SharpCap Forums

Hi,

I was wondering if it was possible to use the sharpcap focusing feature and plate solving with the virtual camera( folder monitoring)? One of my camera does not have any ascom driver.

Thanks

Hi,

yes, it should be possible as long as you have another application that will save images from the camera into a folder (in a format that SharpCap can read). SharpCap will see the new files being created and will open each new image file as if it was an image from a camera. Plate solving should definitely work, and I think focus should too (although it might be slow).

cheers,

Robin

Would the auto focusing function work too?

Hi,

I'm not sure - one of the problems with auto focus is that SharpCap needs to ensure that the frames used to measure focus are not captured while the focuser is moving. Normally SharpCap will either run the camera in still mode or ignore one or two frames captured around the time of the movement if the camera is in live view mode. Neither of those are guaranteed to work with the virtual camera, since there could be a significant delay between the frame being captured and it getting as far as SharpCap. I think it is worth a try, but I suspect that it will 'almost' work, but not really be reliable for the above reasons.

cheers,

Robin