windows.

See http://www.bisque.com/sc/pages/SBandASCOM.aspx

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

You need it to run EQMOD, the old way to interface a computer to mounts of the EQ series. Not really necessary now with synscan controllers

Ha! I beg to differ - EQMOD and other software that interfaces with the mount using ASCOM can do so much more than Synscan. Indeed, Synscan is basically a fairly limited (and buggy) bit of cut-down and highly limited (firm)software that only have the advantage of being stand-alone from a PC. I also use ASCOM drivers to connect my camera to capture software (Nebulosity), AstroTortilla etc.

White Rabbit, regarding your Meade DSI II camera lacking a driver - have you tried the Orion ASCOM driver provided for the DSI III equivalent? (the SS G3). It should work...

[frolinmod]

I think maybe he meant EQDIR hardware rather than EQMOD or EQASCOM software.

The EQDIR or equivalent hardware is not absolutely required since Sky-Watcher conclusively documented a few years ago now that PC direct mode on the hand controller is indeed direct mode straight to the motor controller. All you need to use EQMOD is to set the hand controller to PC direct mode and plug the already included DB9 to RJ cord into the hand controller. (Add a USB to DB9 serial adapter these days if you no don't have a serial port on your computer.)

A good 'ol FTDI USB to TTL serial cable with an RJ connector direct to the mount is more compact of course and avoids any need to have the hand controller in the mix.

I've done it both ways and they both work fine.