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Testing the connection to the S50. Had to rescan a few times to see the Seestar in the camera list and IP address was incorrect, showing the IP address of the S30 the last time is was connected. In the hardware settings, the focuser and filter wheel showed the correct IP address but not the mount. I tried to connect anyway, the focuser connected and then the mount tried but never made a connection, just stayed saying the setup window was opened. Instead of the setup window, there was a small window with a header of "Dynamic Local Server" with a message "This is an Ascom driver, not a program for you to use". I cancelled and then used the setup box in the telescope control window (the connected box was not filled in as it hadn't connected). After over 30 seconds, a configuration window opened with the wrong IP address. I changed the IP address to be correct, hit okay. Then I tried to connect the mount and it is now connected and working.

I shut everything down and then restarted Sharpcap, this time, the S50 was in the camera list with the correct IP address.

I will try to connect the S30 and post results.

I've attached what I think is the log from my session to get the S50 connected.

I tried to connect the S50 again and found that it is trying to connect to the IP address of the S30 that was connected yesterday. IP 192.168.4.62 for information. The focuser and wheel showed in the hardware list using the correct IP address (192.168.4.75) and connected fine and worked. I tried a number of times to use the Setup from the Telescope control window and eventually, a configuration window for the mount showed up after waiting about 45 seconds which showed the incorrect IP address. I changed from the .62 address (the S30 from yesterday) to the .75 address (which I confirmed in station mode as the correct address), then ticked connect and worked. Log attached from this session I believe.

I then disconnected the S50, powered it down and tried to connect the S30 again. Basically had the same issue, the mount was trying to use the address from the S50 (.75) instead of .62 (confirmed in the seestar app). After several attempts and waits, the mount configuration window came up and I changed the IP address and hit okay, then the mount connected and worked fine. I think the log for this session is attached as well.

One other item I noticed, when trying to connect to the mount, I get a window titled "Dynamic Local Server" and a message "This is an ASCOM driver, not a program for you to use"?

Haven't tried to have both scopes powered up and connected in station mode at the same time. Thanks!

Hi,

OK, I think I may understand what is going on...

There are two ways to connect to these Alpaca devices - one is for programs like SharpCap that understand Alpaca directly. In that case you will see names like 'Alpaca Telescope Simulator (#0) on <IP ADDRESS> (more info in brackets)'. These are the devices that SharpCap is dynamically detecting when you start up (or when you choose 'Rescan for remote hardware' from the file menu), and these are the ones that you should be using if at all possible.

On the other hand, you can also set up Alpaca devices to look like local ASCOM devices - this is done via the 'Alpaca' menu in the ASCOM device chooser window. This mode is designed for compatibility with applications that know nothing about Alpaca - as far as those applications are concerned, it just looks like another ASCOM device, but behind the scenes it is Alpaca. I think you have done this for the mount driver, so that you are trying to connect using the saved IP address from a previous go, rather than the dynamically detected current version.

Probably the best thing to do is to get rid of the compatibility mode ASCOM device for your Seestar mount. You can do this by the following steps...

* Run any application that lets you choose an ASCOM telescope mount device via the ASCOM chooser (SharpCap doesn't offer this). One option would be the 'ASCOM Diagnostics', but there are lots of others

* Choose 'Manage Devices' from the 'Alpaca' menu

* Use the admin manage devices window to delete the unwanted dynamic device.

cheers,

Robin

Will check this out. As FYI, I’m seeing the message in the select camera menu indicating the telescope as you describe but the address is rather previous one. I’ll use the diagnostics to clean up as you suggest. In the hardware setup menu in SharpCap, the focuser and filter wheel show up with the appropriate IP address for the S30 or S50, only the mount remains on the previous address. Thanks for looking at this and will let you know what i find.

Connected to the Seestar S30, images are of the Sharpcap Camera window and the Configuration window that came up for the S30 when I clicked on "Properties" in the Hardware setup in Sharpcap. Showed the correct address and all connected and worked fine. Have powered down the camera and will try the S50 to see if it gets the correct IP address and post information in separate post.

HI
running SharpCapInstall-4.1.13970.0-64bit
I was connecting OK with SharpCapInstall-4.1.13925.0-64bit but with different connection format
It seems the connection selection has changed for all the SeeStar devices
It now requires selection of
Seestar Alpaca Camera (#0) on 192.168.50.256 (ASCOM Alpaca)
Seestar Alpaca Telescope (#0) on 192.168.50.256 (ASCOM Alpaca)
Seestar Alpaca focuser (#0) on 192.168.50.256 (ASCOM Alpaca)
etc.
So all is well.
Thanks Robin