ASCOM Driver 2.0 Public Beta 2

This is the first public beta release of version 2.0 of the Digital DomeWorks ASCOM driver. Anyone may download the installation files and view this forum. If you need to make a problem report here, or want to give feedback or post for any other reason, you will need to register and log in. If you haven't yet created a login ID, here are some instructions.

Download the beta 2 release from the files area. 

Please note: This is pre-release software and as such it is likely to contain bugs. The software may fail or operate in unexpected ways.

Suggested installation procedure:

1. Drop a System Restore point and/or backup your system.
2. Uninstall any previous version of the ASCOM driver using the Add/Remove Programs control panel.
3. Install the Beta 2 release by double-clicking Setup.exe.
4. Test
5. Report back here with your experiences (good or bad), any problems, bugs, feedback etc. If you don't give me feedback, the beta process is entirely pointless.
6. If it all goes horribly wrong, use system restore to roll back.

Please post any bugs reports, questions, comments, feedback here in the forum. I have a strict policy of only answering support requests posted in the forum.

Tim,

We're using the new driver with ACP.  So far, with limited testing, there have been no problems.

 John G

John, thanks for posting. That tells me that at least you managed to install the beta OK, which is great - this is the first confirmed installation outside of my development environment.

Keep an eye open for any tendency for the driver to spontaneously disconnect (usually shows up in ACP as a Timer Refresh Exception) and please let me know if you see any instances of that.

Thanks.

Tim,

I haven't seen any disconnects as of yet but didn't with the other after changing some settings in the .xml file.  I have had a couple of issues where the dome didn't open from the startup script and tonight for some reason it didn't slave to the scope.  I've reverted to version 1 of the driver to see if it's the driver or something in ACP/ACPS.  i'll let you know.

John G

Tim,

One issue I've found is that ACP will start a plan and the dome reports it is closed, therefore failing the plan.  the next plan runs as usual.  Happened 2-3 times a night with Beta2, not at all with the V1 driver.

John G

John, thanks for the report. I must admit, I think I have seen this myself, but I assumed it was down to DDW.

Internally, the values reported by the driver all come directly from the status packet received from DDW- none of the valves ave ever modified except for the Azimuth valve as the dome rotates. DDw sends status when explicitly polled with GINF or after the dome stops moving. The driver parses the status packets and updates all of its internal cached values. So, in theory, if the driver reports "closed" then that value must have come from a DDW status packet. So the question becomes: is DDW sending wrong information, or is there a code path that is incorrectly setting the open/ closed status?

The fact that you get different behaviour in Beta 2 seems to implicate the driver, so I will try to find out what's going on.

Tim,

I have been unable to download Beta 2.  I get a failure to connect message.  I thought I would go directly to Beta 2 since I have been unable to get V.1 to to connect the computer to DDW (failure to establish serial communication error).  I have tried using COM1 with a standard serial connection and the COM5 with as serial to USB conversion.

I am using ASCOM layer 1.1.104.31651 and DDW layer 1.1.1804.31648.  Should I be using COMx:(legacy) or the \\.\COMx(UNC) connection although trying both has failed.  I am using ASCOM 4.1.1.  I will be connecting to a Software Bisque Paramount ME mount via The Sky V.6 professional.

Thanks,

Robert Ball

Robert, when you say you get a "failure to connect" message, do you mean the web site or the dome driver?

If it is the web site you are having problems with, please take a screen shot of the error page (Pres Alt-PrtScn) then paste it into an email addressed to me - Tim (at) tigranetworks.co.uk. Our web server has rebooted a few times in the last few days because of security updates being released by Microsoft. You may just have been unlucky and caught it while it was offline.

If it is the dome driver, that is a different matter. It shouldn't matter whether you use the legacy or UNC naming convention for your COM port, though if it is numbered with a single digit (i.e. COM1 to COM9) then stick with the legacy convention to keep things simple. I introduced support for UNC naming to better support ports up to COM127, but in version 2 beta 2 I'm using a different serial port driver that makes UNC naming unnecessary.

Can you connect OK using DDWCP or Hyperterminal? If you use Hyperterminal, set up a connection to your COM port using 9600 baus, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no flow control. Once connected, type the letters GINF and you should see a status reply starting with V4, and a whole series of comma-seperated numbers.

If that works, exit from hyperterminal and DDWCP then try again with the ASCOM driver.

Let me know what results you get and we'll take it from there. Stick with it and I'll do my best to get you up and running.

Both problems were solved with Tim's guidance.  Download went smoothly the next morning so likely a server issue.  Installation straight forward.

Failure to communicate problem traced down to a faulty connector from cable to serial port on the computer.

I am having trouble installing the DDW Ascom platform under Windows Vista. I tried both version 1.1 and the beta 2.0 release.

Both fail with a windows installer error which aborts the installation. I have tried running as administrator and with UAC disabled.

Any suggestions?