CPWI Focuser works in SC 3.2 but not SC 4.0

[ChrisR Oz]

Hi Robin,

Have been using the Celestron focuser via CPWI and connect to it in SharpCap using "CPWI" for the mount and "CPWI focuser" for the focuser. It has been working fine in SC 3.2. But last night (in a gap in the clouds/weather) tried SC 4.0 with the EdgeHD8/AVX and it failed to see the current focuser position, and the step size showed as zero and could not be set. If I typed a position in the box and hit return, it wandered off in the negative direction away from the desired position. Needed to do a stop in CPWI.

CPWI focuser zero.jpg (14.35 KiB) Viewed 592 times

I can run SC 3.2 and it all works, and it shows the correct position and in/out both work. But then closing 3.2 and opening SC 4.0 it again connects (shows a status of "connected" anyway), but shows zero position.

I have attached the logs while opening 3.2 and 4.0.

Let me know if there are more detailed logs/tests that you'd like me to try.
Cheers, Chris.

[admin]

Hi,

it looks like there must be an error while initializing the UI for the focuser - all the values being stuck at zero would indicate that SharpCap never managed to read the maximum position that the focuser allows during setup. I can't quite see how this could happen without an error showing up in the log though... puzzling!

We may see more if you turn on the additional logging for 'Focuser Hardware Communication' (logging tab in the settings) then open the camera and try connecting to the focuser again - that should log every message between SharpCap and the focuser, so we will see if something gives an error or unusual results. I will also add more logging to the next SharpCap update to try to help pin down how the code could be failing to run without an error showing.

cheers,

Robin

[ChrisR Oz]

Hi Robin,

Connected again (SC 4.0.8218.0) to the CPWI mount and focuser with the 294MC camera, this time with 'Focuser Hardware Communication' logging enabled (see attached). Don't see any smoking gun, unfortunately. Hope you can ...

Cheers, Chris.

SC-40-open-294MC-CPWI-focuser.log

(48.12 KiB) Downloaded 46 times

[admin]

Hi Chris,

thanks, that log took me to the right place in the code (after a little head scratching). Your focuser seems to be already flagged as connected when SharpCap starts talking to it, and that was causing some necessary setup code to be bypassed. I have a fix that will be in a new version later today.

cheers,

Robin

[ChrisR Oz]

Hi Robin,

Wow, that was quick. Now (SC v4.0.8224, 64bit) works like a charm!

I needed to set the coarse and fine step size again, as they showed as zero initially. But this was remembered when I came back in to SharpCap next time. So all good.

Thank you!
Cheers, Chris.