Astrohaven ASCOM driver?

[Glenn Gaunt]

Does anyone know of where I can find an ASCOM driver for the Astrohaven dome? (Hopefully one that will work on a Windows 8 platform)

[Glenn Gaunt]

I realized today that I should have been more specific with my question yesterday. I am integrating a 12 ft Astrohaven clamshell dome with ACP 7.0, and have been searching for a more elegant interface than my current serial modem program which works to open and close the dome remotely. There are threads in this forum from a few years ago on the topic of finding an ASCOM driver for the Astrohaven dome, but the thread stops after a while without a certain resolution. The ASCOM site does not list a driver available for download for Astrohaven domes, but it does list one that looks general purpose (ACL Dome 5.0.2, which is compatible with dome controllers that use Astronomy Control Language). I am unsure if this is a good choice. I did find a Yahoo group topic from 2009 with a link to Michel Neunier's ASCOM driver that he uses for an Astrohaven dome in France. His code is dated 25-Nov-2011 but there was a comment in the code that said it must run with 32 bit machines. It comes with an installer. I am stuck in the mud, as many are, with new computer purchases which are Windows 8 platform only, so I am looking for advice. Should I use Michel's driver, or does anyone know of a more recent one that should be used?

[Bob Denny]

Have you contacted AstroHaven? They would probably appreciate knowing that this interest exists. I talked with David a while back about a driver and it seemed that he was interested.

Meanwhile, ACL won't work, it is a special protocol used by DFM, Meridian Controls, and COMSOFT. The bitness of the driver and OS aren't an issue. ACP is a 32-bit app and if the driver is 32-bit that's all that matters. The fact that the OS is 64 bit just means it can run both 32- and 64-bit things. Watch out for UAC though, that can have all sorts of weird consequences for older software and drivers.

[Glenn Gaunt]

Thanks, Bob. That is very helpful information re: 32-bit apps and 64-bit OS. Yes, I have run into curious anomalies with UAC which seem to go away if I "run as administrator" or turn of UAC (the machines are fairly well protected without UAC so the risk feels minimal to me at least.) I have a call in to AstroHaven.

I will stay away from ACL for the reasons you cited. I got brave and downloaded the 2011 version from a server in France. It seemed to install, and appeared on the chooser. At first run, it actually opened the dome from a command within ACP. But then I had other problems crop up with the overall integration of the observatory, so I put it on the back burner for now. The initial debugging seemed to point to a limit switch error, which from initial investigation seems to me to be a glitch in that driver misreading thelimit switches. I think this is true because I can read the limit switches via RS-422 serial comm and they appear to be operating fine so it seems to be a hardware-software mismatch in the driver. Bottom line is, the French driver is close but not the cure yet.

If AstroHaven does not have a driver, do you know of anyone who would have time to write one? I would be willing fund the effort, and then all of us with AstroHaven domes would be happier. Surely there is someone who would do a little freelancing code authoring for those of us who don't have that talent.

Failing all of the above, I suppose I could use the signal from the Boltwood cloud sensor to ask ACP to terminate the current program and park the scope. Then use a unique and separate way to automatically close the dome after park on bad weather signal.... hmmmm... let me see what I can come up with. I will let you know if there is something interesting that develops from that thought.

[Glenn Gaunt]

Okay, AstroHaven product support referred me to use ShutterDrive program, which of course is not an ASCOM driver and will not run on newer platforms. A request to see if they have an interest in developing an ASCOM driver have been ignored. I tried Microsoft "compatibility mode" to run Shutter Drive, but it won't run, as the developer Roth warned me in his emails. The only way I can think of to allow ACP to control an Astrohaven dome would be to add a hardware modification to Cyanogen's Maxdome shutter card; I can convert the Shutter Motor bidirectional +/- output signals to relay open/close signals. So, it would fool ACP into thinking it is controlling a more complicated dome, when in fact it would just be opening and closing the shutters for automated observing with weather protection. It is quite an over kill, because I would be just ignoring the rotation operation and this may set me up for false alarms and error messages (since there is no rotation of the dome). I feel like I am re-inventing the wheel; is there anyone out there using ACP with an AstroHaven dome who can give me some words of wisdom into what path I follow to set up ACP control of AstroHaven dome?

[edgellmh]

I am very interested in a solution to this issue. I have a 7' AstroHaven dome and am about to automate the observatory with ACP Expert. I am very disappointed to hear that the driver on the ASCOM site, which is the French driver, does not work. I have received no response from AstroHaven to questions about an ASCOM dome driver.
marshall

[Bob Denny]

Sigh... You probably know that this has been going on since 2007. I just looked up Roth Ritter's ShutterDrive and see that it is a pair of EXE programs that open and close. I just can't become attached to and therefore responsible for controlling AstroHaven clamshells from ASCOM astronomy programs.

ShutterDrive looks like a nice program! Though it specifically says that "development will not continue" I will try to contact Ritter and try to steer him in a direction that would add an ASCOM Dome interface to that program, and maybe do some other stuff that would make this move along. Also, I suspect that it would run fine on 64-bit, that the whole problem may be with the installer. Microsoft has done a great job of maintaining the compatibility of the Windows API. Later OS versions do, however, have additional security restrictions not present in older ones.

[edgellmh]

Bob

It may be that we can write a driver for this. A buddy of mine constructed a black box to drive the dome. It provides a GUI that contains an animated view of the dome, buttons to open or close the dome, three timers, one to backup any automated software and close the dome if it is not closed after a specified amount of time, a timer for how long to wait to close the dome after a weather alert, a timer to determine how long to wait to close the dome after loss of contact with the PC. Unfortunately the code is in Python which I'm guessing most people don't have up and running.

If you send us code of a dome driver to act as a template I'll see if my buddies want to write a driver in a more acceptable language.

marshall

[Bob Denny]

Marshall --

Wow this would be FANTASTIC!!! The ASCOM Initiative Web Site has tons of tools, information, and a Developer's Package for Visual Studio that includes auto-build templates for all standard device types. The "boilerplate" code to make the new driver visible in the Chooser for that device type is there. If the "black box" is written in C# or VB.NET the job will be easy. If it's written in VB6 it will be "pretty" easy. If C++ or QT or Python it will be "hard". An alternator approach would be to make the GUI into a command line program then write the driver to just shell out to the GUI program. The trick will be to get back status and errors, but it's doable.

Here is the gateway for ASCOM developers, and note that there are sections for application developers who USE drivers and for the people who WRITE drivers. Be sure to download and install the ASCOM Platform Developer Resources package.

[Peter Prendergast]

Sorry if I am missing something, but isn't THIS the ASCOM driver for the above "dome"

http://www.etoiles-a-bleau.fr/ascom1.html
sorry try this link, its there

Peter