ISwitch
Definition
Assembly: ASCOM.DeviceInterfaces (in ASCOM.DeviceInterfaces.dll) Version: 7.1.3+4851.c5da65c2b
public interface ISwitchV3Public Interface ISwitchV3public interface class ISwitchV3Remarks
The Switch interface is used to define a number of 'switch devices'. A switch device can be used to control something, such as a power switch or may be used to sense the state of something, such as a limit switch.
This SwitchV2 interface is an extension of the original Switch interface. The changes allow devices to have more than two states and to distinguish between devices that are writable and those that are read only.
Compatibility between Switch and SwitchV2 interfaces:
- Switch devices that implemented the original Switch interface and client applications that use the original interface will still work together.
- Client applications that implement the original Switch interface should still work with drivers that implement the new interface.
- Client applications that use the new features in this interface will not work with drivers that do not implement the new interface.
Each device has a CanWrite method, this is true if it can be written to or false if the device can only be read.
The new MinSwitchValue, MaxSwitchValue and SwitchStep methods are used to define the range and values that a device can handle. This also defines the number of different values - states - that a device can have, from two for a traditional on-off switch, through those with a small number of states to those which have many states.
The SetSwitchValue and GetSwitchValue methods are used to set and get the value of a device as a double.
There is no fundamental difference between devices with different numbers of states.
Naming Conventions
Each device handled by a Switch is known as a device or switch device for general cases, a controller device if it can alter the state of the device and a sensor device if it can only be read.
For convenience devices are referred to as boolean if the device can only have two states, and multi-state if it can have more than two values. These are treated the same in the interface definition.
Properties
| Connected | Set True to connect to the device hardware. Set False to disconnect from the device hardware. You can also read the property to check whether it is connected. This reports the current hardware state. |
| Connecting | Returns True while the device is undertaking an asynchronous connect or disconnect operation. |
| Description | Returns a description of the device, such as manufacturer and model number. Any ASCII characters may be used. |
| DeviceState | Returns the device's operational state in a single call. |
| DriverInfo | Descriptive and version information about this ASCOM driver. |
| DriverVersion | A string containing only the major and minor version of the driver. |
| InterfaceVersion | The interface version number that this device supports. Must return 3 for this interface version. |
| MaxSwitch | The number of switch devices managed by this driver |
| Name | The short name of the driver, for display purposes |
| SupportedActions | Returns the list of custom action names supported by this driver. |
Methods
| Action | Invokes the specified device-specific custom action. |
| CanAsync | Flag indicating whether this switch can operate asynchronously. |
| CancelAsync | Cancels an in-progress asynchronous state change operation. |
| CanWrite | Reports if the specified switch device can be written to, default true. This is false if the device cannot be written to, for example a limit switch or a sensor. |
| CommandBlind | Transmits an arbitrary string to the device and does not wait for a response. Optionally, protocol framing characters may be added to the string before transmission. |
| CommandBool | Transmits an arbitrary string to the device and waits for a boolean response. Optionally, protocol framing characters may be added to the string before transmission. |
| CommandString | Transmits an arbitrary string to the device and waits for a string response. Optionally, protocol framing characters may be added to the string before transmission. |
| Connect | Connect to the device asynchronously |
| Disconnect | Disconnect from the device asynchronously |
| Dispose | This method is a "clean-up" method that is primarily of use to drivers that are written in languages such as C# and VB.NET where resource clean-up is initially managed by the language's runtime garbage collection mechanic. Driver authors should take care to ensure that a client or runtime calling Dispose() does not adversely affect other connected clients. Applications should not call this method. |
| GetSwitch | Return the state of switch device id as a boolean |
| GetSwitchDescription | Gets the description of the specified switch device. This is to allow a fuller description of the device to be returned, for example for a tool tip. |
| GetSwitchName | Return the name of switch device n. |
| GetSwitchValue | Returns the value for switch device id as a double |
| MaxSwitchValue | Returns the maximum value for this switch device, this must be greater than MinSwitchValue(Int16). |
| MinSwitchValue | Returns the minimum value for this switch device, this must be less than MaxSwitchValue(Int16) |
| SetAsync | Set a boolean switch's state asynchronously |
| SetAsyncValue | Set a switch's value asynchronously |
| SetSwitch | Sets a switch controller device to the specified state, true or false. |
| SetSwitchName | Set a switch device name to a specified value. |
| SetSwitchValue | Set the value for this device as a double. |
| SetupDialog | Launches a configuration dialog box for the driver. The call will not return until the user clicks OK or cancel manually. |
| StateChangeComplete | Completion variable for asynchronous switch state change operations. |
| SwitchStep | Returns the step size that this device supports (the difference between successive values of the device). |