tekkydave

Great news - well done. Glad you can make use of it.

Thats mainly why I used a 9V battery to power the nano and stepper. I may switch to 12V in the future - the controller board will take 5 to 12V according to the spec.

Have a go. You will only need to change the nano sketch. I'm ok with the motor I'm using so I don't plan to make any other changes at the moment.

I have also uploaded the v2.2 schematic to the Files/Drawings section on SF as there was only the original drawing without the temperature sensor.

I'm not sure how temperature compensation works - whether it is a function of the driver or client application. It would be easy to change the driver to return true but that may not be enough to make it work.

I've never seen a discrete MOSFET used like that on the 1-wire data line. Maybe it is denoting an active pullup for a large number of devices or long runs but the 4k7 resistor is fine for a few devices. My weather station uses a usb 1-wire interface (DS9490R) which contains an active pullup internally.

No its not supported in the driver.

There is a 4k7 pullup on my circuit diagram on SF http://sourceforge.net/p/arduinoascomfocuser/wiki/Schematic/attachment/AAF2_V2.2_crop.png. The schematic in the wiki section is the latest version.

I've just spent all day trying to track down why the AAF2 installer doesnt correctly register the focuser driver. It seems to me that it does correctly create all the right registry entries except for one: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ASCOM\Focuser Drivers\ASCOM.AAF2.Focuser Now this is the one that makes the driver appear in the drop-down list in the chooser dialog. If I enter it manually everything works. You only have to do it once as it persists across uninstall/reinstall of the driver. Im not sure why this is happening but its a step closer to solving the problem. I could add a manual step in the setup project to add the registry entry as a last resort. Maybe thats what others are doing. The Celstron scope driver installs an entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ASCOM\Telescope Drivers perfectly so it's nothing to do with user permissions.

The easiest path for a complete beginner would be to use an existing ascom filter-wheel driver and just build the hardware & sketch to simulate the filter-wheel. You would need to choose a commercial FW where the comms protocol between the FW & driver is documented. I dont use a FW so I can't comment on that. I know in the case of focusers that people have used the Moonlight protocol to avoid having to write their own ascom driver. They then just had to make their focuser 'look like' a real moonlight focuser to the driver. I decided to invent my own protocol for 2 reasons: 1. I wanted to learn how to write an ascom driver as well as build the focuser hardware & write the arduino sketch 2. I'm an awkward b***er

Well done. I'm working on a version of the nano sketch that does one half-step of the stepper for each ascom position increment/decrement. At the moment it does 4 steps (8 half-steps).

The nano could certainly be used to drive a filter wheel. I dont have one so I'm not sure how they work. The driver will only work with focusers - there is a different ascom template for filter wheels, mounts etc.

The wiki section of the sourceforge website contains instructions http://sourceforge.net/p/arduinoascomfocuser/wiki/Home/ Also, see the readme.txt file in the Files section http://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/files/Mark2/Software/V2.3.0/Basically: Download and Install the arduino libraries Download the sketch, compile & upload to the nano Install the Ascom Platform 6.1 on your PC Download the AAF2Setup.msi and run. This installs the driver & test programs. You may need to manually register the driver - see instructions in wiki on sf site. I think thats correct

Thanks - Im glad it has solved your problem. The focuser is already using half-stepping but it steps 4 times (8 half-steps) per unit of movement. This was done for simplicity so the sketch doesnt need to store which coil is last used.

Thanks. Backlash correction is something I want to look at in the future as I have noticed quite a lot on mine. The Ascom driver model doesn't cater for backlash correction so it's something built in to the arduino only. It would have to be tweaked by the user for each individual device. It could be configurable on the chooser dialog I suppose and stored in the EEPROM. There's plenty of space - I'm only using 2 bytes at the moment

Release 2.3.0 is now available on the SF site https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/files/Mark2/Software/V2.3.0/ Highlights: Changes in Version 2.3.0 Enhancements * The Arduino now saves it's current position in EEPROM (non-volatile memory). It will remember the position it was at between focuser and client application restarts / disconnects. The chooser dialog has been modified to enable you to override the initial starting position if required. * Some users in countries other than the UK reported issues with the temperature not being interpreted correctly due to the use of a dot as the decimal separator. This has been removed and the Arduino now returns the temperature in 100ths of a degree (no decimal). The driver has been updated to divide by 100 prior to returning the value to the calling client program. Windows should put the correct decimal separator in the value according to the PC's international settings. I have also blocked the reading of the 1-wire temperature sensor whilst the motor is moving as it interferes with smooth movement. During movement it will return the last read value. When the motor is not moving it will re-read the sensor. This is because many client applications seem to read it every second which seems excessive. The FocusAAF2 test program now also reads every second for testing. Bug fixes * Changed some int variables to unsigned int * Fixed a minor bug in the motor hi/lo speed detection - it was only working in one direction. Can anyone who had problems with the temperature decimal separator please test to confirm this is now fixed. Thanks. I still haven't fixed the driver registration issue - I wanted to get these enhancements out asap. Enjoy.

What are the diameters of the shafts you want to use them on? The centre bore of these is 5mm so it could be filed or drilled out carefully by a small amount if needed. I had to file mine out to fit over the stepper motor I used. The only sure way to know is give it a try. A trick to find out what belt you need is use a piece of string over the pulleys to get the correct length

Very good work. Im curious how that is affecting the comma that the driver returns to the BYN as it is a double. The chain of events is: nano -> AAF2 Class -> Driver.cs -> BYN Both the AAF2 class and Driver.cs are part of the ascom driver. nano returns a string (e.g. 3,45) AAF2 class converts string to double. At this point the comma is lost. Driver.cs takes double and just passes it on BYN gets double from driver and converts to string for display, putting local decimal character in it. Unless I misunderstand how this all works. Maybe the driver is adjusting your decimal settings based on the comma it sees in the input. It would need to change them in a way that BYN would also be affected. Maybe someone who understands Windows internals or COM objects could comment. EDIT: After thinking a bit longer I think I know what is happening. Because your PC has been set to use a comma as the decimal separator the AAF2 class is now correctly converting the string with a comma in it to a double. Using the original sketch that passes a string with a dot confuses it and it converts it to a double incorrectly. It is the string --> double conversion in the AAF2 class where the problem is. A good solution might be to take the punctuation out of the temperature and always pass it as 100ths of a degree. This can then be divided by 100 after conversion to a double. This would work in all localisations.

I'll see what I can do but it may be a while before I get time to do any more work on the project. Feel free to make any changes to the code for your own use. There is a free version of Visual Studio you can download and use to compile your own driver. There are some tutorials on the Ascom website about getting started and this one that I found useful https://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/135503114?width=1280

It is part of the .net runtime - do you have the .net v4 framework installed?

You need to get to 250 posts before you can edit your own posts - keep posting

The source is all in the svn repository - you need to check it out first. Click on the Code menu option. The Ascom driver is based on the IFocuserV2 interface http://www.ascom-standards.org/Help/Developer/html/P_ASCOM_DeviceInterface_IFocuserV2_Temperature.htm The Temperature property returns a double to the client program. This can't be fixed in the driver - it is up to the client program how it displays the temperature. The problem may be in my AAF2 class where it converts the string from the nano to a double.

C# using visual studio and the Ascom developer components.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have put the details of the Manual Driver Registration on the SF wiki page.