Celestron StarSense AutoGuider Interface

[john_robertson1953]

Hi Robin,

I wanted to know if Sharpcap can be interfaced with the Celestron StarSense AutoGuider, similar to PHD2’s interface?

Regards,

John

[admin]

Hi John,

no plans at the moment - to be honest I've not even got any idea if it is possible for software like SharpCap to communicate with the device to monitor/control its guiding. SharpCap does support the MGEN3 autoguider, which is a similar sort of thing, but most people seem to go with PHD2.

cheers,

Robin

[john_robertson1953]

Hi Robin,

After your comment, I located a StarSense AutoGuider (SSAG) manual.

See attached.

Appears you can enable “PHD Mode” in the SSAG menu.

[admin]

Hi,

interesting, but sadly the manual doesn't make any further reference of what PHD mode is or does. All we have is this text

You’ll need to connect your camera software to CPWI via the ASCOM
driver built into CPWI to use this feature. After you enable dithering in
CPWI, you can set the minimum dithering distance (from 0 to 10”) and
the maximum dithering distance (20” to 50”). For some camera control
software, you may also need to enable “PHD Mode” in the SSAG menu.

The questions are... Which ASCOM driver? How does it work with respect to stopping dithers during image capture? What does PHD mode do? If someone already has one and can report back on any further info they have, we might get somewhere.

The only thing that I can think of that might make sense is if 'PHD mode' makes CPWI run a server port that emulates the PHD2 'server', so that programs like SharpCap could talk to it and think they were talking to PHD... No idea if that is correct though.

cheers,

Robin