Last December I got myself a new PC, with the ambition to upgrade all old HW & SW to the latest standards. Currently the OS is Windows 8.1, and I am planning to switch (for free) to Windows 10 by the end of this year.
Almost all software is migrated from the old PCs to the new computer - it all went smooth (and runs faster now). Almost all: I still have on an old Windows2000 PC the software running that controls my antennas. This software is all Pascal, and under Windows2000 you could still directly write to serial ports. That changed as of Windows XP.
In the new setup SATPC32 is the central software for satellite tracking (position & doppler). Kenwood TS2000 as well as eg SDR# are connected just fine. So… the only thing to be done is hooking up SATPC32 to my rotor controller (http://pa3guo.com/zb_rtr_ctrl.html).
Of course my rotor controller doesnt talk any of the standard interface protocols, so I cannot use the default set of outputs of SATPC32. Basically I just need to read from the SATPC32 DDE the string that includes the azimuth & etc, do a minor edit to it and send it to a USB COM port. Fortunately SATPC32 comes with example code for this (Delfi and VB). Unfortunately, Delfi (replaces Pascal) is an outdated standard, and so I opted for the VB example.
Now, the Visual Basic IDE doesn't really exist anymore. Microsoft has now Visual Studio Express, which is impressive btw. Issue though is, the included SATPC32 VB examples use DDE constructs that were supported in the VB IDE , but are not in Visual Studio anymore. So what I *could* do is hack the VB example to make it work in Visual Studio, but it seems not that straightforward. To add to this: SDR# is C# and talks to SATPC32's DDE. So C# must be DDE capable, but I haven’t seen simple example code for that either.
In short: I just need to read from the DDE , do a minor processing on the string (kind of convert degrees into integer + offset) and send the result to a com port.
How would you do this ? Do you program in C# or Visual Basic ? In case of Visual Basic, do you use Visual Studio Express ?
Thanks, Henk - PA3GUO
Hi Henk,
The "easy" answer is to buy an LVB tracker board but I completely understand wanting to use the hardware you put so much time and effort into building from scratch. I have done a little work with Python, which is completely cross platform, and think it would be a natural for doing the translation you need. One possibility would to have SatPC send the pointing info in "easycom" format to a virtual serial port that the Python program reads and translates then sends it out a "real" serial port to the rotor interface. As a non-programmer, that would "'my" path of least resistance.
- Howie, AB2S
Step 1: Install Linux. Just kidding! (Kinda.) I'm only (half) joking.
But seriously...I do think there's a solution to your problem: you said there was example code using Delphi? I agree that that's more or less on the wane (to put it mildly), but there does exist a free Pascal compiler that implements most of the functionality, without tying you to a specific vendor. Check out http://www.freepascal.org; it may just do what you need it to do.
On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 2:49 PM, PA3GUO [email protected] wrote:
Last December I got myself a new PC, with the ambition to upgrade all old HW & SW to the latest standards. Currently the OS is Windows 8.1, and I am planning to switch (for free) to Windows 10 by the end of this year.
Almost all software is migrated from the old PCs to the new computer - it all went smooth (and runs faster now). Almost all: I still have on an old Windows2000 PC the software running that controls my antennas. This software is all Pascal, and under Windows2000 you could still directly write to serial ports. That changed as of Windows XP.
In the new setup SATPC32 is the central software for satellite tracking (position & doppler). Kenwood TS2000 as well as eg SDR# are connected just fine. So… the only thing to be done is hooking up SATPC32 to my rotor controller (http://pa3guo.com/zb_rtr_ctrl.html).
Of course my rotor controller doesnt talk any of the standard interface protocols, so I cannot use the default set of outputs of SATPC32. Basically I just need to read from the SATPC32 DDE the string that includes the azimuth & etc, do a minor edit to it and send it to a USB COM port. Fortunately SATPC32 comes with example code for this (Delfi and VB). Unfortunately, Delfi (replaces Pascal) is an outdated standard, and so I opted for the VB example.
Now, the Visual Basic IDE doesn't really exist anymore. Microsoft has now Visual Studio Express, which is impressive btw. Issue though is, the included SATPC32 VB examples use DDE constructs that were supported in the VB IDE , but are not in Visual Studio anymore. So what I *could* do is hack the VB example to make it work in Visual Studio, but it seems not that straightforward. To add to this: SDR# is C# and talks to SATPC32's DDE. So C# must be DDE capable, but I haven’t seen simple example code for that either.
