tekkydave

Thanks. Bear in mind the FocusAAF2 application provided with my driver is intended for testing not for regular use, although you could use it if you just want a stand-alone utility. I suppose the best way to use it would be to adjust the focus to one end of its travel before connecting. All values would then be positive (if you pick the right end).

I noticed that. It must be a limit in APT. The Ascom driver handles negative positions no problem.

Yes, I have tested the focuser with APT and BYEOS and no issues. I need to implement the Ascom 'Halt' method at some point.

Yes the box I bought is very tight. If you can get one approx. 5-10mm larger all round you will have an easier time getting it all in It's very satisfying seeing something you designed and created being used by someone else - thanks. Edit: I'm not sure the cocktail stick is in my original design

Result! The first time anyone other than me has run this.

Thanks Mick. If anyone knows how to get a C# setup project to register ascom drivers any help will be appreciated.

Hmmm, I was hoping I'd fixed that problem. Thanks for testing anyway.

Thanks Matt that's some improvement anyway. Could still be a Windows 8 thing in your case. Ideally I need someone with Win7 32-bit, and someone with Win7 64-bit to give it a test.

Today I finally got round to attaching the control box to the cork mounting block. This will be a temporary mounting method until I come up with a better mounting method. Rear view showing mounting holes with M4 screws recessed inside Front view. A hole has been made in the side of the case to allow the USB connector to plug into the nano. All assembled into case. Its a bit tight. The nano is soldered onto a piece of veroboard to allow easy mounting into the case slots. The battery compartment is a tad tight but it just squeezes in. There is a piece of card to prevent it shorting any of the nano pins. I probably could have done with a slightly larger case but it was hard to find one with the correct dimensions. Mounted on scope. The size of the cork block was made just right so the toothed belt has sufficient tension but is not so tight it can't be removed. That more or less completes the hardware side of the project. I still need to do more work on the driver but that's for another day.

I have just released V2.1.1 to the sourceforge site https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/ The Installer and Arduino sketch are in the Files section (https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/files/Mark2/Software/V2.1.1/) Hopefully this fixes the issue with the Ascom driver not being registered on installation. As far as I can see the problem was due to the property ComVisible not being set to true in AssemblyInfo.cs That may mean more to a hardened Ascom developer but changing it worked for me It works ok on my Dev box but any feedback will be appreciated.

Not sure. There is a 64-bit regsrv64 but I think the drivers are always 32-bit. Maybe someone with more Ascom knowledge will step in.

Is the dll definitely installed in the directory you have specified and Ascom platform 6.1 installed? Apart from that it may be a Windows 8.1 'thing'. I have only tested on Win 7 32-bit.

Version 2.1.0 uploaded to Sourceforge site https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/ Main change is to the FocusAAF2 test utility. Buttons now show the number of steps up/down they action and a bit of colour added. I still can't get it to auto-register the driver COM object. I think I'll create one using the Installer Generator that Ascom provice with the developer tools and ditch the VS setup project. Watch this space.

Thanks Baffa. The Ascom driver works but I haven't got the installer working 100% yet. See previous post on workround to register the driver manually.

I have also discovered that if you run the installer as Administrator it registers the driver correctly so it must be a privileges thing.

Nice idea. I like the sneaky advert.

I have a temporary workround to manually register the driver: You need to open a windows command window as administrator. The only way I have found to do this is click the Start button then in the 'Search Programs and Files' box type: cmd now hit Ctrl-Shift-Enter instead of Enter. In the command box type: cd C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319 (the driver needs the .net v4 framework) regasm "C:\Program Files (x86)\AAF2\AAF2\ASCOM.AAF2.Focuser.dll" (or wherever the driver was installed. It should be here if you didn't change the location when you installed it) You should get something like this: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319>regasm "C:\Program Files (x86)\AAF2\AAF2\ASCOM.AAF2.Focuser.dll" Microsoft .NET Framework Assembly Registration Utility version 4.0.30319.17929 for Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0.30319.17929 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Types registered successfully I'll look into a way of getting the installer to do this step correctly. Let me know how you get on. Dave

Its something to do with the driver not being registered by the installer. Its difficult to test on the pc you are developing on as Visual Studio auto-registers the driver when you build it.

Not sure why the driver is not registered. I'll have to investigate but it may take a while. I'll have to build a clean windows 7 vm to test with. As you have probably noticed I'm new to developing on windows and also ascom. There may be a way of manually registering the dll.

What components are you using to build your focuser. Sounds a bit different to mine.

Good luck. I hope my instructions etc are good enough to follow. It would be good to know if the driver installer works for you.Also, if you haven't already it is worth looking at the Ascom website http://ascom-standards.org/ to understand how it works and how it uses the drivers. Every Ascom-compliant program puts up a 'chooser' dialog where you pick the driver. You also have to click a button in the chooser to select the port the device is connected to. On my PC the arduino always seems to be on COM5 but it could be different on yours.

I have now created an installer and put that with the associated arduino sketch in a release folder on the SF project site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/files/Mark2/Software/V2.0.0/ This requires the Ascom platform 6.1 to be installed first. It will install: - The Ascom driver for the focuser. This is a windows COM object which should be registered by the installer. - A command-line test program, AAF2Test that just reports the focuser version (#V command) from the arduino. - A GUI client program, FocusAAF2 that allows full control of the focuser. This is also a work in progress. I have only tested the installer on my PC so I hope it works for other people. I also apologise for the naff shortcut icons which I created in about 3 minutes - more work needed there I think.

I would like to build an installer for my driver so users can install & register the driver on a windows PC along with the test client programs without needing Visual Studio. I need to work out how to do that. I think VS has some tools to generate installers for a solution so that will be my next job.