The latest firmwares and ASCOM driver have been released. You can find the ASCOM driver in the ASCOM_Driver_Releases directory. You can also dowload the release zip file that contains all the files for the 2.1 version.
[Rodolphe]
Pat hasn't been able to work on the new firmware but did a big commit for the 2.0.0.0 version. After spending a lot of time fixing issues with XBee communication and other stability problem the new firwares are now at version 2.1 . The X2 plugin for TheSkyX Pro works fine with this version. The ASCOM driver still has issue and need some fixes before it can work reliably with this firmware.
[Rodolphe]
Lots of bugs squashed and Shutter mostly working but buttons are reported backwards even though I thought I got one pin wrong so only one button would work. Sleep is not implemented for the shutter though I found out the total power consumed for idle mode would be about 85mA. The battery is 9AH so 50% drawdawn means 4.5AH or 4500mAH. 4500/85 = 52 hours if not actually moving the shutter. Of course at that low draw the battery delivers more than 9AH so you'd actually get more like 60 hours.
[Pat]
Now contains all three pieces of software but is in no way compatible with any official NexDome software, firmware or ASCOM driver.
[Pat]
The aim of this project is to provide three pieces of software that are required to operate a NexDome personal observatory under the ASCOM Platform and will consist of:
- Rotator written in C++ for the Arduino Leonardo (in Firmwares/Rotator).
- Shutter written in C++ for the Arduino Leonardo (in Firmwares/Shutter).
- Dome ASCOM driver for Rotator and Shutter in C# (in NexDome_ASCOM).
[Pat]
Rotator and Shutter - Arduino IDE ( https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software ).
NexDome_ASCOM - Visual Studio 2015+ with C#
Sorry but far too much to explain. If you don't know how to do this already then grab the binary release from the releases tab.
Click on releases to find the binary downloads
The ASCOM driver has a basic installer (default ASCOM provided) while the Arduio files have to be copied to whereever you want them. The Arduino IDE usually creates an Arduino directory in your documents folder which is a good place.
Arduino programs must have the same name as the directory they are in so it's easiest to just copy the Rotator and Shutter directories rather than the individual files.
To upload the firmwares, connect a USB cable to the unit then double click the .ino (not the .h - those automagically load). Set your board to Leonardo and choose the correct COM port (should say Arduino Leonardo(COMx). Then hit upload and a few seconds later it'll be finished.
Still to do:
- Implement sleep mode for the shutter radio
- Implement auto-close on the shutter after X minutes of not hearing from the Rotator.
Pat Meloy, Rodolphe Pineau
Grozzie2 for the source code I built upon https://github.com/grozzie2/NexDome
Pat Meloy for the 2.0.0.0 base firmware.
GPL3