In short: I just need to read from the DDE , do a minor processing on the string (kind of convert degrees into integer + offset) and send the result to a com port.
How would you do this ? Do you program in C# or Visual Basic ? In case of Visual Basic, do you use Visual Studio Express ?
Thanks, Henk - PA3GUO
Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Dan,
Thanks, I didn’t know about freepascal yet – good to learn each day !
Henk
Van: Dan Cross [mailto:[email protected]] Verzonden: donderdag 19 februari 2015 03:39 Aan: PA3GUO CC: [email protected] Onderwerp: Re: [amsat-bb] Software ?
Step 1: Install Linux. Just kidding! (Kinda.) I'm only (half) joking.
But seriously...I do think there's a solution to your problem: you said there was example code using Delphi? I agree that that's more or less on the wane (to put it mildly), but there does exist a free Pascal compiler that implements most of the functionality, without tying you to a specific vendor. Check out http://www.freepascal.org; it may just do what you need it to do.
On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 2:49 PM, PA3GUO [email protected] wrote:
Last December I got myself a new PC, with the ambition to upgrade all old HW & SW to the latest standards. Currently the OS is Windows 8.1, and I am planning to switch (for free) to Windows 10 by the end of this year.
Almost all software is migrated from the old PCs to the new computer - it all went smooth (and runs faster now). Almost all: I still have on an old Windows2000 PC the software running that controls my antennas. This software is all Pascal, and under Windows2000 you could still directly write to serial ports. That changed as of Windows XP.
In the new setup SATPC32 is the central software for satellite tracking (position & doppler). Kenwood TS2000 as well as eg SDR# are connected just fine. So… the only thing to be done is hooking up SATPC32 to my rotor controller (http://pa3guo.com/zb_rtr_ctrl.html).
Of course my rotor controller doesnt talk any of the standard interface protocols, so I cannot use the default set of outputs of SATPC32. Basically I just need to read from the SATPC32 DDE the string that includes the azimuth & etc, do a minor edit to it and send it to a USB COM port. Fortunately SATPC32 comes with example code for this (Delfi and VB). Unfortunately, Delfi (replaces Pascal) is an outdated standard, and so I opted for the VB example.
Now, the Visual Basic IDE doesn't really exist anymore. Microsoft has now Visual Studio Express, which is impressive btw. Issue though is, the included SATPC32 VB examples use DDE constructs that were supported in the VB IDE , but are not in Visual Studio anymore. So what I *could* do is hack the VB example to make it work in Visual Studio, but it seems not that straightforward. To add to this: SDR# is C# and talks to SATPC32's DDE. So C# must be DDE capable, but I haven’t seen simple example code for that either.
In short: I just need to read from the DDE , do a minor processing on the string (kind of convert degrees into integer + offset) and send the result to a com port.
How would you do this ? Do you program in C# or Visual Basic ? In case of Visual Basic, do you use Visual Studio Express ?
Thanks, Henk - PA3GUO
_______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Howie,
That may indeed be the simplest (and therefore best) solution (redirecting & modifying the the easycom format).
And yes, either Visual Basic or C# or Python could do that. Like you I have positive experiences with Python (using scripts for RAX, MCUBED and now GRIFEX from MXL).
Certainly a very useful suggestion!
Thanks!
Henk
Van: Howie DeFelice [mailto:[email protected]] Verzonden: woensdag 18 februari 2015 23:09 Aan: PA3GUO; [email protected] Onderwerp: RE: [amsat-bb] Software ?
Hi Henk,
The "easy" answer is to buy an LVB tracker board but I completely understand wanting to use the hardware you put so much time and effort into building from scratch. I have done a little work with Python, which is completely cross platform, and think it would be a natural for doing the translation you need. One possibility would to have SatPC send the pointing info in "easycom" format to a virtual serial port that the Python program reads and translates then sends it out a "real" serial port to the rotor interface. As a non-programmer, that would "'my" path of least resistance.
- Howie, AB2S
participants (3)
-
Dan Cross -
Howie DeFelice -
PA3GUO