SharpCap PHD2 compatibility problem(?)
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:29 pm
For some years I have been successfully using PHD2 with a Starlight Xpress Lodestar2 for autoguiding and taking images with a Canon 70D. I am now looking to switch over the Canon to a dedicated astrophotography camera, where I will use Sharpcap Pro as the imaging software. In preparation for this and to make sure that everything was going to work, I set up a Starlight Xpress Colour Superstar camera as the image taker on Sharpcap Pro - I declared in the Sharpcap Guiding menu that I was using PHD2 for autoguiding. I also clicked on ‘Enable Server’ in the PHD2 setup as per the Sharpcap manual. I then attempted to autoguide using the Lodestar and PHD2 and immediately got an Ascom error (see screen shot attached) which stated:-
"Exception thrown polling camera
(ASCOM SXCamera) Unable to complete get_ImageReady request due to previous error"
Sharpcap Pro also froze at this point such that I had to re-boot. Can anyone suggest what has gone wrong here? I subsequently ran Ascom Diagnostics and found no reported errors. I might add that although I normally run 64 bit apps, Sharpcap Pro is running at 32 bits to accommodate the Starlight Xpress cameras.
Sharpcap Pro v. 3.2.6219.0 32-bit
Starlight Xpress Colour Superstar camera for imaging
Starlight Xpress Lodestar 2 camera & PHD2 v.2.6.7 for autoguiding
Win 10 Pro v. 1909 OS build 18363.628
8GB RAM, i5 CPU
"Exception thrown polling camera
(ASCOM SXCamera) Unable to complete get_ImageReady request due to previous error"
Sharpcap Pro also froze at this point such that I had to re-boot. Can anyone suggest what has gone wrong here? I subsequently ran Ascom Diagnostics and found no reported errors. I might add that although I normally run 64 bit apps, Sharpcap Pro is running at 32 bits to accommodate the Starlight Xpress cameras.
Sharpcap Pro v. 3.2.6219.0 32-bit
Starlight Xpress Colour Superstar camera for imaging
Starlight Xpress Lodestar 2 camera & PHD2 v.2.6.7 for autoguiding
Win 10 Pro v. 1909 OS build 18363.628
8GB RAM, i5 CPU