Detailed information on usage of StarryNight software with devices NAVIGATOR-1 and NAVIGATOR-2
Planetarium StarryNight: Position of telescope in Delta Cygni indicate red mark +
Introduction
Some foreign astro-amateurs wanted to know whether the StarryNight planetarium software (abbr. SN) v 6.0.0 is compatible with the peripheral NAVIGATOR.
The question was:
Is it possible to use StarryNight Pro Plus (v.6 and higher) to communicate using OURANOS protocol via COMx with NAVIGATOR?
My first and optimistic opinion was that there should not be any problem. Communication protocol OURANOS is mentioned with the other hardware such as NGCMAX in the documentation SN.
Reality was a bit different:
In the first test SN did not communicate with NAVIGATOR, communication was blocked from the beginning. It was clear then that it is necessary to establish bidirectional communication via RS 232 using OURANOS protocol between [StarryNight in PC] and [NAVIGATOR].
My foreign colleagues say that SN is well known and often used by amateurs in the USA and Canada. In order to use Navigator in program SN it is important to solve the problem of their bidirectional communication.
The new version of SW StarryNight places a high demand on computer HW and SW.
Solution
After SN is installed you will find that in windows: Telescope ->Configure->ASCOM Telescope Chooser
There is no independent template for protocol OURANOS, so the Orion INTELLISCOPE protocol must be used for communication.
My appeal on forum ATM was answered by astro-amateur from New Mexico, USA: Peter Eschman. He offered to help me. He has been working IMAGINOVA to test and expand the capabilities of the Orion Intelliscope ASCOM driver.
With his help I was able to:
* analyze and compare communication protocols non-motorized mounts.
* I learned that OURANOS protocol does not contain the initialization command “P“, and consequently does not answer this command.
* The current ASCOM driver has been modified, command P was deleted and only command Q is functional.
* Command Q is shared with the INTELLISCOPE protocol, so OURANOS works properly.
* I extensively tested the modified ASCOM driver and communication is now fully working.
Peter Eschman gave us following statement:
Ouranos can use these 5 commands:
Q ….. Query encoders
R ….. Set resolution
I ….. Initialize encoder counts
A ….. Set init flag
a ….. get init flag
The ASCOM Orion Intelliscope driver only supports the Q command. The Q command is also supported by a wide variety of other devices that are based on the Tangent chip. When you use the ASCOM driver, you supply the encoder resolutions to the driver so that most Ouranos commands (R, I, A, and a) are not needed by the driver.
The Orion Intelliscope driver has been developed by Imaginova. It is based on an earlier ASCOM driver written by Dave Ek for his DSC interface. ASCOM is supported by a wide variety of planetarium software packages.
For a current list of software using ASCOM, please check the Partners section of the ASCOM web site at
http://ascom-standards.org/partners.html
We now have a version of the driver that will support virtually all Digital Setting Circle (DSC) units based on the Tangent chip. The latest driver should work with the following DSCs:
Celestron Advanced Astromaster, David Chandler Co. Deep Space Navigator, Discovery Digital Setting Circles, Jan Grecner Navigator1 and Navigator2, JMI NGCMAX, Lumicon Sky Vector, Mountain Instruments Star Pilot, Orion Sky Wizard 3, and TeleVue Sky Tour, as well as BBox, Ouranos, MicroGuider III and V, and other similar units.
1) Start by installing the latest ASCOM 4.1 platform.
2) After installing the platform, rename your current copy of Intelliscope.dll, located in \Program Files\Common Files\ASCOM\Telescope
3) Copy the revised driver into the same directory
Be sure to enter your Comm port and encoder resolutions under driver properties setup screen. You do not need to perform any DSC stand-alone alignment steps with your DSC hardware, because the DSC only sends raw encoder values to your serial port. You can skip the alignment star process on the DSC, and just follow the steps from the ASCOM driver.
On some DSC, you may need to set the vertical or horizontal position of the telescope and use the enter key on your DSC so that encoder readings will be sent for both Alt/Dec and Az/RA. If your tracking is bad, check your encoder values and try the driver setup screen option to reverse RA/AZ axis.
Peter Eschman
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The latest version of the Orion Intelliscope ASCOM driver will soon be available on the ASCOM web site listed above.
At this time the current driver is IntelliScope.dll - 299.008 B - 09.04.2007- 17:09.
If you are having problems finding the current driver, please contact Jan Grecner.
Be sure to follow steps 1) through 3) shown above, so that the revised driver is available for use.
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