SharpCap Forums

Hi Robin,

This seems new. I have used "Sky Simulator" many times (sad simulating the sky, I know), but have not had any issues connecting.
It seems to arise by SC trying to set some "camera" parameters, which this simple device does not support.

Any tips?
Cheers, Chris.

Hi Chris,

was that from just connecting to the camera? Odd, since I have also used sky simulator lots and have never seen that issue. My sky simulator is probably 2-3 months old, so maybe you have a newer version. I just tried the very latest version and aside from the fact that the image was dark until I turned up the exposure and gain, everything seemed OK.

cheers,

Robin

No, my version is a year old, and hasn’t changed since I used it with SC.
Cheers, Chris.

Hi,

in that case either try an update to the latest SkySimulator version or send me a log from SharpCap so I can see what is happening when the error occurs. Weird that it should change though, I don't think I have changed anything relating to ASCOM camera handling for some time (at least nothing significant).

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

Looking at SC logs, with camera extras enabled, shows that it fails trying to get the Sky Simulator to show a setup dialog ...

ASCOM.Sky_Simulator.Camera.SetupDialog()

This causes an exception. Log attached ...

Cheers, Chris.

Hi Chris,

Ah, OK, I think I have it now...

At some point you have unticked the 'Has cooler' option in the setup of the sky simulator camera (or maybe the latest versions install with that unticked). That somehow causes an error when SharpCap tries to connect. I am going to investigate now, but a workaround should be to conenct to the camera from another application and use the setup dialog to turn 'has cooler' back on.

cheers,

Robin

OK, it's a bug in SkySimulator...

If the 'Has Cooler' check box is cleared in sky simulator then it will create an error all on its own then next time you try to connect to it (I expec the connection code tries to turn the cooler on, but there is no 'cooler'). SharpCap then tries to run the setup dialog automatically with the idea that if you failed to connect to the hardware, maybe the setup dialog will help you fix the problem. However, in spite of giving an error, internally, Sky Simulator has set itself as being connected, so when you try to show the setup dialog, that fails with the "can't do this while connected" error.

All a bit of a mess, fortunately I can add a fairly simple workaround in SharpCap that will allow the setup dialog to show.

cheers,

Robin

Yes, I found that too. I installed the latest Sky Simulator and it works with defaults, which includes Has Cooler enabled. If I disable the cooler, then the same error pops up. Seems that when I disable the cooler in Sky Simulator, it throws the error when SC ask about cooling parameters or capability. If I leave all frills enabled it works.

Cheers, Chris.

Hi Chris,

the weird thing is that the error happens *before* SharpCap gets around to asking about cooling capabilities - it looks like the connecting code of the sky simulator has its own code to check the cooling and *that code* is not capable of working with the cooler turned off. Oh well...

cheers,

Robin

Interesting. Well, lesson learnt. Leave all options enabled in driver in future.
Thanks for pursuing this.
Cheers, Chris.