ShapCap bombs when ASI174MM camera selected

[DougAtDallington]

Hi,

Still got my astronomical stabilizer wheels/inflatable armbands on having got back into astronomy after a 50-year gap. So please excuse a high level of ignorance!

I've built my own roll-off roof obsy with a warm room (bloomin' luxury) and am trying to learn how to get good astro images using freeware where possible. I'm successfully using EQMOD to control my EQ8 mount (what a beautiful piece of kit, worth every penny) with a game-pad, and making use of a USB GPS module from EBay. The warm room Win7Pro PC is talking to the mount via a USB3.0 4-way hub at the 'scope pier and EQDIR. Two of the 4 outputs from the hub connect to two cameras.

Last night I downloaded and installed SharpCap to control the cameras (Celestron Nightscape and a ZWO ASI174MM). Previously the Celestron was controlled by the manufacturer's AstroFX software and the ZWO camera is intended, ultimately, to be used as a guiding camera and I'm trying it out as a planetary camera first.

The Celestron Nightscape is found perfectly by SharpCap and works well, but trying to connect to the ZWO camera makes SharpCap crash. There are two entries for the ZWO camera in the SharpCap menu; one entry under 'DirectShow Cameras' (ASI174MM Camera (ZWO Design)) and one entry under 'ASCOM Cameras' (ASI Cameras ASCOM Driver).

If I select the first instance (under 'DirectShow Cameras') as recommended by SharpCap the camera seems to connect but within 3 secs the window greys-out and a Windows error message pops-up telling me the program's stopped working and Windows will close it - which it does.

If I select the second instance (under 'ASCOM Cameras') I just get an error message "Camera could not be started. Failed to initialize ASCOM camera ('ASI Cameras ASCOM driver')".

Yes, I've installed the ZWO camera drivers, and made sure the latest version is installed, and yes I've installed the ASCOM drivers supplied by ZWO for their camera. And yes again, I've re-booted the PC a number of times.

But here I reach the limit of my knowledge!

Can anyone suggest a next step?

Regards,

Doug.

[Joseki]

Just a thought, I'm not the most technical person but it might be worth connecting the asi174 to your pc with it's own cable, i.e. not through the hub (perhaps with as short a cable as possible, 2m?) and it's own usb port and see if you still get the problem.

[JamesF]

I'd not be at all surprised if Robin were along shortly to pass on his thoughts, though he might find you more quickly if you post here: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/74272-sharpcap-free-astro-webcam-capture-software/

It's perhaps also worth checking to see if the camera works with FireCapture in case it's a more generic camera issue.

James

[DougAtDallington]

Thanks both - sussed!

Plugged the ASI direct to the obsy end of the USB 3.0 extension cable and SharpCap connected to it fine.

Seems the un-powered cheapo hub I've got was the problem. Am currently looking for at least 7-way USB 3.0 hub; any make/model recommendations?

Doug

[JamesF]

I have an Orico 7-port USB3 powered hub that seems fairly reliable.  It's very similar to this one, but I think they do models with ten ports too.

James

[DougAtDallington]

Cheers James. I'll check them out.

Any EMC/RFI problems? Some of the 'tinternet seems to be concerned about Wi-Fi issues with USB 3.0 hubs.

Doug.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Glad you got it sorted. I would give FireCapture a bash, however. I personally prefer it to SharpCap (although I got fine results with SharpCap too). I find FireCapture has the edge in ease of use and storing settings for all different targets + filters.