Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I learn about The ASCOM Initiative and its technology?

See the About ASCOM section.

How can I get support for my ASCOM driver?

See the Support page for details.

How can I use TheSky™ in the ASCOM Environment?

See Working With TheSky (also in the menu on the left)

What is a Hub?

A hub is a program that allows multiple ASCOM astronomy programs to share a device. It looks like a driver, but it can allow more than one program to connect to it, and it in turn connects to the driver for the real device. Hubs can exist for any type of device. The diagram below shows a telescope hub only as an example.

The ASCOM Platform comes with two hubs, POTH and ASCOM Dome Control. In addition, the FocusMax program can act as both a focuser and a telescope hub.

What is POTH? What Can I Use it For?

See Using POTH (also in the menu on the left)

How do I enable and disable serial tracing?

Most drivers use the ASCOM "Helper" component to do serial port I/O. For those drivers that do, you can capture a trace of the serial traffic to and from the device by using serial tracing. Beginning with ASCOM Platform 5.5, the Chooser has a Trace menu. Use this to set the location of the serial trace log and to turn tracing on and off.