Vista and Windows 7 Compatibility
I tested SatPC32 V. 12.8a on a Desktop PC under Windows Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit and under Windows 7, 32-bit. The following comments apply also
to Windows 7.
My experience as yet: In general SatPC32
works flawlessly under Vista and Windows 7.
Details:
1. Vista and Windows 7, 32-bit:
a. The present Installshield setup
program works.
b. The Configuration of the program with the sub menus of the
menu "Setup" generally also works.
c. The download of
Keplerian data (control "Download
Keps" in menu "Satellites") works.
d. The "Speech" function works, too.
e. Manual Adding, Removing or
Changing of SatPC32 files:
These functions work also flawlessly (beginning with V. 12.8).
f. Rotor steering:
aa. To steer the IF-100 and FODTrack
interfaces the program uses the IOPort.SYS driver for hardware access. I tested
the driver successfully with the IF-100.
So, rotor steering with the FODTrack parallel port interface will also
work. The driver is also used with the
KCT and the RifPC interfaces. These interfaces can't be used with Vista PCs,
however, since they require ISA slots.
bb. Also, rotor steering via the
PC's genuine serial port (COM port) works. I tested that successfully with the
W0LMD Tracker Mini. So, all rotor controllers for the serial port (GS-232 and
Easycomm1 compatible and EGIS devices) will work.
cc. Steering of the serial devices
via a USB-to-Serial adapter will also work, provided a Vista compatible driver
is available.
I tested successfully the Vivanco 10752 USB-to-Serial adapter.
For the newer Keyspan USB 2.0 4-Port USB-to-Serial adapter USA-49WG and the
older models USA-49W and USA-49WLC Vista 32-bit drivers can be downloaded from
the Keyspan website (www.keyspan.com). I tested the update successfully with my
USA-49WLC.
I have no experience with other USB-to-Serial adapters. I suppose the Windows
XP drivers of these adapters will not work. Therefore an update for Vista will
be necessary.
dd. Rotor steering with the Labjack USB controller
U12 works. No driver update is needed since this controller uses a Windows HID
driver.
ee. For the U3 Labjack has uploaded
a Vista 32-bit compatible driver can be downloaded from the Labjack website (www.labjack.com). I have succussfully tested
the driver with my U3.
ff. HalloRotorUSB: I tested the HalloRotor USB controller and it
works.
gg. WinRotor: The author wrote that the software has successfully
been tested with Vista.
hh. With other USB controllers
(i.e.G6LVB) I have no experience.
g. CAT control:
aa. CAT steering via the PC's serial
port works.
bb. CAT steering with USB-to-Serial adapters:
See the remarks regarding rotor steering (sect. d, cc above).
2. Vista and Windows 7, 64-bit:
a. - (meaningless with V. 12.8a).
b. Configuration with the sub
menus of the menu "Setup" works.
c.
The download of Keplerian data (control "Download Keps" in menu "Satellites") works.
d. The "Speech" function works, too.
e. Manual changes of SatPC32 files: See
the remarks regarding Vista 32, sect. 1e.
f. Rotor steering:
aa. Rotor steering with the IF-100
and the FODTrack interfaces doesn't work.
There is no 64-bit version of the IOPort.SYS driver available as yet.
bb. Rotor steering via the PC's
serial ports works. I could test that with my Vista 64-bit PC which has one
genuine serial port and two serial ports from a SWEEX PCI card. So, all rotor
controllers for the serial port (GS-232 and Easycomm1 compatible and EGIS
devices) can be used.
cc. Steering of the serial controllers via a USB-to-Serial adapter will
also work, provided a Vista/Windows 7 64-bit compatible driver
is available. Presently (December 2009) the Prolific driver, version
3.3.10.140, driver date Nov. 19th, 2009 works with
The FTDI USB-to-Serial adapter
works also. I tested it successfully under Vista 64-bit (driver version
2.4.6.0, driver date March 13th, 2008). It will also work under Windows 7, 64-bit.
dd. Rotor steering with the Labjack U12 works. No driver update is
needed since this controller uses the Windows HID driver.
ee. For the Labjack U3 a 64-bit
driver can be downloaded from the Labjack website (www.labjack.com). I have tested it successfully with Vista, 64-bit, but couldn’t
test it with Windows 7, 64-bit
ff.
With other USB controllers (i.e. HalloRotor, WinRotorUSB, G6LVB) I have no
experience, but probably no 64-bit drivers are available as yet.
g. CAT control:
aa. CAT steering via the PC's serial
port works, see the remarks regarding rotor steering (sect. d. bb above).
bb. CAT steering via USB-to-Serial
adapters: See the remarks regarding rotor steering (sect. d. cc. above).
Attention:
The popular Prolific based CAT cables seem to require other drivers. A
user, Adrian AA5UK, wrote:
”I wanted to pass along some additional information in case you were not aware
of it. When I recently updated to a Windows 7 64-bit laptop the latest
Prolific drivers listed at the link http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?id=31
, would not work with my CAT interfaces based on the Prolific PL-2303 USB
chipset. I had one cable that did work with my Icom IC-7000 radio but the other
one for my FT857D/FT817 would not work. I tried several older versions of the
Prolific drivers and had to uninstall them each time.
I then came across some older drivers at G4FHQ's website. Since I had nothing
to lose, I decided to try the version he had posted. They worked perfectly and
now I no longer have any issues. See the links half way down the page at: http://www.g4hfq.co.uk/links.html%20
. Just passing this along in case others try the main
Prolific driver download site and still get errors. These older drivers may
work instead.
The driver I am using now is version
3.2.0.0 from 7/31/2007, a very old driver, but for my CAT interface cable it is
the only one that would work on Windows 7 64-bit PC. Just for a
test, I decided to uninstall my old Prolific driver and then install the latest
one from Prolific website. It did not work. So I went back to the
3. Known problems
If you install SatPC32 12.6 from CD the menu "Setup" /
"Observer" doesn't work properly if the User Account Control is
switched on, see above sect. 1e. With the 12.6 CD version (and all older
program versions) clicking on
“Observer” starts the separate program “SatSetup.Exe” in the SatPC32 program
folder. With the actual 12.6 Internet version the functions of menu “Observer”
have become part of SatPC32 itself.
To fix the problem run SatSetup with the option “Run as
Administrator”, see sect. 1e. Installing
the actual 12.6 Internet version will also fix the problem.