john32712 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Hi George, Not sure what you are saying here? Looking to add on top of the questions which I have already provided. Do you have anything you would like to put into words that you could sign your name to? I would like to send this to the ASA management team and graciously request a response. I want some answers.... Thank you, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john32712 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Thank you Bernard for your support and question!!!!! Best, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john32712 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Luke I understand your frustration! I promise I will stay on top of this until I get committed answers! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeCarey Posted June 10, 2015 Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 I am simply saying that I don't think we should speculate on the relationship between ASA and Philip. This could start damaging rumours. I would prefer to wait for a response from ASA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john32712 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Hi George, Ok got it! We can certainly speculate, but I agree we don't want to cause any further damage... more than has already been caused. Again, do you have anything that you would like to contribute that you would be willing to put your name to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john32712 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Questions from John in Orlando Florida USA (ASA Forum name john32712): 1. I have now owned my ASA mount for three years, The supporting software (Autoslew & Sequence) is absolutely critical for it use. ASA has not been proactive with communication about its software, revision updates, and future advancement. Years have gone by without any company statements, forum communications, or indication of the future. There have been promises made, but none have been kept. This is very important and you surely understand that the lack of communication and updates is counter-productive to your company and the product which we purchased. Do you plan to change or improve on this? If so, please explain how and when? If you do, would you agree to provide at minimum, monthly statements on the "user's group", about progress (software and hardware) and direction at ASA? 2. The documentation, user's manual, and reference material is not acceptable and never has been. This was brought to ASA's attention and last year a commitment was made to improve upon it. That commitment was not kept! it is imperative, especially for newer users and for seasoned users as well. We need good reference material and excellent documentation. Of all astronomical mounts, the ASA line can be very technically challenging. We should have the best documentation of all commercially available mounts. Are you willing to improve upon this or is ASA as a company looking to pursue other directions? Questions From Bernard, Bordeaux France (ASA Forum Name RamaSpaceShip) 3. Since progress has been negligible, would ASA consider open sourcing their software and the documentation as an option to improve upon it? Who else? Come on guys..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmirot Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 We have a officially sponsored forum on the ASA web site and they don't participate. That's really a shame. If they want a really user to user forum then it needs to go back to Yahoo with an independent moderator. Other companies support both a forum and direct email. I don't understand them. This perhaps the cheapest advertising they can have. People join or review the boards before they buy. Also, why even have a beta group if the authors don't respond to questions or come out new versions frequently. My 2 cents Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john32712 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Hi Max, I am trying to turn this around. I want to send a formalized list of questions to ASA. We all agree that issues exist, but we also feel the equipment is superb. Can you provide a constructive question regarding something you would like to get fixed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmirot Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Sure, I think there needs to be someone from ASA reading every post, every work day. ASA should respond to question within a working day if that question has not been address by another user. The forum should be shrunk from multiple categories to two. Beta software and everything else. A person or two needs to take responsibility for beta testing. It needs a separate moderator that is coding. They need to respond to posts routinely. I can imagine ASA does not want to reveal their source code, however, there might be few trusted volunteers willing to help write code. The are probably a few people on the forum the have the skill that would really help for free just to have the new feature move forward. Perhaps a Wiki to develop better documentation in the many languages . This or some way for native speakers to help with ruff drafts. Thanks Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Schmid Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 From what I read on the official ASA Website under "Team" they list a Dr. Martin Ploner under "Software" without a photo (maybe someone new to the team?). If you google for that name you find a link to the astronomical institute of the University of Berne, Switzerland. In the News section of astrosysteme.com they mention that they will be presenting the new ASA software for DDM mounts on September 19th at the AME in Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany... There seems to be something going on at ASA ... Dani PS: Let's hope that watever will be comming is at least as good as the autoslew/sequence solution! