AUTOSTAR INFORMATION Last updated: 5 February 2001

All of Dick Seymour's Autostar Patches

Feb 04, 2001
This page contains links and instructions for patching Meade Autostar firmware files. These patches either correct errors, or add functions I and others have found useful.

In short:
You download firmware files from Meade's support site
( http://www.meade.com/support/auto.html ),
use this page to provide a "patcher" and the patches,
drag-and-drop the patch onto the Patcher's icon,
and then use Meade's Updater to move the improved firmware to your Autostar.
Starfinder and 494 Autostar support coming soon...

On this page: Features, the Files, a How-to-do, and Jim Berry's Patcher Program Notes.

Among the features you can add are:

• AOS-to-the-second: When you ask an unpatched Autostar to predict a satellite pass, the Rise Time is displayed as a "truncated minute". If the time would be 08:24:59 it is shown as 8:24. This patch provides the seconds. Since you can change the AOS point by simply recalculating the pass, the seconds display lets you quickly pick one that's lower (earlier) or higher (later) than previous AOS's. Versions v21ek, 2.0h, 20.i of 497 firmware.
• Lowercase Objects: This patch lets you use lowercase letters and almost all punctuation characters when entering a Comet, Asteroid, City, User Object, Landmark or Satellite name. Any of the "scroll to choose a letter" inputs are affected. Beware that it therefore greatly lengthens the number of characters you have to scroll past. v21ek and v2.0h/i for the 497 only.
• Creep-after-beep: For versions of the firmware before v21ek, this patch removes three instances where the firmware calls the SYNC and backlash correction function twice, when it should only be invoked once.

  The files:
  (do Save Link As... instead of trying to open the Zip and Exe files)

  • AStarPatch.zip ... (ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/seymour/astro/AStarPatch.zip) the 27KB zip of everything listed here.

  • AStarPat.exe ... (ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/seymour/astro/AStarPat.exe) the 36KB executable (not zipped)
  • Readme.txt ... these instructions as text
  • patcher.html ... these instructions as this web page
  • patcher.bat ... (ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/seymour/astro/patcher.bat) a batch file to run it for you... Drag-and-Drop

    ---

    497 Autostar
    v21eK
    
  • 497_21ek.txt ... Satellite AOS patch for 497 Autostar v2.1Ek
  • AllChars21ek.txt ... Lowercase Objects patch for 497 Autostar v2.1Ek

    ---

    v2.0g/h/i
    

  • AOS_20hi.txt ... Satellite AOS patch only for 497 Autostar v2.0h and v2.0i
  • AllChars20h.txt ... Lowercase Objects patch for 497 Autostar v2.0h and v2.0i
  • 497_20g.txt ... creep-after-beep patch for 497 Autostar v2.0g
  • 497_20h.txt ... creep-after-beep patch for 497 Autostar v2.0h
  • 497_20i.txt ... creep-after-beep patch for 497 Autostar v2.0i
  • 20iPatch.txt ... all Dick's patches for 497 v2.0i firmware.

    495 Autostar

  • 495_20g.txt ... creep-after-beep patch for 495 Autostar v2.0g
  • 495_20i.txt ... creep-after-beep patch for 495 Autostar v2.0i

  Nearly-Automated patch instructions:

  • Create a directory, unpack the ZIP file into it.
  • Put a copy of AStarPat.exe into the Ephemerides folder.
  • Put a copy of Patcher.bat into the Ephemerides folder.
  • Put the proper 497_20i.txt file (depending upon your autostar.rom version) in there, too.
  • In a Windows Explorer window, drag the 497_20i.txt file onto the Patcher.bat Icon.
  • A DOS window will open, with instructions and messages.
  • When the patcher has finished running, close the DOS window by clicking the [x] on the upper right corner.

  • After you're done, you must then run the Meade Autostar Updater program to transfer the software to the Autostar. Press the "Send to Autostar [new software]" button. The download takes about 35 minutes.

Program by: Jim Berry - Nov 2000
Packaging, patches, webpages and obligatory typos by: Dick Seymour
Webpage: rev 1f (added Sat AOS patch for 21Ek patch file)

A really, really plain vanilla application to patch Meade AutoStar ROM files as directed by a text script file.

How to run it:

Inputs: ROM file to be patched; patch list.
Outputs: new version of ROM file, renamed original ROM file (ROM_bak)

Full run syntax: [drive:\path\path\]astarpat [path\]ROM_file [path\]patch_file

Can be invoked from Start Menu's Run... command,
or from a DOS window.

In an effort to make compatibility more likely, all I/O is stdio and all accesses are byte-oriented. Kinda inefficient, but easy.

The script currently can contain the following commands, defined by the opcode in the first character position:

R byteOffset oldVal newVal

Look for oldVal at position byteOffset and replace it with newVal If oldVal isn't there, print a message and exit (if the value is already newVal, print "Maybe already patched?", too).

T byteOffset oldVal "error message"

Look for oldVal at position byteOffset and if it isn't found, print the error message and abort.

What it does:

First, it reads the ROM file into memory (it's only a half meg or so.)

Next, it goes through and runs all of the tests and applies all of the changes to the buffer.

If (and only if) everything succeeds,

• the buffer is written out as [oldName]_new,
• the original ROM file is renamed to [oldName]_bak,
• and [oldName]_new is renamed to [oldName]

If any test fails, the whole thing just bails and the buffer is never written out.

-jim

enjoy...
--dick
rseymour@wolfenet.com

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