SeeStar Alpaca compatible

[roelb]

Hello.
ZWO has implemented Alpaca driver compatibility with their SeeStar S50 and S30.
Here are some internet references:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/9780 ... ry14353389
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdqw6NF8-HM&t=6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EweEMRrJa0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBNWaMX7aJ8
Most of these references are using N.I.N.A.
But, I have tried SC with my S50 scope.
Mount, focuser and filter wheel could be connected and are recognized.
The Seestar S50 uses a Sony IMX462 CMOS sensor.
Are their other considerations in using SC successfully with the SeeStar S50, or is the sensor already integrated?
Up to now, there is no official ZWO announcement about the use of Alpaca.
At the moment China has hollydays.
Thanks in advance.

[admin]

Hi Roel,

thanks for sharing - I wasn't aware of that, but it sounds pretty cool... I must test this out with my Seestar

If the Alpaca implementation is accurately following the specification then there should be no special considerations needed - the devices should be detected and just work in SharpCap. The only thing to be aware of is that any remote device can be subject to glitched connection problems - SharpCap will typically do some retry operations for ASCOM hardware, but that isn't always enough.

Out of interest, how do you get the Seestar and the PC onto the same network? Do you still have to connect to the wireless network on the SeeStar, or is there now a way to make the SeeStar connect to your wireless network instead?

cheers,

Robin

[davemartin88]

I tried Sharpcqp with my Seestar this morning, worked well. Seestar is connected to my home network using station mode. Had to rescan to find the camera but had control of camera, focuser, mount, and filter wheel. Don’t see myself doing this often but it does seem to work. I did download the latest Ascom driver from ZWO as well.

[roelb]

Yes, when you connect the SeeStar to your Home WiFi network via "Station mode" in the app, the "Alpaca hardware" is recognized.

[admin]

Hi,

I have just updated my Seestar to the latest firmware and tested this out in 'station' mode. As mentioned above, it mostly just works - the focuser and filter wheel seem to work fine.

The camera works OK, except if you try ROI mode where there is an error generated by the Alpaca endpoint on the seestar - as far as I can see all the properties needed for ROI are setup correctly when this happens, so it's possibly just a small bug in the Alpaca implementation. If it doesn't get cleared up in the next update or two on the seestar I may write some special case code to disable ROI selection on the Seestar driver.

Finally, it's a shame that the 'Park/Unpark' action for the Alpaca mount hasn't been connected up to closing and opening the arm. As far as I can tell from a quick test if the arm is closed then anything you try via Alpaca will give an error - you have to open the arm using the Seestar App. Maybe this is something that could be added in a future Seestar update.

cheers,

Robin

[Splunge]

I also tried the new SeeStar firmware with SharpCap and it seems to work just as Robin says. One thing I don't like about it is the odd display with the narrow dimension horizontal and the long dimension vertical. Would it be possible to add the ability to rotate the display 90° (before the zoom function). Would allow better use of screen real estate.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, in theory it would be possible to do that - I will have a look at a possible implementation as it would help with the screen usage as you say. Sadly it's not quite as simple as it sounds, as all of the things to do with ROI size and position need rotating too so that they continue to work 'as expected' based on what you see on screen!

cheers,

Robin

[Splunge]

Thanks Robin for implementing the 'landscape' mode for the SeeStar! Much nicer to use this way.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, that's available now - I worked out that it was much simpler to 'transpose' the image so that the vertical becomes horizontal and the horizontal becomes vertical... That removed most of the complexities that rotating would have introduced, but does mean that the image is mirrored compared to how you would see it on the seestar itself. I think that mirroring is a minor thing, and it could always be fixed by using the 'flip after dark/flat' control to mirror it again.

With the very latest update I have removed the options to try to select an ROI capture with the SeeStar since that currently seems to be broken somewhere in the Seestar Alpaca driver.

cheers,

Robin

[stbkaiser]

Hi Robin
Ahh
I see your SC update 4.1.13901.0
So that has the "fix" for the Seestar image display rotation.
Very nice.
Still learning features on your SW.
I noticed the Disconnect all hardware icon. I guess the camera is not counted as Hardware?
Also:
I had a battle with my S50 WiFi connection when I was in a neighborhood with 20+ Networks.
I had my S50 set for 5ghz, faster communications, right.
Not sure why , but one or more of those networks caused my WiFi connection to be completely unstable or impossible to connect to.
When I switched to 2.4ghz on the S50 , the connection was rock solid.
At home , with only a few outside networks , no problems at 5ghz or 2.4ghz.
I wanted to make sure no problems if I go to a star party with a lot of networks.
Thanks for all your work.
Take care
Steve