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmirot Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 From what I read on the official ASA Website under "Team" they list a Dr. Martin Ploner under "Software" without a photo (maybe someone new to the team?). If you google for that name you find a link to the astronomical institute of the University of Berne, Switzerland. In the News section of astrosysteme.com they mention that they will be presenting the new ASA software for DDM mounts on September 19th at the AME in Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany... There seems to be something going on at ASA ... Dani PS: Let's hope that watever will be comming is at least as good as the autoslew/sequence solution! Hard to know what's going on. We hear 2.0 etc too. Without knowing more, I would only assume that a beta version of Autoslew and Sequence might make it to final release. Why would think the beta testers would be out of the loop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prefetch Posted June 14, 2015 Report Share Posted June 14, 2015 just chiming in w/ my $.02 - i fully support this thread, and especially love the idea of open source software for ASA. otherwise i worry that someday my super expensive mount will be a paperweight if one day the software stops being updated. if it's open source, everyone wins. the ASA mount and software is fun and challenging, but it's also temperamental and frustrating. (i actually use a OAG because i find myself pulling less hair out of my head than trying to get the mount to give me the elusive 10 minute subs that i hoped it would give me - i know, i know, i could get them if i wasn't using a C14HD...!) and yes, ASA really should, at least weekly (if not daily) be replying to posts on this forum. not sure who their customers really are - maybe they aren't really selling to hobbyists, so they don't care that much about folks like me, but it just would be really nice to have more communication about things. on a positive note, i do love the beta updates that show up every once and a while - that is very nice. please keep those coming ASA!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldemar Posted June 14, 2015 Report Share Posted June 14, 2015 (edited) Like many said before: the lack of good information and communication is the real bummer. Especially information about new or changed features of the beta updates. I understand ASA's main objective is the professional market and they are not really focussed on the hobbyist market, but since they do sell to that market, they should provide good information so users can get the most out of their equipment. The immediate effect of this attitude is lower sales, for people nowadays do read the fora before buying... The equipment itself is beyond the shadow of a doubt the most advanced in the market, but without the much needed information that may be a negative point. They seem to forget aftersales is at least as important as quality or technical features. I wonder if this is arrogance or ignorance... or maybe just a lack of market awareness... I really hope we can give them at least some insight to the problems we as endusers encounter and they will respond to our needs. Regards, Waldemar Edited June 14, 2015 by Waldemar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamo Posted June 14, 2015 Report Share Posted June 14, 2015 And perhaps we will send mount and they us money.They will have less of a problem Adamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si6pack Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Sorry for stepping in so late - due to the "stagnation" @ASA I only unregularly visit the forum, which was always helpful to support me in solving my issues with my DDM85 (thank you to all forum members!). Previously I was in contact with Gerald and Philip who did their best to encounter my "stars as stripes" problem - as Lukas pointed out some posts before, no problem here. However I fully agree with the above made statements concerning the manual and the supporting software - it is a real shame that such a nice piece of (electronic) craftsmanship is not rewarded with a good manual and completely developed software thereby prohibiting the crowd to get the best out of these mounts. I also miss the input from ASA here in this forum - from what I know, they are users as well and should share their experiences with the mount - if they never struggled I would like to know why... What really bothers me, that I - like the others here - spent a lot of money and lost a lot of ccd-time due to technical issues/problems with no input from ASA how to solve these via the forum. When I purchased this mount in late 2010, I was under the opposite impression - limited, if any technical problems, much more time for imaging. I had to realize, that I was spoilt by my former AP1200... However, after "self-curing" my "stars as stripes" problem (simply by clicking "File" - "Restore Settings"), I somewhat lost the confidence in the whole equipment and started thinking about selling my equipment since the software-dependency of the mounts is so critical...what if there is no further development? Just my two pence. Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Weinzinger Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Dear Friends, Dear Customers, The main focus of this forum, as in similar forums too, is to help each other. We want to create a place where active astro-photographers can help each other to move forward to solve different problems. There are lots of posting which are proving that this is working very well. On this place, let me thank all of you who helped other customers with your own experiences. Thank you! We always said that if there are problems, our support team can be contacted at support@astrosysteme.at that was used by several users. Also the upload of images taken by ASA customers is explicit desired. Each customer should have the possibility to share his results with like-minded people. Regarding ASA 2.0. We are currently working on a revision on all ASA products, especially on our mounts. A complete new GoTo control will become available for all our DDM mounts to control the mount by tablet with an App or without the need of a PC. This solution contains, next to a new pole wedge, a new way for polar alignment. For this, we will go live with a complete new software and with a new manual. We currently concentrate our energy on the developing and programming on this new software. This is why there is not much time to review the manual for Autoslew. Independent on this, we provide you with new versions of