ASCOM Driver tutorial for Arduino Astronomy Hardware using Visual Studio

A tutorial for writing ASCOM drivers in Visual Studio for telescope and astronomy hardware which is controlled by an Arduino.
Please view in 1080 HD and full screen then you can read the code!
We will create a simple Filter Wheel program for the Arduino and write a matching ASCOM driver in Visual Studio and demonstrate that any Astronomy client program can talk to the ASCOM driver with Maxim DL. Includes details on debugging the ASCOM driver and deployment.

[@timlong7289]

Tom, that's a really great introduction to writing ASCOM drivers. I think you also did a good job of explaining why ASCOM is needed in the first place. The error you get in InnoSetup calling IsMinimumRequiredVersion is a globalization issue, I think. It is supposed to check that ASCOM is installed and is at least the version specified. There were problems related to full-stop vs. comma and someone just got the parameter wrong, it was a known issue. I think it has been corrected in the latest platform releases.

[@ASIIE]

Great video... wondering how much of the content/process is still applicable with the new ASCOM 6.5 driver templates.

[@jwbullardxxiii]

Thank you! Things are a little different using Visual Studio 2019, but the base concepts work beautifully. Got my Arduino focuser to work like a charm. Again, thanks for your help!

[@Rolembeek33]

I'm using Visual Studio 2017 and can't make it build without errors :-( The message tells me to use "regasm.exe /tlb" to register "COM Interop" but I can't find how tyo do that :( Anny help welcome !

[@kingjamez80]

This is a great video, thanks! I've been programming a GEM mount control and needed to figure out ASCOM integration. This was perfect! On another note, I can't view this video on my desktop, it only worked on mobile devices.

[@ribuck1]

Hi Tom, Great tutorial, but i'm still a bit confused. Firstly in Visual Studio, what is the difference between between the "Ascom with Forms" and the "Ascom Driver" project types ? Also if i choose the driver option, Can i add forms into it so that when it connects is dispaying a form with buttons etc.

[@tommyw641]

Truly excellent tutorial. Thank you.

[@thelazytechman1974]

Great video, very helpful. I have a safety monitor (rain Sensor) that uses uses an input on a Network enabled relay and the current driver communicates over http on port 80. Unfortunately the developer has abandoned the driver so it's no longer supported by the latest V3.x of Nina, so i'm desperately trying to figure out how i make a new driver that uses ip & port 80 rather than Arduino. Any pointers to start me off would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance, Rich.

[@AdamBrunette]

Very strange. Worked right away on my phone. Thanks for the tip!

[@rkresken]

Thanks for the great tutorial! This is very helpful.

[@rustybeers4803]

Thanks Tom, can you please cover the topic of making the com port selectable in maxim dl? I found your video worked great for Windows 10 using VS2017.

[@1ozzzy]

Great videos and I've found them wonderful. How about one about writing a simple hub?

[@GiannisKypriotakis]

Hello, in my driver (C#) I am following ASCOM's template that sets a string array fwNames that contains (I guess the filter names) and is initialized with 4 values. By chance my filter wheel also has 4 slots so conveniently in my setup (after System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK) I set the contents of the fwNames to mach strings I get from the user. Also my Names property in get, returns this fwNames array. For some reason though, Maxim still thinks there are 64 filters that it names itself (and no the first 4 aren't the ones I had set). Have I forgotten something? Should I contact the ASCOM or Maxim people about it? Thanks

[@stevewilliams3600]

Nice video but sadly not a driver. In my terminology this is a client which uses an existing driver (the telescope simulator). I wish to write a driver for a DSLR to be used by a client. Apart from that a good video which did focus me on which end of the system I needed to look at.

[@stoianandrei-marian3598]

Hello! Thanks for the great video! Can you explain how we can create an form that opens and disconects on connection of the driver? I tried, it works untill I disconnect. When I disconnect the driver, it just stays open.

[@robertbrown6176]

I found it helpful, but is it possible to do a new version with VS 2013 and C# as it appears this is pretty old and I cant find VB anywhere?

[@pdcf75]

and a scholar - very helpful tutorial thanks

[@TehSnRuB]

You sir are a gentleman! Thank you :-)

[@TheOnlyPsycho]

Hi, any idea why I might be getting this error when building the driver? "'CommPort' is not a member of 'MySettings'." pointing to the line "Dim comPort As String = My.Settings.CommPort"

[@stephenorton2011]

Did you solve this as I have same issue

[@ferretfrenzy05]

@@stephenorton2011 Same thing here, that's the only thing keeping me from this driver working :(

[@GiannisKypriotakis]

Change it to Properties.Settings.Default.CommPort and in setupdialog add Properties.Settings.Default.CommPort = (string); to where you are saving the settings and doubleclick settings and add CommPort as string to it

[@CurdridgeObservatory]

I can't get it to work now either - youtube seem to have broken it

[@engineermahmoud4017]

How to connect ascom to plc (programmable logic controller)

[@CurdridgeObservatory]

Some folks are having problems viewing this video. I find it works OK in Chrome, but not IE9

[@kwitee]

There seems to be an error, the video will not play.

[@kwitee]

it's ok for me now !

[@pterancobo]

If someboy has problems, I worked for me to erase the browsing history.