MaxIm DL using TheSky-controlled Telescope ASCOM driver ?

[Mart]

Hello,

I read an article in Astronomy Now a couple of months ago by Nik Szymanek which discussed a neat way to have TheSKy control your telescope and to have MaxIm DL connected to the TheSky to control the telescope working through TheSky.

I found to my cost that this only works if you have TheSKyX Professional - it needs scripting support in TheSky which is only available in the Pro version.

Having forked out more money to upgrade from Serious to Pro I now have the right software but can't get MaxIm DL to connect to TheSKy.

I'm running MaxIm DL Pro Version 5.12 and TheSkyX Pro Version 10.2.0 (Build 6323) on Windows XP SP3 PCs.

I've installed ASCOM Platform 6 SP2 with TheSkyTelescope Version 5.2.12 driver.

The error I get is reported by MaxIm DL when I try to connect to TheSKy:

MaxIm DL failed to connect to the telescope, which returned the error:

TheSky:

Automation error

Library not registered.

Help !

Many Thanks,

Martin

[perfrej]

That is most likely solved by uninstalling both pieces of software and reinstalling them. The registration process is part of the installation. You may solve it by the repair option of the installation program and that would eliminate the need to uninstall.

Maxim should be upgraded to 5.23 at the same time.

/p

[Mart]

I've just uninstalled MaxIm DL, TheSkyX, ASCOM Platform and TheSky driver.

I've upgraded Maxim DL Pro to v5.24 (more money) and installed it, I've reinstalled TheSky Pro, I've reinstalled ASCOM Platform 6 SP2 and TheSky driver 5.2.12.

And ... I still have exactly the same problem

[Helen]

Have you joined The Sky forum? I had some major problems, which like you I got very frustrated about having spent a lot of money on 'the best' software, but they were eventually sorted out via the forum. My problem related to my version of OpenGL if I remember correctly. Hope you get it sorted out.

Helen

[Oddsocks]

Check user account control, right click The Sky and Maxim .exe files and check both are set to run as Administrator.

Then start both programs and try to connect again.

[Mart]

Thank you Helen and Oddsocks.

I did post on the Software Bisque forum and have just been working through the reply I got there - which has worked !

Although I only purchased TheSkyX Pro last week, it turns out that it is not the most recent build of the software they have in the Purchase/Download site. I was advised to download the latest daily [sic.] build software and see if that worked before doing any further diagnostics. This turned out to be a two stage process as I had to install a previous software upgrade before installing the latest daily build software (for reference at http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/45603.aspx).

End result is it works - I have control of the telescope from both MaxIm DL and TheSkyX. The point of the exercise was that I use TheSkyX to navigate around the night sky and use MaxIm DL to take photographs. By linking MaxIm DL and TheSkyX I now have all the telescope pointing data available in MaxIm DL to put in the FITS file headers and can play with the Pinpoint Astrometry feature Nik wrote about in the article that set me off down this journey.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Martin

[Helen]

Pleased its all sorted out

[astrosphd]

Hello,

I'm facing to the same problem after a long period without difficulty. Since a few days only one program may be connected, TheSkyX or Maxim. Some times I was forced to use POTH in theSkyX setting. Thanks Martin in telling me how you have solved this issue as well as the post in Software Bisque Forum.

Regards