SkytechX

[Dave_D]

Anyone use this? just tried it on my Intel Atom machine i use for my scope and it's very good. ascom compliant and a lightweight on resources, which considering the spec i'm using, very, very useful. far more responsive than CdC and offers a lot of similar features.

http://www.skytechx.eu/?page=home

i think i'll go as far as to donate to the creator.

[xtreemchaos]

it looks cool Dave, im downloading now,thanks for link and post.  charl.

[Dave_D]

just as a side-by-side comparison with CdC. for some annoying reason my nexus video saved the vid rotated but you get the idea. Although it isn't clear on the uploaded vid, the dialog at the end shows the computer spec. Win XP, Intel Atom 230 @1.6gig and 2gig ram (this is old 800mhz ddr2 btw)

the difference is amazing imo.

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v369/vanityassassin/VID_20150808_221528_zpsfhn4j2gg.mp4

this is through win 10 rdp client to the scope computer. the 2 overlay images (M33 and M31) in SkytechX are 25mb fits images.

both showing stars to mag 8 but skytechx is still faster at mag 15 than CdC at mag 8

[beamer3.6m]

That looks much faster than cdc which can be quite frustrating.

Any issues you havefound with it to date.

[Gasman]

Thanks for the pointer Dave. Seems to work ok on my little 10" Acer notebook running Windows 10 home although seemed to need an Admin install as it complained of missing dll`s when installed as a user ??. Can`t seem to be able to use N S E W Z buttons which is something I use a lot of with CdC and it was a little twitchy trying to input my home location as it crashed a few times but looks promising.

cheers

Steve

[Gasman]

Mmmmm after playing around with it doing a search and other stuff seems to crash nearly every time!!! Maybe a Windows 10 thing, shame really as it promised a lot.

Steve

[Dave_D]

yeah it does on win10. i spoke to Pavel the author earlier today and version 1.03 is coming soon (possibly with a couple of additions i asked for )

tbh, this seems to be a win10  issue as so far, i've been hammering the program (although only simulated on my scope in my bedroom) and so far it's performed flawlessly on XP with 30Gb+ of extra libraries installed. 

if i could just get my hands on a decent leisure battery i'll be back out 'in the field' for a proper shake down.

i think though, as the program is open source, the potential for expansion, maybe integrated guiding and solving could make this a serious contender. personally, i'm sold on it, uninstalled CdC and sat here playing AP through my tablet.

[michaelmorris]

It certainly looks very promising. One important question, does it run ASCOM in server mode, so that it can share ascom control of a mount with other programs. ( I believe this is how cdc handles ascom).

[beamer3.6m]

I like it but I would prefer if you could remove the NGC labels and leave only the messier objects.

[Gasman]

Anyone have it working ok on Win 10 yet?. Wasn`t sure about Win 10 at first but its growing on me

Steve

[Dave In Vermont]

Dave_D - Thank you for the link. Some very interesting materials there, which I'm merrily downloading.

I can see what I'll be doing this evening.....

'ta,

Dave

[malc-c]

Uhmm not off to a good start.  Downloaded, installed and first time run it complained of a missing dll file (MSVCR120.dll to be exact).  Seems you need to install the C++ runtime option from the installer first and then run the application...I do wish that the developers would incorporate the automatic instalation as part of the build when the installer is compiled... especially as it's bundled with the application and can be manually installed by confirming a check box in the installer.

Once installed - I love the interface   Clean, uncluttered and well laid out, easy to set up location and time, and the use of colours to represent objects looks pretty   Now to install this on the observatory PC and see how it integrates with ASCOM and drives the HEQ5.  It would be nice to have the SLEW and SYNC option available from the right click on a target, rather than from the information window, but at least it was easy to find.

[r3i]

Thanks for the heads up Dave, it's always good to try out new applications.

It does show a lot of promise, and scrolling around the chart is a lot smoother than CdC.

I had the same issue as Gasman, in that the NSWEZ toolbar controls don't work - maybe they don't operate in North Yorkshire?

Unfortunately I'm running on Windows 10 and the application is constantly crashing so I'm afraid I'll have to park it for now.  No doubt the author will get it compatible with the new operating system and then I can try again.

