Celestron Telescope Driver with Sharpcap

[sandconp]

I am setting a new computer using Windows 11 and I have the latest Ascom installed which is 7.0.2. When I bring up Sharpcap 4.1 and go under Hardware Tab for the mount I cannot see a selection for the Celestron Telescope Driver. I downloaded the USB Prolific driver to allow me to connect via a cable to connect to the bottom of the Celestron Hand Control into the USB port on my computer.

If I connect using CPWI on my WIN 11 computer using COM Port 8, Sharpcap lets me control the mount using CPWI. But when I am shooting planetary, I prefer using the hand control to initially center the planet. When using CPWI, I am unable to use the hand control since it's stuck in the 'Boot Loader' mode.

I still have my old Windows 10 computer with Sharpcap 4.1 and Sharpcap let's me select the Celestron Telescope Driver. When I click properties for the mount under hardware, I am able to use Port COM5 and can control the mount with the hand control or within Sharpcap. When I use CPWI with Sharpcap, I can only use the PC to move the telescope.

Could the problem be that USB Prolific port only uses COM Port of 8 or higher on my WIN 11 computer? When I connect on my Win 10 computer the USB Prolific port connects to COM port 5.

[sandconp]

I was able to find a post on Cloudy Nights. That took care of my issue with Sharpcap finding the Celestron Telescope Driver. I am now able to select it from the Sharpcap Hardware Mount selection.

Unified telescope and focuser ASCOM driver for Celestron

https://download.asc... (6.1.7350).exe

[ChrisR Oz]

I also experienced the hand controller stuck in “boot loader” mode when using CPWI. But that was using the USB port on the HC. If you have the Celestron Focuser, there is another option. Connect your USB to the Focuser and connect the Focuser to the mount via an AUX cable. Then you can control the mount and Focuser from CPWI and you have a working hand controller (move arrow buttons work).

I like using SharpCap for planetary imaging because I can use its tools for either tracking the planet by driving the mount, or at least moving the camera ROI to keep the planet centred. I can then nudge the mount if the ROI is drifting towards its limits. This, together with the new tools for planetary stacking are too good to miss, IMHO.

Cheers, Chris.

[TheAstrophotographer]

@sandconp

Celestron Telescope Driver with Sharpcap

I would like to make sure my NexStar 8SE StarSense Hand Controller is able to operate using Celestron ASCOM Driver; therefore, you indicated that version 7.0 is able to do this. I have version 7.1.7350 and unable to connect. Therefore, can you please let me know where can I find the driver?

Thanks,

Edmund

[kaymann]

CPWI's insistence that the hand controller be lock up is a game stopper for me. With Celestron Telescope and Focuser Drivers (6.1.7350).exe and the Keyspan usa-19hs_win11_win10_driver.zip I can do a one star alignment and then plate solve and all is perfect.

I have both the Celestron and Keyspan files in my Downloads folder...
Is there a drive you can share with me and I will drop them in for you or try below:

The correct Keyspan files are here:

https://tripplite.eaton.com/support/dow ... subtype=31

This one for Celestron might work for you as is just a bit older (6.0.0.0) Use the top one listed:

https://download.ascom-standards.org/drivers/old/

[TheAstrophotographer]

Kaymann,

Appreciate your help just to clarify, you mean the one called Celestron Telescope Setup.exe dated 8/30/14 is 6.0.0.0, correct? Because the other ones are Celestron(5.0.30)Setup.exe dated 3/25/13, correct?

Thanks,

Edmund

[kaymann]

Edmond, that is correct.

Randall

[TheAstrophotographer]

Robin,

Good News!!!!! After almost 2 months of work, I have determined what the issue was. Basically, when I first got my telescope, I had automatically chosen to install CPWI along with its CPWI ASCOM driver on my mini-PC as the mechanism to control my NexStar 8SE StarSense mount connected to the mini-USB B port on the hand controller.

After I began to talk to you about the need to PlateSolve and Sync, I determined that CPWI once it creates the initial alignment model, it will not accept Sync information to improve the initial alignment model. Therefore, I chose to use the older Celestron ASCOM driver 6.1.7350 under ASCOM HUB Device which absolutely accepts Sync information to improve an initial alignment model if the alignment was done using the StarSense hand controller and it be done manually.

When I installed the Celestron ASCOM driver 6.1.7350 it was used under ASCOM HUB Device, however, I did not remove CPWI nor CPWI ASCOM driver. This caused a mismatch or interference and the Celestron ASCOM driver 6.1.7350 would not work under any circumstance.

Therefore, last night I deleted everything off my mini-PC and reinstalled everything in the proper order and did not install CPWI nor CPWI ASCOM driver. Afterwards I tried to use the mount and it worked perfectly. SharpCap Pro 4.1 was connected and the mount was connected to ASCOM HUB Device and it worked perfectly.

Basically, for SharpCap Pro 4.1 to work properly on a NexStar 8SE, CPWI must not be on any computer and the ASCOM driver would need to be employed only. I hope this helps and I appreciate all the help you were able to provide in this long crazy adventure.

The only thing left now is that I used to use PHD2 with CPWI on the NexStar 8SE to send pulse guides to the mount but now Celestron HUB Device can't do pulse guiding my mount. Therefore, I will need to work on this - right now, I believe I can use the ST4 port on my ZWO ASI220mm-mini guide camera and on-camera driver to send guide pulses directly to my mount using the Auto Guiding port on the mount but again need to follow-up and see how that all works.

Thanks,

Edmund

[admin]

Hi Edmund,

good to hear that you now have things working. I would have expected CPWI to be OK alongside the other driver as long as you only used one at a time, but you live and learn...

Pulse guiding via the ST4 interface should work fine (I think!) PHD2 can certainly send pulses via the camera ST4 port and the SE8 mount has the right socket to receive the data.

cheers,

Robin

[TheAstrophotographer]

Robin,

I believe yes, ST4 is the way to go on PHD2 so I will follow-up on that.

Now in SharpCap Pro 4.1 when I try to use GOTO now I get the following error: "GOTO Catalog Target/Co-ordinates failed due to: SlewToCoordinatesAsync: is not allowed when tracking is False"?

I have also included the ASCOM explorer information for my mount:

ASCOM Driver Explorer - 08-27-85.png (18.99 KiB) Viewed 3438 times

Thanks,

Edmund