AnakChan

I've never been able to connect from N.I.N.A. to AutoSlew directly. I've always had problems, and at least to my understanding it's these kind of cases where the AutoSlew implementation of ASCOM for legacy/obsolete ASA mounts (i.e. DDM60/DDM85) is unmaintained. I've always needed to connect N.I.N.A. to AutoSlew indirectly through some kind of proxy such as ASCOM DeviceHub or ASCOM Remote, but still had issues. This is where Photon's ASA ASCOMProxyHub has been extremely invaluable in having N.I.N.A. to operate with AutoSlew seamlessly. Then in addition, his N.I.N.A. ASA Plug-In simplifies modelling even more. Note, AutoSlew for the current ASA DDM mounts (to my understanding) is updated to be more "ASCOM current". I don't know when/if ASA will update the AutoSlew versions for the legacy mounts though.

I think it's a matter of taste and preferences. Not necessarily such a clear cut case of "one is better than the other". However N.I.N.A. does seem to have a constant upgrade/improvement with lots of various plug-in support. Through the plug-ins, I find N.I.N.A. to be quite feature rich. Aside from 3PPA (polar alignment), I use the aberration inspector quite a bit. Of course one could use other products in conjunction like SharpCap, etc. but at least for me, it's nicer that it's all integrated into one app rather than paying SGPro, SharpCap, CCDi, etc. separately. Also (since this is an ASA forum!), with Photon's N.I.N.A. plug-in, you can generate sky models between N.I.N.A. & AutoSlew. I think if you want to use SGPro, you'd still need to use Sequence/MaximDL to generate the model before jumping to SGPro for the scheduling. So with N.I.N.A., Photon's plug-in, you're doing less jumping back 'n forth between apps.

Since you're limiting the topic N.I.N.A./SGP/CCD AutoPilot over ASA's own Sequence then personally I'm biased toward N.I.N.A. as I had been using it since my pre-DDM days. But IMHO ASA's native integration with other apps for legacy ASA mounts has lots of room for improvement, I'd say using N.I.N.A. with Photon's ASA Plug-in for. N.I.N.A. is a must. More info can be found here (Sorry, a bit of a cross-post). Photon's ASA Plug-In has been a heavenly sent gift that modernises legacy DDM's IMO. Once you are with N.I.N.A. then you can have all the other ASCOM drivers with it. Since N.I.N.A. is somewhat "freeware", there's no harm in trying it. I've not used SGP can can't comment on it, however I do know quite a lot of former SGP users (but not ASA owners) that have switched to N.I.N.A.

Will you be updating your driver to skip the UTCDate part now that Stefan's addressed it? But will still need your ASCOMProxyHub for the TrackingRate property? FYI can't remember if it's 1.01 or 1.02, I did have issues in syncing the location from N.I.N.A. to the mount - in my case it's just the elevation on my site.

@photon #1 thank you so very much for this. I believe this will make many N.I.N.A. <-> AutoSlew users very happy. #2, small issue but when trying to download this on my Windows PC, Windows Defender blocked with a virus threat warning. I created and left an issue in your project. Not certain if it's a header/signture/crc issue. Pls ignore! Looks liked you've fixed it. I'm able to download and am testing it now (running Conformance on it).

The official way is to log into the member area https://www.astrosysteme.com/member-area/ and go to the Member Downloads just under the title. if you have registered your DDM60, it'll show you only what you can download for the DDM60.

Sadly no. I had sent them 2-3 support requests but they have not replied.

In your member area, there is a Member Downloads just under the title. Click on that.

Thank you, I've just sent them a support request about this too.

Thx for sharing. Where may I find that info about 5.6.2.0 pls? I couldn't find anything about it (Release Notes, where to d/l, etc.) I'd guess even if one could get the software, as per your message above, without the new licence, it's not going to work anyway and it seems ASA isn't willing to provide the new licence?

