Print

[TCWORLD]

Version 8.0 of the AstroEQ firmware has now been released. Thanks to those that took part in the beta testing, you've been a great help.


Hi All,

I am currently working on a new AstroEQ Firmware release.

The following features have been changed/added to the firmware:

• Added support for DRV8834 Low Voltage Driver boards
• Rewrite of ST4 code for better performance (V8.0)
• Added standalone mode for using the ST4 port without EQMOD (complete in V8.0)
• Optimisations to motor routines to better support higher resolution mounts
• General tidy up of source code for better readability
• Major rewrite of motor routines - now in C rather than assembly
• New Acceleration/Deceleration Routines - provides a much smoother, linear ramp
• Option to disable "Gear Change" when performing high speed movements

The following changes have been made to the configuration utility

• Reduced the window size of the Config Utility to now work with a minimum screen size of 800x600
• Add ability to tab between fields on the config screen
• Add ability to paste from clipboard into config fields, and copy contents of fields to clipboard
• Fixed bug preventing Config Utility loading on some PCs

The new firmware and configuration utility is attached to this post.

The configuration utility and AstroEQ firmware are not backward compatible with the previous firmware and utility. Make sure you save your current configuration using the old config utility before upgrading to the beta firmware. After the beta firmware is uploaded the EEPROM structure is different which will result in older versions of the config utility reporting that the EEPROM is blank or corrupt. You will be able to downgrade to an earlier version, however you will need to re-enter your mount configuration.


It would be very useful if I can get some folks here to test out the firmware with their mount configurations to make sure the firmware works correctly before I officially release it.

Also if there are any more bugs fixes/features you want to request, I'll see if there is time to include them here.

[TCWORLD]

I've uploaded a new version of the firmware to the post above. There was a mistake in the new firmware in configuring the driver mode pins to be outputs.

[doramason]

Just like 7.4 it is not working on my computer(s). It opens but then all buttons disappear immediately. I have no idea what is causing this, maybe the language of the OS?

So unfortunately I'm not able to try it. Btw Have you changed the size of the window?

[TCWORLD]

What version of Java do you have installed?

Also, I haven't changed the size of the window as far as I recall.

[doramason]

I have the latest update of java and windows 7. Can you make the window smaller so that I can use it without changing the resolution on my netbook? It is not that important if you don't have the time, not being able to open it is a more important problem right now.

[TCWORLD]

What is the screen resolution of your netbook?

Also, do you have the 32bit JRE (Java) installed or the 64bit one? I'm struggling to figure out why it wouldn't load for you - if the 7.3 one loads, this one should too as they are made in exactly the same way.

Also, could you run the attached debugging version of the AstroEQ config utility - save it to the same directory as the beta AstroEQ.exe file. Then run it from the command line using the command:

Code: [Select]

cd path/to/utility
AstroEQDebug.exe --l4j-debug
This should create a file named "launch4j.log" in the same directory as the AstroEQ utility which will be saved once you quit the command (if you see nothing for a while, CTRL-C to stop it). If you could post the content of that here.

Also you should see the AstroEQ utility open up a command window which will be printing some debug information. If you could let me know where it gets up to, if it does anything at all.

[doramason]

What is the screen resolution of your netbook?

Also, do you have the 32bit JRE (Java) installed or the 64bit one? I'm struggling to figure out why it wouldn't load for you - if the 7.3 one loads, this one should too as they are made in exactly the same way.

Also, could you run the attached debugging version of the AstroEQ config utility - save it to the same directory as the beta AstroEQ.exe file. Then run it from the command line using the command:

Code: [Select]

cd path/to/utility
AstroEQDebug.exe --l4j-debug
This should create a file named "launch4j.log" in the same directory as the AstroEQ utility which will be saved once you quit the command (if you see nothing for a while, CTRL-C to stop it). If you could post the content of that here.

Also you should see the AstroEQ utility open up a command window which will be printing some debug information. If you could let me know where it gets up to, if it does anything at all.

I have 32bit OS and the Java is the 8 version 66 update. My screen resolution: 1024x600

I have changed .log to .jpg because it wasn't in the allowed file types. Just rename it to .log.

I'm also attaching the screenshot of the command window. let me know if you need anything else.

[TCWORLD]

Interesting, something be crashing. Could you scroll up in the cmd window to the top of the stack trace. If you right click and select "Mark" you can then drag to select text in the cmd window then right click again to copy it - easier to paste the text than a screenshot.

Also what is interesting is the free memory for the JVM is very small. Probably won't be an issue though as I highly doubt the utility would use enough memory to cause an issue.

[doramason]

Interesting, something be crashing. Could you scroll up in the cmd window to the top of the stack trace. If you right click and select "Mark" you can then drag to select text in the cmd window then right click again to copy it - easier to paste the text than a screenshot.

Also what is interesting is the free memory for the JVM is very small. Probably won't be an issue though as I highly doubt the utility would use enough memory to cause an issue.

I'm attaching the full text. I hope you can find the problem.

[TCWORLD]

Ah the joys of computers. Non-ascii characters apparently crash ControlP5 (what I am using for all the text boxes and things) on some computers  - If I remove the degree symbol from the config page it will probably fix it for you.

[TCWORLD]

@all The beta config utility has been updated and the new version attached to the original post.

@doramason I've also attached a new AstroEQDebug.zip file to my earlier post. If you could try that and see if the issue with it not loading has been verified. Turns out I was using the Unicode degree symbol on the config screen not the UTF-8 version.

[doramason]

@all The beta config utility has been updated and the new version attached to the original post.

@doramason I've also attached a new AstroEQDebug.zip file to my earlier post. If you could try that and see if the issue with it not loading has been verified. Turns out I was using the Unicode degree symbol on the config screen not the UTF-8 version.

It is the same, all buttons disappear after opening. I am attaching the new debug results.

[Smokie]

Hello Tom,new relaese is working fine by me!

Gr,Henk

[TCWORLD]

@Smokie Glad it's working for you.

@doramason, really confusing as I'm not sure what character 304 is and why it is happening - in fact from what I can tell it shouldn't even be physically possible! Somehow a value of 304 is being passed from somewhere unknown in a char variable which doesn't have enough bits to even store it! I've upgraded the version of Processing that I'm using to a more recent version in hope that the bug goes away. Would you be able to test it out (I've updated the link in my earlier post again).

[doramason]

@Smokie Glad it's working for you.

@doramason, really confusing as I'm not sure what character 304 is and why it is happening - in fact from what I can tell it shouldn't even be physically possible! Somehow a value of 304 is being passed from somewhere unknown in a char variable which doesn't have enough bits to even store it! I've upgraded the version of Processing that I'm using to a more recent version in hope that the bug goes away. Would you be able to test it out (I've updated the link in my earlier post again).

This time it opens but nothing can be seen in the window. I'm attaching the results of the debug.