A number of years ago I built basic controllers for my 4 scopes when the latest firmware release was 1608. These have worked faultlessly ever since, using the associated 1608 ASCOM Driver. Recently I upgraded my mount and camera and moved to the latest version of ASCOM. I am now getting random serial port connectivity issues with my focusers and assume that I may need the latest ASCOM driver. It appears that my old Arduino Nano boards will not accept the latest version of firmware, so my question is, can I use the latest ASCOM driver (278) with my 1608 firmware version?
Thanks for any advice!
Dave
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You need to set the parameter in Arduino IDE
Tools-Processor-Old Boot Loader
then you can program the Nano.
No, unable to use latest ascom driver with old firmware.
I would probably recommend that you stay as is with the firmware/software if it has served you well over the years. If there are any issues I may be able to help - I think from memory there was a limit for how long the windows app would run for (in years) before the software expired. If you have that issue I can regenerate a new 1608 app for you.
1608? I do not recall this release.
If this is a myFocuserPro2 then all firmware asn ascom drivers would be 200x to 3xx
I assume you meant myFocuserPro? which uses 1xxxx
But the firmware was 1xx,
I can find Windows app 1608
I can find ASCOM driver 1608
But I cannot see any firmware 1608 - are you sure the firmware is 1608?
If you load the Arduino IDE with controller connected - Open serial port monitor, set port speed to 9600, type in the top left text box
:GF#
then click send you should see both the filename and version number of the firmware
Cheers
Robert
Last edit: brownrb 2021-05-08
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I have now updated my boards to firmware 309 and loaded ASCOM driver 278.
Running the focuser under the Windows app works fine;
Running under Astrophotography Tool (APT) works apart from changing the motor direction in the ASCOM driver - the motor still runs in the same direction;
Running the focuser under Voyager, the initial position reports correctly but after a move the focuser position shows '0'. I have reported this to Voyager Support. I also had difficulty changing the motor direction in Voyager but it seemed to have worked after a PC restart.
Is it possible to try an earlier version of the ASCOM driver please? Everything was fine in both APT and Voyager with Firmware 1.7.1 and ASCOM 1608, apart from the random connection issues reported above.
Cheers
Dave
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Some more detail on the above:
I uninstalled the ASCOM driver and downloaded it again and reinstalled. The position information is now reported correctly in Voyager, but I still cannot reverse the motor direction.
Running the windows app, I cannot reverse the motor direction using Motor Settings /Reverse Direction. When the box is checked, the status message confirms the action, but the motor direction does not change.
Hope this helps
Dave
Last edit: Dave Jones 2021-05-08
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Hi Dave
Because this is a major update you are doing from a way far back firmare and apps things can get screwed up when installing the newer verions.
Program the controller with the cleareeprom.ino program (find in tests folder) - output is to serial monitor in arduino ide - it will display a message when finished
Next, program the controller with the new firmware
Use control panel to remove all prior versions of the windows app
Use control panel to remove the ascom driver
On Windows, go to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ASCOM\Focuser folder
delete an .dll files that maybe left there related to myfocuserpro
ASCOM.myFocuserASCOM.Focuser.dll for example
Install the ascom driver
That should address your issues.
Cheers
R
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Hi all
A number of years ago I built basic controllers for my 4 scopes when the latest firmware release was 1608. These have worked faultlessly ever since, using the associated 1608 ASCOM Driver. Recently I upgraded my mount and camera and moved to the latest version of ASCOM. I am now getting random serial port connectivity issues with my focusers and assume that I may need the latest ASCOM driver. It appears that my old Arduino Nano boards will not accept the latest version of firmware, so my question is, can I use the latest ASCOM driver (278) with my 1608 firmware version?
Thanks for any advice!
Dave
You need to set the parameter in Arduino IDE
Tools-Processor-Old Boot Loader
then you can program the Nano.
No, unable to use latest ascom driver with old firmware.
I would probably recommend that you stay as is with the firmware/software if it has served you well over the years. If there are any issues I may be able to help - I think from memory there was a limit for how long the windows app would run for (in years) before the software expired. If you have that issue I can regenerate a new 1608 app for you.
1608? I do not recall this release.
If this is a myFocuserPro2 then all firmware asn ascom drivers would be 200x to 3xx
I assume you meant myFocuserPro? which uses 1xxxx
But the firmware was 1xx,
I can find Windows app 1608
I can find ASCOM driver 1608
But I cannot see any firmware 1608 - are you sure the firmware is 1608?
If you load the Arduino IDE with controller connected - Open serial port monitor, set port speed to 9600, type in the top left text box
:GF#
then click send you should see both the filename and version number of the firmware
Cheers
Robert
Last edit: brownrb 2021-05-08
Hi Robert, many thanks for your quick response!
Following your instructions, I read the firmware version from one of my Nanos and it is 1.7.1 (myFocuser_DRV8825_HW203_M).
I suspect that I renamed the firmware file 1608 to match the ASCOM Driver and Windows app when I archived them on my NAS drive.
I will locate and load the latest firmware for the minimal hardware version and get back in business.
Thanks again for your help!
Cheers
Dave
I have now updated my boards to firmware 309 and loaded ASCOM driver 278.
Running the focuser under the Windows app works fine;
Running under Astrophotography Tool (APT) works apart from changing the motor direction in the ASCOM driver - the motor still runs in the same direction;
Running the focuser under Voyager, the initial position reports correctly but after a move the focuser position shows '0'. I have reported this to Voyager Support. I also had difficulty changing the motor direction in Voyager but it seemed to have worked after a PC restart.
Is it possible to try an earlier version of the ASCOM driver please? Everything was fine in both APT and Voyager with Firmware 1.7.1 and ASCOM 1608, apart from the random connection issues reported above.
Cheers
Dave
Some more detail on the above:
I uninstalled the ASCOM driver and downloaded it again and reinstalled. The position information is now reported correctly in Voyager, but I still cannot reverse the motor direction.
Running the windows app, I cannot reverse the motor direction using Motor Settings /Reverse Direction. When the box is checked, the status message confirms the action, but the motor direction does not change.
Hope this helps
Dave
Last edit: Dave Jones 2021-05-08
Hi Dave
Because this is a major update you are doing from a way far back firmare and apps things can get screwed up when installing the newer verions.
ASCOM.myFocuserASCOM.Focuser.dll for example
That should address your issues.
Cheers
R
Hi Robert
Apologies, have been offline for a few days - will give that a try.
Many thanks again
Cheers
Dave