Hi Robert, Actually I still have an issue with the 3PPA, but with the ASCOM remote, at least the date warning's gone, and I have control of the park/unpark. But unfortunately 3PPA is still an issue. Cheers, Sean

Necroposting this thread a little, someone suggested for me to use ASCOM Remote instead of Device Hub with N.I.N.A. and I have to say that it works better. By setting up the Astrooptik Telescope ASCOM driver under ASCOM Remote, then in N.I.N.A. connect via Alpaca the initial TrackingRate and date warnings when initially connecting no longer appears. I can also park/unpark within N.I.N.A. and that seems to work quite reliably too. Furthermore 3PPA can now move the mount (although here, the TrackingRate warning does pop up, but it doesn't stop the 3PPA routine). So all in all, ASCOM Remote works better than Device Hub for N.I.N.A.

Thx for your response there CS, I'm looking at those developers who are working with OnStep, SiTech or RPi solutions - they seem to work with drivers at a lower level almost directly with the motors directly - tuning it, reading the encoder values, etc. To me is effectively that's what AutoSlew's startup initialisation does. I'm trying to find someone who's up to the challenge to do reverse engineer the protocol signals of the USB interface. I would think those who develop OnStep or SiTech drivers may probably have some ideas on interfacing with the obsolete DDM mounts.

I've had my DDM60 for the past 20 months and it's been a struggle to try to use this primarily the software. Coming from N.I.N.A. there's been various interoperability issues such as TrackingRate implementation, etc. jumping back 'n forth between N.I.N.A. & AutoSlew/Sequence for scheduling & Autopoint/MLPT, etc. has made it a tedious hands-on interaction instead of a "schedule & let it run" operation. Trying to forgo N.I.N.A. and use only Sequence, it crashes on autofocus with my Takahashi µ250CRS ASCOM focus driver. So I can't use Sequence-only either. I understand that AutoSlew & Sequence development has stopped for legacy ASA mounts (whilst there's still ongoing Alpaca development for the current DDM100+, but not backward compatible to the older legacy mounts). I really do like the DDM60 hardware itself and it's merely the software that's been the limiting factor, what recommendations do others have to offer here? I think there's probably sufficient other DDM60 owners who have other similar issues who may be willing to chip in to pay for a software rewrite (preferably something that plays nice with N.I.N.A. and possibly even a ASA plug-in for N.I.N.A. that can do Autopoint & MLPT). Or even a software driver & h/w combination such as a Raspberry Pi & Alpaca (and/or INDI) approach. Any recommendations on where to start?

Has anyone ever had a blown USB/Serial chip in a 12V short circuit with their DDM60? I had a short which blew my 5A fuse in my cigarette lighter plug. But I think a little too late & damaged my USB/serial chip (and hopefully nothing more). I have a Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed) in my Device Manager. Anyone knows how easy or hard is this to repair? I’ve dropped off a mail to Wolfgang already. Pending a response from him. Meanwhile checking this forum if anyone else had experienced this.

Colin, cheers for your advice. Actually I did a 32 point model (I counted 32 on the screen, but the actual number of subs it plate solved was like 47?) yesterday. I decided to do short 60 min Lum subs with my 250CRS (2500mm FL native) and didn't need any MLPT at all. I left my scope outside and continued this evening using the same model and acquired another target of diff dec/ra. Using the same 60 sec subs, I didn't need MLPT for this other target either. If I had to shoot 600sec subs with narrowband, then MLPT is likely to be more a necessity at that same 2500mm FL.

