The Ek’s Files

I’ve been working over the past several weeks to update my ASCOM driver for my Digital Setting Circles project. My initial impetus for doing so was to make my existing driver fully compliant with the ASCOM standards, and also to add a “sync” capability that so many folks have requested. I also wanted to implement a “slewing” capability (basically just feedback as you push your telescope tube toward a target, like what you can do with my stand-alone DSC software) and make it easier to execute the alignment process. Finally, I’d like to make the driver compatible with other devices that use the BBox protocol, include the Orion Intelliscope.

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It’s makin’ me wait…

Sorry–couldn’t resist.

I’m anticipating a lot of things right now. Mostly, I’m longing for warmer temperatures and longer days. For a lot of reasons. Many things are on the workbench, waiting for meteorological conditions to be more favorable.

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Jimbo Harris was good enough to tell me about his USB modification of my digital setting circles project. Jim found the FTDI TTL232R and was able to adapt his DSC interface to communicate via (and draw power from) the USB port.

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Well, I finally got around to updating my Digital Setting Circles web pages. Besides the New Look, the content has been updated a little bit, part numbers updated, etc. If you see any problems, be sure to post a comment here, okay?