Help needed! Starlight Xpress and APT (ASCOM)

[Twisted Lip]

So Ant (über admin) was kind enough to pass down his Starlight Xpress SXVF-H9 to the idiot that is me. I had a small chance to test it indoors this evening but have come across a few problems.

APT is my usual weapon of choice for capturing but doesn't have native support for SX, only support through ASCOM. I've installed the (second-to) latest drivers from the SX website here and tested with APT. Interestingly it gives me the live preview perfectly however I have no control over the cooling? If I try and switch cooling on APT throws an error in the log window (about not being able to control cooling). Consequently the H9 gets quite hot as you would expect really. Secondly - and probably even more oddly - if I shoot an image or run through a sequence no files get saved? The directory for the images is created, but has nothing in it?

I've tried using the SX capture software but it won't even connect to the camera, even with the latest driver installed.

I'll try again tomorrow with fresh eyes but if anyone has any ideas at all I'm open to any suggestions :/

Pretty please.

Will

[Twisted Lip]

Well the cooling problem looks like it might be resolved - H9 doesn't have variable cooling (just a set point below ambient) confirmed by Ant but also looking at the testing logs for the sxASCOM drivers show 'not implemented' which explains why APT can't set it!

Still trying to work out the image saving problem though :/

[Yoddha]

Hi Will,

Could you send me the log file (Settings->Main->Export Log) to the support mail to take a look. It is strange why there are no images...

[Twisted Lip]

Hi Will,

Could you send me the log file (Settings->Main->Export Log) to the support mail to take a look. It is strange why there are no images...

Thanks Ivo, I'll see if I can sort this tonight and get them to you. It's definitely a weird issue and not one that I've seen before!

Cheers

Will

[Twisted Lip]

Just FYI Ivo - email sent with log file. I'm starting to think this might be SXV-H9 driver related as nothing else can connect at all.

[Astroboffin]

Just FYI Ivo - email sent with log file. I'm starting to think this might be SXV-H9 driver related as nothing else can connect at all.

Hi,

I have red this thread with interest as I am just about to,get a second hand SXV-H9 CCD and wanted to use APT also, I was about to,say that you can't control the cooling on that camera, but you have figured that out, but am keen to know how you get on using the APT software, especially for things like focusing, as I am coming from,a DSLR world with live view, so going to be a bit of a shock really trying to get good focus.

Regards

AB

[Yoddha]

You will not have problems with camera control and I have tried to keep the make the CCD part of APT close to the DSLR part Also you will find that focusing and framing is easier with CCD than with DSLR

[Astroboffin]

You will not have problems with camera control and I have tried to keep the make the CCD part of APT close to the DSLR part Also you will find that focusing and framing is easier with CCD than with DSLR

That's great, does the Bahtinov aid work with CCD too?? As I find that great with my DSLR

Regards

AB

[Yoddha]

Yes it works Even it is better because you can stretch the CCD Histogram which makes the spikes more visible... 

[Astroboffin]

Yes it works Even it is better because you can stretch the CCD Histogram which makes the spikes more visible...

Thanks, that's great

What happens with temperature CCD control in this software as the SXV-H9 has just stage one peltier with no control over it, it's just on all the time and cools to -30 below ambient, so can it be controlled at all with APT, or is it just on all the time. Or can it be turned on and off.

Regards

AB

[Yoddha]

It can be turned on and off

[Twisted Lip]

Just as an update on this and to give you some confidence my SX is now working without issue in APT.

In terms of cooling it should just come straight on (Ivo - I'm not sure you can switch it on and off with the SX as I'm not sure the ASCOM drivers support it?).

In reference to focusing I was expecting it to be a pain given I was so used to live view but actually Bahtinov grabber works fantastically well - so much so that in fact the focuser is probably the weak spot now! The only gotcha is I find the crosshair a bit too small if you're looking through a Ha filter so I always pan through to the Red filter to focus (they're pretty much parfocal so works ok), but this is simply to do with the narrowband filters letting such a little amount of light through rather than anything APT related.

Good luck!

Cheers

Will

[Astroboffin]

Just as an update on this and to give you some confidence my SX is now working without issue in APT.

In terms of cooling it should just come straight on (Ivo - I'm not sure you can switch it on and off with the SX as I'm not sure the ASCOM drivers support it?).

In reference to focusing I was expecting it to be a pain given I was so used to live view but actually Bahtinov grabber works fantastically well - so much so that in fact the focuser is probably the weak spot now! The only gotcha is I find the crosshair a bit too small if you're looking through a Ha filter so I always pan through to the Red filter to focus (they're pretty much parfocal so works ok), but this is simply to do with the narrowband filters letting such a little amount of light through rather than anything APT related.

Good luck!

Cheers

Will

Thanks for that, I have been messaging the guy you bought your camera from about the power supply, as I want to do away with it and use a simple 12v cable, but after contacting Terry at SX, who has been a fantastic help, I realise it's not that simple, as it used two voltages one for the camera and another for the cooler, but between us we have come up with an idea, as I use a 12v power hub on my pier I have no 240v outlet, I run 12v from my garage to the pier underground, hence the need to get rid of the 240v transformer that comes with this camera.