I believe there may be newer (Alpaca compatible?) versions of AutoSlew floating around but owners of obsolete DDM models don't have access to them (nor do I know if they are compatible to the older DDM models). I don't know if those versions of AutoSlew have improved on their ASCOM compatibility or not (which may be a moot point if those newer versions don't work on the obsolete models of DDM anyway). Personally, I've not really imaged since owning the DDM60 over 15 months ago primarily due to the learning curve of the software and my laziness. I'm so much more familiar with N.I.N.A. and going back 'n forth between AutoSlew (setup) - N.I.N.A. (AF and 3PPA) - Sequence (Modelling & MPLT) - AutoSlew (loading of model) - N.I.N.A. (schedule acquisition) - Sequence (post meridian flip MLPT) - N.I.N.A. (schedule acquisition) has put made me lazy to image. As I have a nightly portable setup/teardown, this means that those models are temporary only for the night and have two be redone for the next night. I'm not a software developer but I've gotten to the point where I'd even consider paying someone to write a N.I.N.A. plug-in for the DDM60.

If you don't get any joy from ASA pls ping me offline. BTW, something is still strange as it's specifically the Autofocus routine that's bombing out with an exception error. It may be worthwhile to try to have someone RDP into your PC to check it out.

Sorry for basic question but I'm a little confused if it's the AF routine in Sequence is the problem or if it's the AF routine in MaximDL that's the issue. You mentioned that you can run the V-Curve routine in MaximDL but the error message you're getting is from MaximDL's AF routine? Just to start from scratch, can you double-check you hadn't lost your focuser's ASCOM setting in Sequence : And in MaximDL?

Hi Mark, Actually been thinking about that 'cos usually binning would make sense esp for CCD but since I'm on a CMOS sensor I don't think I'd reap in the usual CCD benefits of binning. Probably the only benefit is the smaller file sizes for file transfer for CMOS? Cheers, Sean

Hi Mark, Thank you for the very good tips! I've always wondered about those trolleys as I wonder how stable from movement during imaging, etc. Mine's done on my lawn. I'll dig into the trolleys approach a little more. That's great to know that I don't need a 100 point model if I'm using MLPT - ok so I'll still do an all sky but just 10 would be sufficient, then MLPT for my particular target Dec. That will save me a lot of time. I"ve been using N.I.N.A. for polar alignment (then switch back to AutoSlew/Sequence), I've not tried AutoSlew's 3 star PA routine yet but will give that a shot. Thank you for sharing your workflow! Helps me understand which areas I need to focus on and where I'm overkilling it. Cheers, Sean

Hi All, Owning my DDM60 for a year now I'm still learning about it (not used it for any imaging yet, but just doing lots of "tests"). I don't have an observatory and use it as a portable setup in my backyard. Currently my setup time from carrying my gear out to my lawn, balancing, PA'ing, syncing, and all-sky modelling takes me approx 2 hrs at best. Furthermore as my OTA is a Takahashi µ250CRS and I image at native 2500mm FL with an ASI6200MM (therefore imaging at 0.31"/px unpinned or 0.62"/px binned), I'll have to use MLPT too. I came across @ChristerS presentation in TAIC he made 5 yrs back and according to that, I could actually skip the sky AutoPoint (which would save me about 1 hr for 100 point model), and just go straight into MLPT. But according to documentation, the recommendation is to do MLPT on top of AutoPoint. 1) Can anyone please recommend a workflow for my setup? 2) Also, for a situation where I do leave my setup outside for the next evening, I do the home find position but I take it I don't have to find a star to sync (and set new homefind position)? I made a mistake of doing a star sync and I think I had to redo my entire AutoPoint model again for the 2nd night Cheers for any advice you're able to offer, Sean

I recently updated my Sequence from 0.2.1.1 to 0.2.1.3 for my DDM60 Std. No issued with 0.2.1.3 so far. Mind you I've not found any big differences from 0.2.1.1 to 0.2.1.3 either. Can't find any changelog to see what's changed there. Sean

Edit: Pls ignore. Issue solved. I needed ASCOM installed first before AutoSlew.

Hi Mark, Thanks! I had actually come across this before but initially discredited it 'cos the connectors were in a circular fashion. Thx for the tip on the WSV 70 instead. Looking up in the data sheet, it looks like the RS Online site puts the WSV 71 picture, but has the title that's vaguely WSV 7 instead. I'll try to see if I can get the WSV 70. Cheers, Sean