SharpCap Forums

SharpCap v4.2.15191.0 (X64, 64 bit)

Last night I installed the new version, and to my great surprise, the filter descriptions for two ZWO ASI filter wheels—one 2-inch and one 1.25-inch—were lost.
The descriptions were blank.
I re-entered the filter details, and everything worked fine.
I am attaching the log from the session in case it proves useful.

Carlo

Hi Carlo,

how the filter names (and offsets for that matter) are stored depends on how you are controlling your ZWO EFW...

If you are using the ASCOM driver then the filters/offsets are stored by the ASCOM driver (and since there are usually two copies of the ZWO EFW ASCOM driver then there are two separate sets of filters/offsets, one for each copy). SharpCap will retrieve the name/offset data from the ASCOM driver when connecting to the wheel. From your longer log, it looked like you ended up using ASCOM driver copy 2 to actually control the wheel in the end - if you had previously used copy 1 (or the direct SDK support - see below) then your 'copy 2' data might have been empty on first use.

The other option for controlling an EFW is SharpCap's direct SDK support. In this case SharpCap is responsible for storing the filter name/offset information (but it is separate storage to the ASCOM driver settings mentioned above). One small wrinkle here is that SharpCap creates separate storage based on the EFW device name (in your log it shows as EFW-5). If the device name has changed (device firmware upgrade? some ZWO devices can be given 'names' to identify them from other similar devices) then SharpCap would see it as a new device and create new settings.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that if you swapped between two different options in the filter wheel list then the blank settings on the newly selected one is probably expected. If you hadn't done that then this is a bit of a mystery.

cheers,

Robin

Hi

I use ASCOM drivers for the filter wheels.

I haven't updated any drivers or anything else; I simply installed the new beta version. The PC I use isn't connected to the internet and doesn't run updates; it is dedicated to astronomy and works fine just as it is (running Windows 10 Pro).
Normally, I connect to the Celestron CGX-L using CPWI.

The only unusual thing is that I had used the computer to connect—again via CPWI—to a Celestron CPC 800, with the filter wheel option deselected. Then, two days later, I switched back to the CGX-L and selected the Wheel 1 and then the Wheel 2, but neither showed any filter descriptions.
Very strange.

Carlo