New ASCOM driver for legacy DDM mounts

[photon]

No, there is no new driver from ASA for us.

Instead I wrote an ASCOM telescope driver with connects to the existing AutoSlew ASCOM driver as "man in the middle" translator.

This driver adds some missing features from the original driver. I was able to connect to NINA without issues and to do an automatic 3 point polar alignment :-)

It's not yet super polished, but works for me.

If anybody is interested please visit https://github.com/photon1503/ASCOMProxyHub and also open discussions and issues directly on GitHub.

--

Gerald

[Rsanalb]

Thanks for your time and Work, i try and tell you something. 
 

great notice

Edited October 14 by Rsanalb

[AnakChan]

@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).

Edited October 14 by AnakChan

[Rsanalb]

I try and perfect connection. I connect phd2 and connect too. I try other time and tell you the result.

 

thanks again 

[photon]

Great to hear that it works for you 😀

@AnakChan You can also find the result of my Conformance tests here: https://github.com/photon1503/ASCOMProxyHub/tree/main/Conform

Let me know if you find some issues. I'm not using PulseGuide so can't test this one.

[Rsanalb]

Hace 2 horas, el fotón dijo:

Me alegro de saber que funciona para ti 😀

@AnakChanTambién puedes encontrar el resultado de mis pruebas de conformidad aquí: https://github.com/photon1503/ASCOMProxyHub/tree/main/Conform

Avísame si encuentras algún problema. No estoy usando PulseGuide, así que no puedo probar este.

Of course, I send you the practice, but now it’s raining, ajjajaj

[photon]

In the meantime Stefan from NINA also built some workarounds in the nightly build. Maybe this also helps us to directly connect now without having the "Proxy" in between.

[photon]

FYI, the connection issues in NINA nightly build #63 has now gone. So for most users this should be fine.

But for 3PPA, we still cannot switch tracking on/off due to missing implementations in the ASA ASCOM driver.

Only when using the ASCOM Proxy we have control over this feature.

[AnakChan]

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]

Hi, yes I'll keep UTCDate calcluation in the driver in order to pass the conformance test. Basicall it doesn't matter at which level the UTCdate is being calculcated.
And for TrackingRate you need the driver anyway.

Regarding syncing the location - this doesn't also work for me. Did this work with direct connection to AutoSlew?

[Rsanalb]

On 10/16/2023 at 8:00 PM, photon said:

Hi, yes I'll keep UTCDate calcluation in the driver in order to pass the conformance test. Basicall it doesn't matter at which level the UTCdate is being calculcated.
And for TrackingRate you need the driver anyway.

Regarding syncing the location - this doesn't also work for me. Did this work with direct connection to AutoSlew?

Nina take my location from auto slew. In my case

[photon]

On 10/21/2023 at 5:36 PM, Rsanalb said:

Nina take my location from auto slew. In my case

It will work from AutoSlew to NINA. But if you want to sync the other way - from NINA to AutoSlew - the new location will not be persistent in AutoSlew unfortunately.

[Joha]

Thank you very much for your interesting implementation. I would prefer to use the ASA DDM 60 with NINA for long time exposures of ~ 20 min and would need good pointing files. For short time exposures of ~ 2min I use an existing pointing file via ASCOM Device Hub. Unfortunately I get a severe error when I try to connect the ASA DDM 60 mount in NINA.

The ASCOM.photonProxyHub.Hardware log says:

...

17:57:15.675 Connected                 Set True
17:57:15.688 Connected Set             Connecting to proxy AstrooptikServer.Telescope
17:57:15.700 Connected Set             Threw an exception:
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040154): Die COM-Klassenfactory f[FC]r die Komponente mit CLSID {99352175-9A79-4457-BFE5-05BBBB61FB5C} konnte aufgrund des folgenden Fehlers nicht abgerufen werden: 80040154 Klasse nicht registriert (Ausnahme von HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)).
   bei System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)
   bei System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   bei System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   bei System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
   bei System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
   bei ASCOM.photonProxyHub.Telescope.TelescopeHardware.set_Connected(Boolean value)
   bei ASCOM.photonProxyHub.Telescope.Telescope.set_Connected(Boolean value)

When I check the registry CLSID {99352175-9A79-4457-BFE5-05BBBB61FB5C} is not available. Looks like a component is not found / registered.

Any idea how to overcome this issue - thanks.

 

[photon]

Joha, which versions of ASCOM, NINA and ASCOMProxyHub are you using?

With latest ASCOM 6.6SP2, NINA 2.3HF2 and https://github.com/photon1503/ASCOMProxyHub/releases/download/1.0.0.3/ProxyHub.Setup.1.0.0.3-direct.exe I cannot reproduce the issue.

 

[Joha]

Hello photon, last night I had the chance to verify the issue on the Windows 10 telescope computer. I used ASCOMProxyHub-1.0.0.3 and slightly older versions of the ASCOM and NINA software, e.g. ASCOM 6.6SP1. After updating to the versions you mention, the behavior is the same. On my Windows notebook I tested ASCOMProxyHub-1.0.0.3, NINA  and ASCOM Simulator Telescope without any problems. I will try further options on the telescope computer.