Licensing for newbie

Voyager Beginner & Questions
1

Hi there,
I already own MaximDL, which is one of two available programs that work with Voyager.

Pls. be patient with me…

  1. MaximDL or TSX are required for Voyager to run, correct?

  2. Is the future “Voyager advanced” feature set going to be included as part of the base license? i.e. should I purchase now, or wait a month?

  3. I would like to purchase a 2 or 3 node array +base license. Does this require I also purchase a “Maestro” license for MaximDL, or does my standard license work?

  4. The Viking product and I/o cards…will this automatically turn off and on ports in my Pegasus Astro ASCOM controlled USB box? Does it allow me to turn equipment off and on? If so, can someone provide a link to hardware it works with?

Clear Skies from a really green newbie!

Paul
Paul

2

Not necessary. You can control camera & mount via native ASCOM driver if your camera/mount is supported. You can also use the free Stellarium as the Planetium program. You can use the free plate-solving program such as ASTAP as your solver. Bottomline, you can get a fully functional system with Voyager, without MDL or TSX.

3

Hi,

Thank you very much. I do already own MaximDL. What additional features does owning this software license give me? I am curious about automation.

Thanks,

Paul

4

Hi Paul, some answers :

  1. no like Yizhou wrote before you can use direct drivers developed inside Voyager or ASCOM driver. Depends on your camera.
  2. No Advanced will be a separated License, you can anyway upgrade from base license
  3. You can connect only one Maxim DL in Voyager so if you want to use multi nodes you need to have camera thata allow ascom or direct driver access
  4. Yes, you must use the previous versions of Viking. About hardware you must refer to pegasus astro support

All the best
Leonardo

5

Thank you for the updates!

Are there any advantages to leveraging the capabilities of MaximDL with the capabilities of Voyager? All my equipment has ASCOM drivers.

I guess what I’m asking is do I scrap Maxim and never look back?

Clear Skies,
Paul

6

Paul

Short answer is No. You can do almost anything you need with ASCOM drivers and Voyager alone. I went that route several years ago and had used MaXIM since version 2 in the early 2000s.

Roberto

7

Thank you Roberto and Leonardo for the clear answers!

Paul

8

Just one more question…

With Viking and an I/O device like the KMTronic referenced on the main website. I would be able to turn off and on my cameras, focusers, rotator, cooling fans etc. as I please, correct? Then, I could use dragstrip to tell Viking to turn on specific devices (i.e, a certain telescope rig), while leaving others turned off? It looks like there are enough ports on that KMTronic to control an array!

Clear Skies,
Paul

9

Hi Paul,

yes this is correct…

All the best
Leonardo