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Please include the following details in any bug report:
* Version of SharpCap
* Camera and other hardware being user
* Operating system version
* Contents of the SharpCap log after the problem has occurred.
[If SharpCap crashes, please send the bug report when prompted instead of including the log]
Hi,
I am doing remote operation through a virtual sever of COM ports (VirtualHere.exe) on a Win10 desktop at the scope and another inside. The focuser is a Focus Dream Pro. I can connect to my focuser using its own control panel on the client machine but when Sharpcap loads my camera I get the following message:
Screenshot 2023-03-02 192527.jpg (58.2 KiB) Viewed 582 times
The cameras USB port as well as the telescopes ASCOM COM port are delivered to Sharpcap through the remote server normally and function normally.
I clicked 'Ignore Error' on the message and went to the Focus Assistant Panel and pressed 'Connect Focuser'. A crash report with explanation was generated and sent to SharpCap before it quit.
that particular error means that there is an issue with the registry entries that tell SharpCap how to launch the ASCOM driver for your focuser.
One possibility is that you just need to repair (or uninstall/reinstall) the ASCOM driver, which may fix things, since it will rebuild the required entries in the registry.
The other is that you are using the 64 bit version of SharpCap, but the ASCOM driver for your focuser only registers a 32 bit version (or I suppose, in theory, the other way round with a 32 bit version of SharpCap and a 64 bit only ASCOM driver). The best bet in that situation is to try connecting via the ASCOM Device hub, which runs as a separate process and can run 32 bit but SharpCap 64 bit can talk to it.
Hi Robin,
Thanks for the fast response.
I did as you suggested and uninstalled the focuser's ASCOM drivers and Sharpcap in both client and server then installed just the 32 bit versions of each.
It didn't help but it changed the error code to 0x80040407 which describes something similar – 'not initiating'.
I can still operate the focuser in both the client and server without trouble on the focuser control panel – just not in SharpCap or PHD2 for that matter. The scope and camera are both being loaded into SharpCap as usual.
I guess its time to go Deep Registry and see what is happening unless you have further suggestion.
could you send me the SharpCap log captured after trying to connect to the focuser please? That will give me more context on exactly what stage the error is occurring at and may allow me to give some more suggestions.
It took me awhile to get this as SharpCap kept freezing after clicking 'Show Log' . I had used settings to log more data for General, Cameras and Focuser and relaunched. It wouldn't let me copy the log to clipboard or show log location but I finally tracked it down.
OK, so it looks like the re-install has done some good, since now SharpCap is managing to get further and is starting to talk to the ASCOM driver. Unfortunately, the first request - to connect to the focuser - is failing with an error message of 'Invalid Port State'. That error message is coming from the ASCOM driver, and I suspect it means one of two things
1) The wrong serial port is selected in the setup for the ASCOM driver
or
2) Some other software already is already using the correct serial port, so the ASCOM driver cannot access it.
So, the next troubleshooting steps would be to make sure that no other software is open that might access or control the focuser when you are testing in SharpCap, and also to check that the settings for the ASCOM driver have the correct serial port selected.
Taking your direction, I started at the server (Obs.) machine took a look in Device Manager to see what COM ports were assigned as I was under the impression that VirtualHere just managed the ports from here and handed them off to whatever clients. In Device Manager there was no COM port category at all – the client had completely taken over that task. That was a clue. So I looked at the USB device category and there was an instance of the focus driver still there whose properties said "functioning normally", so I disabled that driver to experiment. I looked in the Events tab; saw nothing alarming but idly clicked on View All Events and was surprised to see two instances of the driver and one was using COM 5 which supposedly had been given to the client – it had, so there were two instances of COM 5 open. Since this hadn't appeared in Device Manager at all I was able to delete this instance from the View All Events dialogue.
OK, so far I've described how Microsoft screwed me up. But...
I started SharpCap on the client and the focuser still failed to load, same error code. So I was missing something. I went to the Hardware tab in settings and clicked the Setup button in the focuser section. Took a look and the wrong COM port was selected.
Since I'm a complete noob to SharpCap, this failure lies with me. I HAD put the correct Com port in but I probably didn't click the Apply button and it stayed wrong.
After fixing that, all is well now until the next time Microsoft trips me up.
Thank you profusely for guiding me along in this puzzle.
Cheers,
Brian
glad to hear that you got it working. It can be tough with ASCOM drivers, since every single one is different, so unless you happen to get advice from someone who has the exact same hardware as you (and therefore uses the same ASCOM driver), all you will get is general pointers of things to look out for.
