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 port works. 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 64-bit compatible driver is available. Presently (December 2009)  the Prolific driver, version 3.3.10.140, driver date Nov. 19th, 2009 works with Vista and Windows 7,  64-bit. I have no experience with other drivers.

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.

bb. CAT steering via USB-to-Serial adapters: See the remarks regarding rotor steering (sect. d. cc. above).

            


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.