In a private message user Alfred asked me to put my experience with FS2 and the INDI FS2 driver. I answer here because it may be useful to other FS2 users:
I have version 1.25 EEPROM in the FS2. All versions from 1.19 and above must work OK with the FS2 driver and other basic LX200 drivers.
Previous versions don't support the ACK LX200 command. This was a problem because most LX200 drivers need ACK command in order to check the connection. Because my original FS2 has version 1.18 it didn't work properly with standard LX200 drivers, I programed the first version of FS2 driver for INDI to solve this problem. In this driver you can specify the FS2 version you use and overcome the ACK command for versions below 1.19. However seems Jassem rewrited the driver later in some INDI version upgrade
and the functionality to support versions below 1.19 was lost. and instead of sending ACK command it always behave as connection is OK. I don't blame him. He does a great work and I have no time to program and debug the driver any more. This can lead to problems if connectivity is lost and the driver needs to reconnect in order to recover.
Before that, I already bought an replace the FS2 EEPROM chip with a 1.25 version (see
www.astro-electronic.de/version.htm)
Looking at the FS2 driver code, it seems it is the same of LX200 generic with some small changes:
- On checking connection, return always OK.
- Check accuracy after slew => No sense for me, but can be related to the coordinates format configuration in the FS2 unit discused in the earlier FS2 thread.
- Park procedure => I never used it.
- Returns fake GPS position
Also take into account the FS2 has a limited set of commands implemented:
The FS2 supports the most important LX200 commands:
:GR, :GD, :Sr, :Sd, :MS, :Q, :Qn, :Qs, :Qe, :Qw, :Mn, :Ms, :Me, :Mw, :RS, :RM, :RC, :RG, :CM, :U, ACK
If any other command is send it can lead to no response at all and the driver can understand there is a communication problem.
If someone have any communication problems with the FS2, It must activate the debug mode and send the output and I may can help.