Hmm. That took a long time. A seriously long time. Anyway, I’ve now completed the ASCOM driver – the software which sits on the PC (within a planetarium programme) and communicates with the mount. The final driver (sitting within SkyMap Pro) looks like this: (I should add that the “hand controller” seen in the picture […]
architecture of the capeMirror ASCOM driver
Below is the architecture of the capeMirror ASCOM driver:
capeMirror ASCOM driver
Introduction In this post I’ve included the most significant files from the capeMirror ASCOM driver. The full set can be downloaded here. The image on the right shows them within Visual Basic 2008 Express. The easiest way to approach them is like this: 1. Set-up the global variables. 2. View the main driver. Module CM_Globals […]
ascom driver requirements and capabilities
Below is the ‘design standard’ of the BlueMirror driver: 1. It works in a simulator and ‘live’ mode. In simuluator mode all works as in ‘live’ but there are no actual serial commands sent out via bluetooth. 2. It reports RA/Dec (right ascension and declination) coordinates when requested. These are simpy a conversion of the Alt Az coords (which […]
ASCOM download and startup
the final step in building capeMirror is to ensure that it can receive instructions from astronomical software programmes like SkyMap, Cartes du Ciel etc. To do this I used a software platform called the ASCOM standard. The Astronomy Common Object Model (ASCOM) is intended to permit easy communication between different astronomy programmes and astronomical devices […]