I am going to remove the circuit board from the power supply and re fit into a much smaller project box, and connect a cable to the orange connector to give 12v supply, which will connect to one of my 12v RCA outputs, then just plug the camera cable into the din socket as normal, the new box only has to be 55mm square and will be very light.

Terry has been a star and sent me images of the transformer taken apart so I can see inside it along with all the wiring diagrams, so will be quite easy, I will post some images when it is done, assuming you may be interested that is.......

I know you can just connect 12v to the orange connector and run from 12v that way, but why carry all that extra weight of the transformer, when I will never need it.

Regards

AB

[Astroboffin]

A question for Ivo,

I have this camera but also,have the SXV guide head that goes with it, can I image with the main camera in APT and guide with the guide head, in PHD, as they will both be using the same drive??

Regards

AB

[Yoddha]

A question for Ivo,

I have this camera but also,have the SXV guide head that goes with it, can I image with the main camera in APT and guide with the guide head, in PHD, as they will both be using the same drive??

Regards

AB

I don't think that there will be problem to use both cameras in APT and PHD. It can be checked easily with indoors test

[Astroboffin]

I don't think that there will be problem to use both cameras in APT and PHD. It can be checked easily with indoors test

Even if both program's have to use the Ascom driver, APT needs to use that and so will PHD, so can they access it at the same time?

I will test this layer and get back to you

Regards

AB

[Astroboffin]

We'll,

Got the camera today and can report that it DOES work in two seperate program's, I have the main camera imaging in APT and the guide head guiding in PHD, but you have to use the new Ascom driver for the camera, and make sure you select guide head in PHD and main camera in APT, just left it running for a while to see if there are any errors, and there is just one

It shows the cooler as being off in APT and when you click to turn on, it throws an errors and says" can't work out cooler state" same when you try and disconnect from APT it say that it doesn't know if the cooler is off, are you sure you want to disconnect.

Oh and the settings tab for CCD does not work with APT it crashes the programme, it disconnects the camera which it has to do, then crashes.

Very happy all I all being able to use the dedicated guide head in programms of my choice, thanks to the guys who wrote the Ascom driver for this camera and guide head.

AB

[Yoddha]

Good news for the connection!

As for the other problems, could you ask Terry for help? They are related to the ASCOM driver. Of course if I can be in help with something, just drop a line

[Twisted Lip]

We'll,

Got the camera today and can report that it DOES work in two seperate program's, I have the main camera imaging in APT and the guide head guiding in PHD, but you have to use the new Ascom driver for the camera, and make sure you select guide head in PHD and main camera in APT, just left it running for a while to see if there are any errors, and there is just one

It shows the cooler as being off in APT and when you click to turn on, it throws an errors and says" can't work out cooler state" same when you try and disconnect from APT it say that it doesn't know if the cooler is off, are you sure you want to disconnect.

Oh and the settings tab for CCD does not work with APT it crashes the programme, it disconnects the camera which it has to do, then crashes.

Very happy all I all being able to use the dedicated guide head in programms of my choice, thanks to the guys who wrote the Ascom driver for this camera and guide head.

AB

Sorry AB, only just spotted these replies! In my setup the camera and guidecam are controlled by several programs via ASCOM (the H9 for example is controlled by Astrotortilla, APT and CdC) and I've never have any problems with multiple control. The only issue I've had (and not this wasn't using APT) is when I had a single USB2 cable and hub for pretty much everything and I think the issue was traffic on the cable/contention. 

In terms of the Settings and Cooling state - neither of these are handled by the ASCOM driver so APT doesn't know what to do. Take a look at the test output file for the latest working driver here and notice the CoolerOn Read setting is not implemented in the driver. This is what throws the error in APT as there is nothing to handle to request.

Hope this helps.

Will

[Astroboffin]

Sorry AB, only just spotted these replies! In my setup the camera and guidecam are controlled by several programs via ASCOM (the H9 for example is controlled by Astrotortilla, APT and CdC) and I've never have any problems with multiple control. The only issue I've had (and not this wasn't using APT) is when I had a single USB2 cable and hub for pretty much everything and I think the issue was traffic on the cable/contention. 

In terms of the Settings and Cooling state - neither of these are handled by the ASCOM driver so APT doesn't know what to do. Take a look at the test output file for the latest working driver here and notice the CoolerOn Read setting is not implemented in the driver. This is what throws the error in APT as there is nothing to handle to request.

Hope this helps.

Will

Thanks very much for that, it does help.

I notice though that you use the lodestar, I use the SXV guide head which is connected directly to the main camera, and so,it is essentially one piece of hardware, but with the new Ascom driver this can now be seen as two cameras, hence being able to use with two pieces of software, which is completely impossible with the native SX driver, but in your set up then I realise as your guide cam is a stand alone one, then there will never be a problem using in multiple program's, so my post was aimed at anyone that uses the SXV guide head, not a standalone USB guide cam such as yours, as that will ever be a problem.

Hope that made sense...

But while on the subject of this SXV-H9, how does one tell if the cooler is working, the body on my camera does get warm to the touch, so is that a sign? Or is there another way of telling as the camera is silent, and the SX software won't run on my 64bit PC as I thought that there might be something in that where it would tell me the temp of the sensor.

Regards

AB

[Merlin66]

I use AstroArt to control all my cameras. It shows the set temperature and the current camera temp.