I finally took a step into the 21st century and created a video showing how to set up and use my Digital Setting Circles ASCOM driver with Stellarium (a very popular planetarium program for PCs). The video is linked on my ASCOM Driver page, or you can watch it here.
Category Archives: Digital Setting Circles
Updated ASCOM Driver for Digital Setting Circles
At the request of a user, I updated my ASCOM Driver for Digital Setting Circles to include a couple of the northern constellations–Ursa Minor and Draco. These constellations were added because the user had a limited view of the sky and needed more northerly stars on which to align. However, in general it is better to choose alignment stars that are not so far north (or south).
The download link for the driver installation file has been updated on the ASCOM Driver page.
Bluetooth DSC Assembled Boards Available
FAR Circuits is now making available an assembled and tested board for the Bluetooth Digital Setting Circles project. The board includes a preprogrammed PIC16F628A chip as well as a fully-configured RN-42 Bluetooth module. You’ll still need to solder a connector for your power source of choice, and you’ll need to obtain your own rotary encoders and connect them through the RJ-45 port included on the board.
For ordering information, go here.
Orion Support Back in Digital Setting Circles ASCOM Driver
Thanks to some help and testing from Pete Eschman, I’ve been able to restore support for Orion telescopes to my ASCOM Driver for Digital Setting Circles. Specifically, Orion Sky Wizard 2 and 3 and Orion Intelliscope platforms should now be working. Please let me know if you have problems using the driver with these platforms.
Orion itself gets no credit for this–they repeatedly ignored my requests for technical support on this issue, despite the fact that the ASCOM driver they published was a slightly-modified version of one of my earlier drivers.