SharpCap Forums

Good morning Robin,
just wanted to inform you how I get on with my problem. I have tried to do what you told me, but I have not been able to. This is because my knowlede of progamming and dealing with PCs is just not good enough. There are too many basics I miss e.g opening a zip file and so on.
What I did two days ago: I tried a different frame graber I have. This thing is called "mumbi"and it looks exactley like to one (easy cap) from that web site you mentioned in your last post. It worked on the fly - no problem at all !
Last night my good friend Volki was with me - he is not a computer expert but he knows by fare more than I do. So we tried to do what you told us to do. No good - we have not been able to update the driver from ezcap. So we tried to instal the "ThumbTV" driver instead. This used to be a little problem because - as Volki said: "This thing is very old dating back to Win2000 ......!" At the end we were able to run the install shield and the driver was succesfully installed. So back to sharpcap plug in camera and tick on USB2168 device and expecting the worst.

And ....
The camera worked very well. We also tested it with sharpcap 3.1 !! Works great ! No clitches - nothing so far.
Tataa !
Now pluging ezcap into the next USB slot. Oh dear, these dreadful lines again. Back to the previouse slot. Lines again .... panic ...swearing ...more panic.
So we set the system packt to the point before we changed USB slots - and it worked again !!
Phuu !!
We switched the Elitebook on and off several times - always using the SAME USB slot - no Problem - good. Then we went to bed . It was about 2.30 in the morning........

So the questions are:
Why does this driver only works on one particular slot ? It is not just that. If plugged into another slot it will not work on the original one too !!???
Why does this Ezcap frame grabber only woks on the Elitebook with this particular (old) driver ??? The Elitbook was introduced Feb. 2010. And it is a business laptop !
Why does Ezcap not work on this machine with the original drivers ???? It does so on all the others !

Questions over questions, but at least it works now and I have learned a lot !

The Ezcap works much betther than the mumbi ! I have tried to contact Ezcap support, but they do not respond. This is strange, because they used to be very helpfull in the past !

Thank you Robin for your help ! Thank you for crating sharpcap for us - this 3.1 is absoluteley stunning !!!!
Regards
Ferris

Well, it is good to hear that you have everything working now (even if on one port only!). I'm afraid I have no idea of the answers to your remaining EZCap related questions. If you do ever hear back from their support and get an answer then do post the info here.

cheers,

Robin

Good morning Robin

I still have problems with my camera picture in sharpcap. Another good friend who knows a lot about computers finally sortet my driver problemst! Ezcap know works on all USB ports. Camera and sharpcab are working fine until I connect my Celestron CPC telescope to my Elitebook via USB to serial port. Then I get very fine horizontal lines in my picture, If I switch off the telescope or disconnect ftom the computer the fine lines vanish ......
I controll the CPC via Celestron Nexremote and Stellarium. All works well. Sharpcap is on the same Laptop.

Any ideas.
I am becoming desperate know .....
Regards Ferris

Looks (and sounds) like hardware issue - a voltage fluctuation problem - somehow the mount is causing ripple on the 5V USB supply from the computer and this is affecting the image grabber.

If you have different USB ports on your laptop then try different combinations - in particular iry to keep the USB lead to the laptop away from the one to the camera - ports on different sides may help as they will be on different controllers and may have separate power regulators. Another thing that might help (no guarantee!) is a powered USB hub.

I've known other cameras show the same thing when the USB voltage fluctuates - the time I saw it, it helped to run the laptop on battery rather than mains, but I don't expect that to be a general fix.

Hope this helps,

Robin

Good morning Robin,
thank you very much for your quick repley.
On the Elitebook there are 3 USB bports all on the same side of the Laptop. Im am also using a docking station witch offers another 3 USP ports. The docking station is conected to the mains. For field work I do have a big car battery in a "tolbox". I connect the camera, the mount and the heated dew device (which I was not using last night) to this battery. The 220V for the docking station would then come from a 12V to 220V transformer which will be hooked to a secod car battery (transformer is high end giving a real sinus wave !).
But as I said, I am testing everything in my backyard so the docking station is powered by the mains. Camera and mount are powered by the car battery.

So, do I understand you right: the reason for the fine horizontal lines is a drop in Voltage at the USB port when the mount is connected to the Loptop, too ??
As I had issues with the USB to serial cabel and driver, I used the serial port at the docking station. This was how I found out about this problem. Inside the house - with the telescope not connected to the Laptop everything was fine. Then the problem started. I suspected the Serial port at the docking station. So I replaced the USB to Serial cabel and driver with another brand from ATEN. USB to serial works fine now. I can control my telescop using Nexremote, Stellarium and a Rumblepad 2. But the fine lines also there at the USB to serial cable USB port. The only solöution so far is to use a second Netbook for the camera only. The netbook I have is rather small and not verx powerful. With this setup I have donne some very nice captures last Saturday night - but I like to avoid take two laptops out on the field.
I do have another idea. The Celestron CPS is connected via the hand controler to the Laptop. Ther is a special PC port at the bottom of the Azimut mount. Using a different Serial cable I could use this port to conect mount to Laptop.
I could buy I powered USB hub - as power suply is no problem.

What do you think !
Regards
Ferris
P.S.
There is also a USB/SATA port on the opposite side of the Elitebook. Could I try this one. I think this SATA is powered. Can I use this USB/SATA instead of a USB port ???????

Robin !
If I run the Laptop on its battery - off the mains - the problem is still there .....

Hi,

ah well, the battery trick worked once but not in this case. You will need to do a fair bit of experimentation to try to work out how to stop the voltage fluctuations causing the lines. As I said a powered hub might help. The only other thing to check is that the also could be due to the flicker of artificial lights - I don't think so since they appear when you plug in the other device, but worth verifying.

cheers,

Robin

Ferris

Download USBtreeView http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html.

With nothing else plugged into the laptop that is having the problem, run USBtreeView with the camera plugged into each of the ports. Post the graphic images of the USB tree (noting which work and fail with the camera) plus the full report.

Dave

Thank you Dave !
I will do this tomorrow. I need a good dose of sleep now after beeing up for the last seven days and only sleeping a few hours just do go to work at 7 o clock every morning !
I think it might be a ground loop as laptop and camera are connected to the same power source ! So if I plug the camera into a 12v mains transformer and it will then work - this is it ..... !
I will let you know !
This forum is just great !!! Thank you very much Dave and Robin !!!


Ferris
P.S.
I think I will go out and test - we have minus 13 degrees centigrade now ....

Good morning Dave , good morning Robin,
I went out into the cold dark night after my last post. I am very happy to report that it was a ground loop !! This time I connected the camera to the mains using an adaptor. No horizontal lines at all ! I am so hoppy now ! The thing is, that the camera and the mount shared the sampe power supply so they had the same ground (neg pole). Putting one to the mains - or another battery for instance - seperates to two - so there is no longer
a ground loop ! Problem solved !

Now I hop that I can enjoy Sharpcap to the max !!

Again, thank you for all the good work and your help and advice !!

Zu den Sternen !

Ferris