Save Celestron Mount in SharpCap Hardware Settings

[donusn]

This is probably really stupid and simple for someone other than a novice. I just bought a new laptop with Windows 11 and have been having lots of "fun" getting my SharpCap, Celestron CGX, ZWO, etc up and running. Windows 10 and the old laptop were slower, but they worked. I'm almost there (Prolific drivers were a problem), but when configuring my SharpCap Hardware menu, I cannot get the Celestron Mount to stay saved. I connect the CGX by USB to the Nexstar handset, and it is being seen in the laptop USB COM Port, but each time I go back to the SharpCap configuration page, I do not show any mount. As soon as I close the SharpCap set up page after selecting the Celestron mount, it's gone. I think this is the reason I cannot get an option to Plate Solve and Resync under Tools -- I just get the Plate Solve option. Plate Solve works fine with a test camera, although I do not think this is an Astrotorilla/Plate Solve problem. Latest ASCOM and Celestron Drivers are installed, and work on Cartes du Ciel, so I am baffled. There must be something simple I am missing. Thanks.

[admin]

Hi,

the procedure should simply be

1) Goto hardware page of settings
2) change the Mount drop down to the Celestron option
3) Press OK (or Apply) to save the settings.

Then if you close the settings and go back to them, the Celestron option should still be shown as selected. When you open the camera it should show in the controls on the right hand side.

If that is not working as describe, please let me know and we can investigate further.

cheers,

Robin

[donusn]

That's what I thought. I finally figured it out -- simple and stupid! The Windows 11 Task Bar was hiding apply and save -- I could not scroll to those until I removed the task bar. Don't ask if I like Windows 11 -- ugh -- the Prolific Driver problem is now all over the internet. If you get a question on it, the solution is to go back to a prior version. Thanks!

[admin]

Ah, Windows 11... I haven't heard anything good about it yet. I have no plans to upgrade for at least a couple more years (hopefully the rough corners will have been knocked off by then - or at least there will be workarounds).

I'm a bit surprised that those buttons are off screen - the settings window usually appears fairly high up on the screen. Have you perhaps set a larger than average font size (or have a small screen resolution) that might make less space for it?

cheers,

Robin

[donusn]

Yes -- I wanted the faster speeds with a new laptop with Intel 5 core and SSD and got that. But, I didn't factor in that the new laptop was Windows 11. So, I have yet to get my first image between weather and glitches. I think it's now all resolved, but I'm sure there will be another gremlin or two.
I don't have any unusual screen/font size settings. The SharpCap Hardware menu was the only one with the buttons hidden under the taskbar. That menu extends from the very top of my computer screen to the bottom where the taskbar was, and I could not scroll to the buttons until I got rid of it. Maybe Windows 11, or maybe the small 14" Dell laptop are the issue -- I'm not sure.
Anyhow, yours was just the clue I needed. I was ready to go back to my old Windows 10 laptop, but I will say the speeds with the SSD are really good!!

[admin]

Hi,

well, glad you got it sorted. What is your screen resolution in Win11 anyway? I had to go right down to 1280x720 to make the same problem happen, and that sort of resolution seems a bit 2011 rather than 2021...

Capture.JPG (138.94 KiB) Viewed 472 times

Even in that resolution, I could grab the top of the settings window and pull it up far enough that I could just see the missing buttons.

Trying to work out here if this is something I am likely to see more of with Win11 or just a one off...

cheers,

Robin

[donusn]

I'm using the recommended Win 11 settings and am including a screenshot of those, and of the open Hardware Settings page on SharpCap. The SharpCap settings page is my entire laptop screen top to bottom, and most of it, left to right. I've removed the Win 11 bottom taskbar which would cover the "apply" and "save" buttons. Most users are probably more computer smart than me and probably won't have a problem!

[admin]

Hi,

Ah, OK, it's the 150% scaling that does it (combined with the 1080 screen height). I suspect that is something Windows does on smaller displays (laptops etc) to make the text more readable. If you set 100% everything would be vrey small, but 125% might be an acceptable compromise.

If Win11 is doing that by default then I may need to think about ways to make that window shorter (and possibly wider) to avoid the problem. Maybe I could just let the tallest bits inside the window scroll verticall?

cheers,

Robin

[donusn]

I'll reset to 125% and send you another screen shot. I did try 100% just for a look and it was miniscule!!!

[donusn]

125% is small, but readable and leaves plenty of room at the bottom for the task bar, which was hiding the buttons for me at 150%.
My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14, so not a big screen, but good for field astroimaging.