--- Richard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I recently had Sky Commander and SkyTracker installed on my 14.5" > Starmaster. Does CDC 2.76 interface with Sky Commander? If it does, > what do I have to do to make them talk to each other?
CdC is compatible with SkyCommander, but unfortunately the SkyTracker connects to the SC via the SC's serial port. Now the SkyTracker has its own extra serial port for connecting it (and the SC) to a computer, but there are only a handful of star-charting/scope control programs that will communicate with the SkyTracker/SC together, and CdC isn't one of them. Unfortunately there's also no ASCOM driver for the SkyTracker/SC system. I'd write it myself but my programming skills are limited to some "basic BASIC" I learned decades ago. If you join the Starmaster yahoo group at <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/starmaster_scopes> there's a file "SkyTrack.doc" in the "reference data" folder of the files section: <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/starmaster_scopes/files/Reference%20Data/> that gives details of how to communicate with SkyTracker/SC. Since the SkyTracker and SC are so simple, the details here are very simple, and it looks familiar from some BASIC programming I've done to communicate with an LX200. But I have no idea how to interface this with CdC, or how to make an ASCOM driver for it. If I knew anything about CdC's scope control plug-ins I might try it, but I hardly know where to start. There's some info about "DDE interface" in CdC's documentation and a google search on "DDE interface" makes it look like a possibilty. If you have the programming skills to know anything about this I'd love to hear it. I've been using CdC for years and run a public observatory where we have several scopes all connected to CdC, but our largest scope is a huge Starmaster and I'd hate to have to have to buy/learn a whole different star-charting program just for one scope. -John ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
