The following are cumulative updates since the last formal release (1.0.2) of the MaestroTelescopeASCOM driver. This driver is selected from the ASCOM chooser as "Astrometric telescope control via Maestro".

Installation instructions

1. Assure that Maestro4 is not running and that no ASCOM clients previously connected to Maestro4 are left running. A reboot is the best way to assure this.
2. Download and run the MaestroASCOM_TelescopeSetup<version>.exe file.
3. Restart Maestro4. All should now function using the new ASCOM driver.

New this version

• Compatible with Maestro's new, higher performance, means of communicating with software drivers (e.g., ASCOM). This is an enhancement on the previous use of network sockets for inter-process communications using a new socket "connect and stay connected" approach, rather than the old (slower) "connect, transact, disconnect" approach.
• The following ASCOM properties and methods are now fully supported:
  • PulseGuide
  • IsPulseGuiding
  • CanPulseGuide
  • GuideRateRightAscension
  • GuideRateDeclination
  • CanSetGuideRates
  • SideOfPier: removed the restriction that ATCS must be setup for Full(GEM) Meridian Avoidance.
  • Associated notes
    • PulseGuide applies velocity at ATCS' AutoGuiderVel.
    • GuideRateDeclination and GuideRateRightAscension translate to the ATCS AutoGuiderVel and hence is the one value for both axes.
    • IsPulseGuiding indicates if the AutoGuider is active regardless of if its activity is ASCOM-initiated or not.
• Substantially improved the performance of the MaestroTelescopeASCOM. In particular, the setting of "static" items (e.g., track rate, latitude, etc.) has been improved such that the previous max rate of change of 3 seconds has been reduced to less than 1/2 second.
• Due to the way ATCS works the following exception to strict ASCOM Telescope interface v.3 compliance has been implemented... Removed the restriction that SyncToCoordinates() and SyncToTarget() was not allowed unless tracking. This restriction prevented AltAz telescopes, which can't track until ATCS is aligned, from being aligned with a call to SyncToCoordinates(). This is in support of ATCS' feature that a "sync" request when not aligned will result in a one-star alignment. Of course, a one-star alignment of a non-tracking telescope will not be very accurate however a follow-up sync, once tracking is available after first alignment, will fix that.
• Added reporting of Latitude and Longitude from GPS position if GPS position is enabled in ATCS. Prior to position being valid (i.e., prior to the GPS being locked) both are reported as 0.0.

• We believe we have fixed a problem where the MaestroTelescopeASCOM interface would raise an exception, and disconnect, reporting the following error: "The following ATCL command did *not* return ATCL_ACK: CStr7:15:60". We could not reproduce the problem however we added additional bounds checking to hopefully cover this case.
• Fixed the installed name of the driver (visible in "Add or Remove Programs" from "MaestroTelescope ASCOM Dome Driver" to "MaestroTelescope ASCOM Telescope Driver".
• Fixed a problem where some apps (e.g., MaximDL) would timeout on Sync method calls because they take about 2 seconds to complete. New behavior is now the same as our Dome and Rotator drivers have used for some time: we latch sync'd position and return immediately, providing this latched value to the client until a period of time has elapsed necessary to assure coordinates reported are updated from the hardware (about 2 seconds).
• Fixed an issue introduced in v.2.0 of this driver, where some multi-threaded applications (e.g., N.I.N.A) would fail. The ASCOM conformance checker and other clients (such as Cartes du Ceil) would work fine likely because the ASCOM interface in these apps is not multi-threaded. Driver version 2.1 of this ASCOM driver is now "thread safe".