ASC1 Loader/Editor and USB/Serial Converter Problems

[Dee_Ann]

Dee Ann, when it comes time to buy your ASC1 drop me an email or call. I should be carrying the factory USB adapter shortly. They are inbound on an ocean shipment with a new order.

The loader is WINXP/7 compliant. Since you are running Win8, I can’t help you there.

Oh definitely. I will check with you before I do order.


What about this? In the windows 8 explorer you can right click on an app and tell it to run as if it were on a windows 7 computer.



One thing that occurred to me, I still have the windows 7 disk that was used to setup my Home Theater PC. I could also install it under Parallels on my Mac. Then I could boot into which ever version I need.
If the ASC1 stuff can’t be made to work on Windows 8 I can always install it under windows 7.

I’m sure that one way or the other, there is some way to make it all work. I’m too hard headed and stubborn not to try.
I just hope it’s a little more break proofy than my last toy..

 

[bigg t]

No problems here reading or writing to the asci with a windows 8 pc. Although I haven't upgraded to the new software since I use the 0 for a satellite position, much like a h to h motor.

 

[Dee_Ann]

No problems here reading or writing to the asci with a windows 8 pc. Although I haven't upgraded to the new software since I use the 0 for a satellite position, much like a h to h motor.

Excellent !! Well that seals the deal for me.

I was reading in the TELE-audiovision magazine that Titanium has a discount offer going on until October 1 on the ASC1 which means that I need to work this into my September budget.
August is already toast for me. I won’t have funds available until late September so I’m going to be squeaking it in just under the wire at the last minute.

http://www.tele-audiovision.com/eng/TELE-audiovision-1409/#48

I am sooooooooo glad I read this magazine for once !
I am Scottish therefore I am an extreme cheapskate that loves a bargain !

 

[pdiddy]

Be careful what you wish for!

 

[. Raine]

Dee, Brian's doing this deal here, don't know for how long though and which deal would be better.


Here is an Awesome Deal for SatelliteGuys members! Shop at TitaniumSatellite.com and get an instant 15% off the total merchandise purchase. Buy a little! Buy a lot! It doesn't matter! You save!

Discount Code: SATGUYS SAVE Enter this code in the Shopping Cart discount field and your SatelliteGuys User Name in the notes.

This special SatelliteGuys 15% discount on merchandise applies to retail orders using the SATGUYS SAVE discount code and placed by SatelliteGuys members listing their valid user name in the notes. Discount is valid on orders placed after 6pm, August 19, 2014, cannot be combined with other discount codes. Titanium Satellite reserves the right to end this discount at any time and without prior notice.
Titanium

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well two things, I’m financially locked down until the latter part of September. I could buy it now but then I run the risk of getting in a bind over the next 3 1/2 weeks.
Secondly, I stink at math so I put it into google it says $180 - 15% = $153. So it appears the Tele150 special is a tad bit better savings.
Also to consider, the shipping. From what I read, this thing is quite heavy.

Wait, scratch that. I just checked the Titanium site and the shipping is *FREE*
With the code you get the gadget delivered for $150 flat out !
That’s brilliant! I’m doing it. I know I shouldn’t but to heck with it, I’m doing it tomorrow.
I don’t want to take the chance of the discount expiring before I have the $$$. I have it now but it messes up my budget. I’ll just stock up on ramen noodles. Everything will be ok.

 

[KE4EST]

When you get tired of Ramen, Noodles just go look at your ASC-1 again.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Woot !! I just ordered an ASC1 !!

Because it is ~confirmed~ to work well with the A3 and is ~confirmed~ to work when placed inline with a USALS motor too.

 

[KE4EST]

You will enjoy it Dee. I have mine hooked up right now just the way you describe and it is working great!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Brilliant! I’m looking forward to some trouble free times. I’m soooooo done and over with buying cheap stuff.
I’ve got waaaay too much time and money into this. It’s gone beyond a hobby now and it’s just silly to keep trying to
work with cheap clone ripoff stuff. I’m only going to buy quality stuff from now on.

BTW, props to Brian at Titanium for being so helpful. A few short chats with him and my brain cells are connecting a little better.

 

[KE4EST]

BTW, props to Brian at Titanium for being so helpful. A few short chats with him and my brain cells are connecting a little better.

Brian tends to have that affect on people!

 

[truckracer]

i need to get better dish movers before mine will work correctly.

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[Dee_Ann]

Well, crud.....

Turns out something rather unexpected has come up and I may be moving. To a substantially smaller yard. Much nicer and bigger house but waaaaay small yard.
Not what I had expected or ever imagined and not really what I would have wished for.

But if it happens I don’t really know how this will affect my FTA stuff. Moving all my stuff will be a massive pain.
But then it would be a chance to carefully plan out how to place everything in a logical layout vs the haphazard way things are now.

I guess for the immediate future I need to put my big upgrade plans on hold.

 

[FTA4PA]

Well, crud.....

Turns out something rather unexpected has come up and I may be moving. To a substantially smaller yard. Much nicer and bigger house but waaaaay small yard. Not what I had expected or ever imagined and not really what I would have wished for.

But if it happens I don’t really know how this will affect my FTA stuff. Moving all my stuff will be a massive pain.
But then it would be a chance to carefully plan out how to place everything in a logical layout vs the haphazard way things are now.

I guess for the immediate future I need to put my big upgrade plans on hold.

