COM6 NOT FOUND

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donwaters201
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:09 pm

COM6 NOT FOUND

#1

Post by donwaters201 »

My Celestron CGEM sometimes connects and sometime it doesn't. The COM port can vary, but is usually 4,5 or 6. Error message says "not found".
I go to DEV MGR and COM6 is active. I go to SharpCap settings and see that the telescope is set to detect COM6 (or whichever it the correct one).

I click on the COM port drop down and close, and it connects.

Apparently, altough the correct COM port is active and shown, SharpCap does not recognize it w/o this extra action.

I'm new to the program but really love it.

Don Waters
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Re: COM6 NOT FOUND

#2

Post by admin »

Hi Don,

you are using a Celestron ASCOM driver to connect to your CGEM. It's really the job of the ASCOM driver to keep track of the COM port at to connect properly, SharpCap can basically just do two things

1) Ask the ASCOM driver to connect (which will use any current settings that the ASCOM driver has saved)
2) Ask the ASCOM driver to show the configuration window with the COM port (and other settings) in it.

When you tick the 'connected' check box (or when you open the camera if you have the autoconnect option on), SharpCap tries (1), then if that fails it tries (2) to let you change any settings and then tries (1) again. There's not much I can do beyond this, as I can't tell the mount to use a particular COM port.

It may be worth seeing if there are alternative ASCOM drivers for your mount that might work around the problem - for instance I have a Celestron ASCOM driver installed for my Nexstar8SE mount, and the setup looks like this
Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG (33.01 KiB) Viewed 632 times
However, I believe there is also something you can do through either Nexremote or possibly CPWI as an alternative (I must admit that I haven't tried these in a very long time as I only use the Celestron mount for testing and I have a solution that works).

cheers,

Robin
donwaters201
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:09 pm

Re: COM6 NOT FOUND

#3

Post by donwaters201 »

Right now, my solution is to shut down and reboot the computer. Apparently this resets the COM ports and lets SharpCap find the current one. I'll keep searching for a better solution.
Dpn
donwaters201
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:09 pm

Re: COM6 NOT FOUND

#4

Post by donwaters201 »

The ASCOM Hub does not allow changes to the COM port. The drop down shows the current assignment but will not allow editing.

Another user I have talked to gave a lengthy explanation about older versions of SharpCap have this issue - something to do with using or not using the Hub depending on whether a port is assigned or not. Apparently if a port is already assigned, Sharpcap will not change it. He said that the port assignment will be retained (or not) depending on the sequence of shutdown and USB connection.

Any comments?

But to me, it does seem that SharpCap is doing just this and NOT overwriting an assigned COM port in the ASCOM Hub. So then, the question is how to change it there - or to make Sharpcap overwrite the old data.

Don
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Re: COM6 NOT FOUND

#5

Post by admin »

Hi Don,

I can change the COM port via the ASCOM hub - see screenshot and explanation below
Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG (144.74 KiB) Viewed 429 times
1) Choose device hub in SharpCap settings and press 'Properties'
2) Hunt for the properties window which ofter appears behind SharpCap
3) Press the 'Choose' button and select Celestron Telescope Driver from the drop down list
4) Press the 'Properties' button to show the celestron properties
5) Hunt for the Celestron properties window, which again may be behind everything
6) Optionally check the 'show all COM ports' box - if this is not checked then it will try to auto-detect the mount and show only the auto-detected port
7) Choose the COM port that you want.

Note that if something else (other software) is already connected to the Celestron driver via the device hub then you probably will not be able to change the port (and that's OK, as the port is presumably the correct one otherwise it would not have connected...)

Hope that works for you too,

cheers,

Robin
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