ASCOM Switch driver & Pegasus’s Standalone Software

Discussion about the UCH, our industrial grade, smart USB3 Hub
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DRich66
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:59 pm

ASCOM Switch driver & Pegasus’s Standalone Software

Post by DRich66 »

Just wishing to understand behaviour of UCH before making a purchase.

Does use of ASCOM driver require the Standalone Software to be running on Windows 10 computer, or will the ascom driver work without the Standalone Software being open ?

if the latter case will ascom driver also work if the Standalone Software is open at the same time, or is opened up mid session.

I understand that the Stand-alone Software is required to change the names of USB ports (names can not be changed via Ascom switch driver). This is fine.

I’m looking to use the UCH on a different computer to where I’m using a Pegasus Powerbox V1, but if I were running them on the same computer in the future can I safely assume that there are no inherent issues in using two different switch drivers at same time referred to as two separate Switch Objects, one choosen to use the Pegasus UPB switch driver and the other chosen to use the UCH switch driver.

Thank you, David (UK)
DRich66
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:59 pm

Re: ASCOM Switch driver & Pegasus’s Standalone Software

Post by DRich66 »

OK. So after purchasing a UCH and operating it for a few days I've now answered my earlier question.

Tests showed I can't have the UCH Standalone Software and an ASCOM Switch Client both connected to the UCH. They need exclusive access to device.

Not a great issue, but one to be aware of.

I've extended my ObsCam (Observatory Camera) program to use ASCOM Switch Connection to the UCH Hub so that I can turn off / turn on again the USB Web Camera when it occasionally stops responding without have to go out to the Observatory to pull out and reinsert the USB Cable again. A great win. This is a manual 'reset' button at the moment, but will extend my program further to allow it to automatically detect a camera issue and automatically restart the USB port to the camera. A further enhancement will allow the program to turn of the camera during prolonged image to stop stray IR light from camera's 10 LED lights reaching the sensitive CCD Camera on the Telescope (certain scope positions are probe to catching stray IR lights despite mitigations I've taken).

My ObsCam program is intended to operate 24x7 as it also acts as a security camera.

What this means if I need to operate one of the other USB Ports on the UCH, I have to either :

a) temporarily disconnect the ASCOM Switch connection whilst I make the change using the Pegasus standalone program
b) build an equivalent of the Pegasus standalone program core function using ASCOM switch with an interface to allow operation of each of the the UCH's ports. so that I can operate one of the other switches without disconnecting the UCH from my ObsCam program.

Again not a significant issue. Just something to be aware of.

Something I've observed during testing s that the names given to Ports in Standalone Software reside solely with the Standalone program. They are nicknames only.
So if I change the name for port 4 to 'ObsCam' in the standalone software and disconnect, then after I connect using ASCOM I find that the name of the port 4 returned by ASCOM.Switch.GetSwitchName (3) is 'USB3 Port 4, ', not 'ObsCam'. I mention this for people's awareness. Note: the Switch ID in ASCOM is always one less than the Port Number.

David
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