Sorry to hear that. Hope everything works out for you!

 

[KE4EST]

Wow Dee, hope it is for the best. I hope everything is ok. Yes, if you do have to move it will be a chance to start over and plan every step of your FTA set-up.

 

[Dee_Ann]

IF I move it won’t be because I want to. Even though my living conditions would improve substantially, the reasons behind the move really upset me deeply and I would rather things just stay as they are.
I’m happy living in my crummy, broken down, raggedy dump of a house. I guess there’s some Stockholm Syndrome at work here. This is the longest I’ve ever lived in one place. I have lots of lovely bamboo and gardens I’ve planted. And my dishes. And a big yard for my dogs to play in. A short drive to my BBF’s house. No real emotional attachment to the crummy house and the floody yard, it’s just that I’ve gotten very used to it. And I don’t like change. But the situation which may likely arise that will cause me to move causes me deep grief and unhappiness. That’s all I can say about it.
Sure, I’ll end up in a way nicer house in a way nicer neighborhood in a somewhat nicer city, the move is less than 10 miles from where I am now. But the yard is about 1/4 the size of my yard now so once I plant dishes there I’ll have no yard. The dogs could run under the dishes as they do now. But no more John Deere riding mower, there’s not enough yard for my big giant mower. And being disabled I can’t use a walk behind mower so I would have to pay someone to mow my yard. And I would have to fence the yard in properly, which it is not. All these things are trivial I suppose. I just wish the situation wasn’t happening at all in the first place.

 

[Dee_Ann]

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, so I have a new laptop that came pre-loaded with windows 7, I think it’s the home edition. Meh..... I do not like windows.
Anyway.. So since this laptop was given to me and it’s really too lame to use for anything serious, I decided to leave windows on it so I can wipe windows off of my HTPC and make it into an OSX server.

I installed the apps for my AI Turbo S2 meter on it and that works perfectly. I updated the meter and everything is excellent with that.
The meter uses a USB cable so there were no issues, it just worked.

But, when I tried to use it for my ASC1, that’s when things didn’t go so great. At first when I plugged in the included USB to serial adapter it made the bonk-boink noise and it said it was installing drivers.
I loaded the ASC1 app and it saw the adapter as com4. There was a firmware update so I downloaded that and installed it to the ASC1. It completed without error.

I powered it off for like 2 minutes then back on. I told it to read the satellite list from the box into the laptop and it did, I saved it to disk but it was all pretty much blank except for two entries I had made manually on the box.
So then I tried to load from disk the “ASC1 North American Satellite List 1w-139w Zip File (.csv)” but then the app just locks up cold and stays locked up and dead to the world indefinitely. I let it sit for like 30 minutes to see if it would ever recover but it would not so I would have to kill the app and restart it. I can not, under any conditions, load the satellite list from disk into the app.

I tried doing the same thing on my HTPC which is also windows 7. I also tried it on windows 7 running as a virtual machine under Parallels on my Mac (OS X) and it behaves exactly the same way.

The laptop is brand new and has nothing on it except a new, clean copy of windows 7, there’s nothing there that could or should be interfering with the laptop.
Just a note, ALL copies I’ve been using are 64 bit, if that makes any difference.

Anyway, after several failed attempts to load a file, then it began to tell me it couldn’t find the com port when I would restart. I unplugged the adapter then plugged it back in and it made the bonk-boink noise then it started with boink-bonk and back and forth. The noises it makes when you plug and unplug stuff. And I wasn’t even touching it. Finally it just quit completely.

I went into control panel and device manager and there were no com ports listed any more.

I tried the same thing on my HTPC and it now will not recognize the adapter. Not just the app, the computers are not seeing the adapter anymore.
I tried uninstalling then reinstalling the drivers. No luck.

Finally I figured it just croaked so I went on Amazon to find a new one. I told it to sort on the best customer feedback and I found that there is another kind of adapter that people rated as “flippin excellent”.
This one adapter had no negative feedback and nothing but praise for it.

Turns out that like 98% of the USB to serial adapters are using some cheap chinese chip called a Prolific PL2303 and everyone says they are absolute rubbish. Well, I believe it.
I had another old adapter that uses the same chip in it and it’s flakey too. So I bought this new adapter that uses an FTDI chip. ( I have no idea what either chip is ) because of the feedback on it.
It cost twice as much as the crummy chinese adapters but I’m at the point where I would rather pay a little more and get the best stuff because I have no patience. If it breaks I flip out and want to beat it with a hammer.

I haven’t really done much with my new ASC1 because just about the time I got the thing my dad dropped the bombshell on me about him getting remarried and
I’ve kind of been in a state of shock/depression for a few weeks. Since I’ll be moving in less than two months I kind of don’t feel highly motivated about messing
with my dishes, they’re all coming down and being moved to the new house so why bother with them now?

Anyway, I feel the new adapter should take care of part of my problem but I can’t grasp what the problem is with the app not being able to load the satellite file without locking up.
Has anyone else had this happen? Or is it just me? (again)

 

[Magic Static]

I also use a FTDI chipset. Windows 7 auto-installed both drivers. The port driver and the USB device driver. But the one driver didn't work. I had to manually install with the drivers that came with the adapter.

 

[updatelee]

You can also use updateDVB and v4l-updatelee in Linux for editing the satellite names. I havent implemented firmware updates yet but should be able too.

UDL