ZWO EAF not connecting correctly

[brandx]

Hi
I've started getting a message when connecting to the ZWO EAF which has recently begun to occur: "your ascom focuser is reporting a maximum position of 0 and a maximum move of 60000"

I have followed Sharpcap's suggestions to check the ascom settings and also downloaded most recent ascom drivers from ZWO. It will (very occasionally) connect correctly but after clicking on a move in or out will fail and then get connection issues

The EAF works fine (all controls ok) when running in NINA using the ascom driver through same laptop and same cables.

Sharpcap v1.4.1403 64-bit. I have also tried earlier SC versions but same issue.

Advice and suggestions welcome.
Cheers, Les

[admin]

Hi Les,

how up to date is your ASCOM platform and your ZWO ASCOM driver? I would be tempted to update both before trying anything else.

cheers,

Robin

[brandx]

Hi Robin,
That was one of the first things I tried so ascom and drivers are fully up to date as per a couple of days ago.
Eqch time I received the error message I would check the ascom driver and noticed I had to scan and connect. The max steps were at 60000 despite Sharpcap saying othwerwise. I could then use the ascom driver controls directly to forward and reverse steps or enter a move to position and EAF responded fine but exiting ascom driver back into sharpcap and no joy.

I'm currently resorting to using sharpcap for mount control and image acquisition and NINA to control the EAF. Would be nicer to have Sharpcap control all so if there's any other suggestions I'd welcome those
Cheers, Les

[admin]

Hi Les,

OK, fortunately I have one of these to test with, and after updating the ZWO ASCOM driver from 6.0.2.6 (which worked) to 6.0.16 I am now seeing the same symptoms - I will continue to investigate to see if I can work out why the update is causing this problem.

cheers,

Robin

[admin]

OK, it's a timing issue - SharpCap connects to the focuser and straight away asks for the max position and max movement. I suspect that the ASCOM driver is fetching that information from the focuser hardware in the background, and when SharpCap asks it hasn't finished getting that information yet, so SharpCap gets back default values of zero for one or both of the values

Really that's not correct behaviour from the ASCOM driver, as it should be all ready to go once the initial connection is completed, but I will have to work around it as there are doubtless a lot of installed copies out there... Other programs may get away with not seeing this issue if they connect and then don't immediate try to get the information about the movement limits in the way SharpCap does.

I found a kind of workaround... Set up SharpCap to run the focuser via the ASCOM 'Just a Hub' focuser device. Then run SharpCap twice - open the one of the test cameras in the first SharpCap and connect to the focuser -you will get an error. Open your real camera in the second SharpCap and connect to the focuser and it will be OK. Now you can close the first SharpCap and continue. This works because by the time the second SharpCap connects the ZWO ASCOM driver has really finished its initialization.

cheers,

Robin

[admin]

Hi,

new version 4.1.14310 on the main SharpCap download page that should fix this issue

cheers,

Robin

[brandx]

Hi Robin
many thanks for investigating and the quick fix! I'll download the new version shortly.
Cheers, Les

[kilroi22]

Thanks! I was having the same issue and now it is working. I am a Sharpcap newbie so assumed it was me! So far I am loving it, now that the focuser works it will even be better.

[pmohan]

Well done Robin!
This ended my couple hour frustration getting the ZWO EAF up and running yesterday on a new Askar 111F.
I finally did a search for "ZWO EAF SharpCap issues" and it wisely led me to this post ( I should have immediately searched the forum first .
It was bizarre in that the focuser+SharpCap would work fine the first time after the ZWO Ascom driver was installed.
But when I'd exit SharpCap and start it up again, I got the focuser error consistently:
|| :Notification (Status=Warning): Warning : Your ASCOM focuser is reporting a maximum
position of 0 and a maximum move of 0. ||
If I reinstalled the ZWO driver, it went back to working with SharpCap - but only once. Strange.

Appreciate your very quick fix in latest update and now I'm much looking forward to using your fine autofocus tools.
Cheers,
Paul