4.1 SC focus/power

[hdman1]

I like where SC is going, just gets better and I;m sure this is the old failure between the chair and keyboard.
I cannot get my Pegasus focuser and my wanderbox to connect and function. They seem to connect but cannot focus, the powerbox does not power up my equipment.???

BR

[admin]

Hi,

Are the two possibly related? I had an issue last week where my Pegasus rotator would connect and respond but not rotate - turns out I had forgotten the 12V connection. If the Pegasus focuser has no 12V then maybe that explains why it cannot focus? Is it supposed to be getting its power from the WandererBox?

I'm afraid I don't have any experience of the wanderer box, but maybe try a direct 12V connection to the pegasus to see if that makes it work correctly - if it does then you are down to one problem which is the wanderer power box.

cheers,

Robin

[hdman1]

Thanks again, I think this is the power up order, I will clear the logs and do this all over again and see if the fresh log gives any clues. If I'm still stuck will post the log and let you have a look. The SC Wanderbox UI is very different than the one provided from manufacture,r the version in SC seems to be designed to power all but the dew heaters on start with no option to shut down unused ports. The Pegasus unity driver did not work, I had to install the old ASCOM driver to have the hub pick it up.

BR

[admin]

Hi,

for the Wanderer box, I guess you are referring to the 'Switch Device' UI as shown here in the documentation : https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Switch ... %20Control

That lets you turn on/off and adjust various power settings via the ASCOM driver for the Wanderer box. You will almost certainly find there are more options in the Wanderer Box's own UI. The initial states of the various checkboxes are set by SharpCap asking the ASCOM driver for the state of the hardware, so what SharpCap shows on connection should represent the state of the box at that point - SharpCap will not be making any changes to the state unless you tick/untick some of the boxes manually.

cheers,

Robin

[hdman1]

OK Robin, Slowed way down checked all my drivers for up dates, running ASCOM 6.6 sp1. All my hardware works manually starting each: mount,wanderbox, focuser,Phd,SC then Camera. If I try to set hardware to auto start in SC it crashes. Log attached.
If this is me I apologize in advance you can't fix stupid!

I added a screenshot of the UI that I use with the wanderbox, it looks nothing like the UI SC gives me from the settings,hardware menu.

[admin]

Hi,

I can see errors in the log where SharpCap is trying to load the ASCOM drivers for the WandererBox and the Pegasus Focuser and that is failing - that can mean one of a few things

* Files and or registry settings for the ASCOM drivers are not correct - an uninstall/reinstall (or update) of the ASCOM driver may fix this

* You are using the 64 bit version of SharpCap, but the ASCOM drivers you are using only support 32-bit applications

It's worth trying the 32 bit version of SharpCap to test out the second point - if that works then we know the cause and you will need to try to find updates ASCOM drivers that support 64 bit applications.

cheers,

Robin

[hdman1]

Thank you, ToupTek has no 64bit drivers at this time so, I will go back to manual operation. I don't remember why I upgraded to SC 64 pretty sure it was features will revisit that.

BR

[admin]

Hi,

just to let you know that the very latest version of SharpCap (out today, on the downloads page) includes direct support for ToupTek cameras, so no need to use their ASCOM drivers any more.

Robin

[hdman1]

Hey, Hey! Great news will download that today. Now just need the Wanderbox to be the first device to start and all would be good. I spent some time studying the problem if I start the WB manually then open SC with the start hardware box checked, the camera, mount and focuser come right up. The Wanderbox starts up in SC with all ports active and only the dew heaters have an option to turn off and on.

BR

[admin]

Hi,

ok, I see now - the wanderer box is not initializing the USB/12V state to 'on' at power up and only does that when connected

I guess the first thing to check would be to see whether there is an option in the wanderer box setup to change that. The Pegasus box does have options for which outputs should be automatically enabled when the hub is switched on, which means you don't encounter the issue.

The next option to workaround would be to turn off the 'auto connect hardware when opening a camera' setting in the SharpCap settings, then to connect the wanderer box manually on loading a camera before connecting the other devices.

If none of that helps then I will have to consider connecting to switch devices before other hardware - that would kind of make sense, I just hope there aren't any set-ups out there that require it the other way around for some reason!

cheers,

Robin