[beamer3.6m]

I too cannot get NSEWZ buttons to work but apart from that it is much smoother than CDC.

It controls the mount and allows integration with PHD2 and astrotortilla - in the sense that it does not conflict at all, which is not surprising as it is ASCOM.

I would certainly recommend this software as it seems much less memory intensive that CDC.

I do wish the NSEW buttons worked though - but again may be this is for us in North Yorkshire only!

[rwg]

Thanks for the head's up on this great new bit of software.

It looks like the NESWZ buttons only work if you have selected 'Horizon Mode (Zenith Up)' from the Chart menu.

I'm not having any problems so far on Windows 10, going through some basic operations like moving around the sky, searching, using the ASCOM simulator, etc. I used the 32 bit version of SkyTechX in case that makes any difference.

Love the fact that it responds and draws rapidly as you explore the sky (unlike CdC) and that it has a modern look to it (again, unlike CdC). Now, about that cloud zap button...

cheers,

Robin

[Dave In Vermont]

Sorry to say, but it keeps crashing on my Windows 8.1 (Classic Shell). I would also suggest that everything should be installed and ready to fly right-out-of -the-box. I can see it's a work in progress, so I'll continue to check it out - as time permits.

Thank you!

Dave

[r3i]

It looks like the NESWZ buttons only work if you have selected 'Horizon Mode (Zenith Up)' from the Chart menu.

I'm not having any problems so far on Windows 10, going through some basic operations like moving around the sky, searching, using the ASCOM simulator, etc. I used the 32 bit version of SkyTechX in case that makes any difference.

I see what you mean that the NESWZ buttons only operate in the Horizon mode.

I've uninstalled the 64 bit version and instead installed the 32 bit version and yes that has made a big difference to the stability of the application on Win 10 (64 bit).  So far no crashes.

[Dave_D]

I'm not having any problems so far on Windows 10, going through some basic operations like moving around the sky, searching, using the ASCOM simulator, etc. I used the 32 bit version of SkyTechX in case that makes any difference.

yeah, i tried the 32bit version on win10 last night without any problems

[Gasman]

Hi chaps

Had an email back from Pavel who seems to think the crash problems might be the QT libraries and he was recompiling for the new version??. Just checked the web site and it says version 1.02 is the latest anyone tried the 64bit version of 1.02 on Win 10?. Can`t remember which version I tried now?.

cheers

Steve

[Dave_D]

Hi chaps

Had an email back from Pavel who seems to think the crash problems might be the QT libraries and he was recompiling for the new version??. Just checked the web site and it says version 1.02 is the latest anyone tried the 64bit version of 1.02 on Win 10?. Can`t remember which version I tried now?.

cheers

Steve

the 64bit version crashes for me on win10, the 32bit version is fine. just been playing with the 32bit version with the UCAC4  catalog running... the number of stars is just silly

omega centauri just with the star catalog lol

[malc-c]

Ok I have no idea what happened tonight.  Everytime I launch Skytech (32 bit) on the observatory PC, the map, regardless which target is selected simply slowly scrolls until the north pole is centred in the window.  Search for a target, it jumps to it and the scrolls back until the north pole is centred... I closed and re-opene dthe app and it continued to do the same - no idea if it is a setting that's over-riding the option to right click and slew on a target, or the app has crashed ?

[Gasman]

Dave

Have you tried Skytechx with a mount or just using the sims? It looks the dogs whatsits when its running ok

Steve

[malc-c]

Dave

Have you tried Skytechx with a mount or just using the sims? It looks the dogs whatsits when its running ok

Steve

Yup - it connects fine with the ASCOM driver and previously worked fine (even this afternoon) - have no idea what's causing this strange panning / scrolling issue.

[Gasman]

Which OS and Skytechx version you running Malc?

Steve

[malc-c]

Hi Steve, I'm running 1.02 version of Skytech on Windows 7 pro 32bit on the observatory PC.  I also have the same version running on my main PC which again is windows 7 pro but 64bit.  The main PC obviously doesn't have the scope conneted, but seems fine !

I'll try an un-install / re-install and see if that cures it.