Autoslew and Sequence and we will do this in the future too and with no extra costs for you. We will publish an updated version of the manual from Autoslew and Sequence in the next upcoming weeks and beg your patient. We know that this solution will no help our customers to solve their actual problems, therefore it was very important for us to that the new software will also work with current mounts. Our target is that all user of an ASA DDM mount, especially those people who are working in the field, will have a software that fits their needs in astrophotography. We are on a very good way and first parts of the new software will be presented on the AME on 19.09.15. Currently an open source solution is not planned. It was your input in this forum and by email, which showed us what are the problems and the need of our customers. To full fill your expectations in ASA products, we realized that we have to leave the current way and make a bigger change. Not for solving bugs, it’s to go live with something new that will fit your needs for great imaging and observation. Sometimes it’s necessary to stop patching. We thank you all for your understanding and your patients. I hope all of you, who helped others to solve their problems will do this in the future again. In the name of Egon Döberl, ASA Astrosysteme GmbH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeCarey Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Thank you ASA. Are there any plans to change the hardware and firmware of the DDM mounts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamaSpaceShip Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Hi ASA, Thanks for the information, we were waiting for it since one year now.. But you understand that these promisses are not really sufficient, as we already got promisses from you last year, and are still waiting. As you can see on this thread, our patience is over. So you need to tell us more. You are changing the whole stuff, probably it was necessary. I still regret that you don't open the source. But once you tell us that big change, you need to tell us what will be the exact impact of the new solution for the current mount users: - will every mount be upgradable, and at which price? - what will be the detailed enhancements and new features? - what will be the third party software needed to use the new features I think we waited for too long, and deserve this detailed information. Regards. Bernard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmirot Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Hi ASA, Thanks for the information, we were waiting for it since one year now.. But you understand that these promisses are not really sufficient, as we already got promisses from you last year, and are still waiting. As you can see on this thread, our patience is over. So you need to tell us more. You are changing the whole stuff, probably it was necessary. I still regret that you don't open the source. But once you tell us that big change, you need to tell us what will be the exact impact of the new solution for the current mount users: - will every mount be upgradable, and at which price? - what will be the detailed enhancements and new features? - what will be the third party software needed to use the new features I think we waited for too long, and deserve this detailed information. Regards. Bernard I would like to know this too. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w0mbat Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 While I appreciate the reply from Mr Weinzinger I have to say that it has left me more confused and concerned. Is ASA saying they are moving in a new direction with both hardware and software? Where does this leave current owners? Am I correctly inferring that there will be new hardware using the new software and that old hardware will need to use the "old" software???? And there is still the issue with why all this is taking so long with various past promises just ignored! More explanations are definitely needed! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si6pack Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 From my point of view, I completely agree with Bernard, Max and Ian. The ASA response is appreciated, however what will be the consequences for the "old" mounts? What can the "old" users expect (@what price)? We need ALL details here! Unfortunately, this response leads to even more questions and unsettles myself completely... Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Weinzinger Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 Dear Customers, We are working hard on this new software solution. The aim is that all “old owners” get an option to use the new solution. The price is not calculated yet. When we know all details and prices we can publish this. Best regards, Dietmar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w0mbat Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 Is it being seriously suggested that existing owners should PAY for this new "software solution"???? I cannot believe what I am seeing! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 This is only acceptable if EITHER: a. The new software works with existing/recent hardware and is available as a free upgrade to existing users, OR b. The existing software continues to be supported and maintained for a reasonable period, after which it is made open source, and is also fully documented. It is NOT acceptable if existing users are forced to struggle on with poorly documented software that is not maintained. If ASA does not have the resources to innovate new solutions while also supporting existing solutions at the same time then it really must address its strategy. New customers are unlikely to buy the ver 2.0 hardware/software if they think that it will also cease to be supported properly when ver 3.0 eventually gets released. Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Weinzinger Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 We do not stop Autoslew. In the future a new manual will be available for Autoslew and Sequnece and updates. None of the more than 400 Autoslew user must change to the new software, it is only a option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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