Problem with ASCOM on LX200 - ideas please?

[michaelmorris]

I have a venerable old Meade LX200 Classic which I drive using the Meade LX200 Classic and Autostar #494, #495, and #497 (combined telescope/focuser, 5.0.4) driver on an ASCOM6.1 platform on my Windows 7 Pro 64 bit computer.

Last night all was running well with Cartes du Ciel,(CdC) PHD guiding and APT camera control all connected simultaneously with no problems.  CdC is used for GOTOs, PHD for guiding and ASCOM talks to the mount for plate solving and for dithering.

Half way through the night I shut down APT and relaunched it, only to find that it wouldn't connect to the scope.  On testing, I found that in fact this problem was not restricted to APT.  What had happened is that I could connect to the scope via ASCOM with any of these pieces of software one at a time, but regardless of the order I launched the software, not two programs simulateously. (I checked that PHD was set to server mode).

I have tried uninstalling the Meade drivers and ASCOM itself and installing the latest version of each but I still get the same problem.

Ideas?

 

Thanks

[RuralBill]

Hi,

i have had these issues in the past, and for the life of me can't remember how I got round it, I think that PhD had to be run in server mode, to allow the driver to be shared with APT,  but if you connect to the scope via Ascom in APT then it won't connect in any other software for scope control, the Meade Ascom driver can only be used by one piece of software at a time,   so for me if I connect APT to my Meade mount, via the Ascom  driver you mention, to make corrections to the scope, I would have to disconnect from APT to connect with CDC, but it will always connect with APT and PhD together, as long as PhD is in server mode....

i think I have that correct, but if you have had all three connected and working then you are a genius, as I don't think it should..:)

hope that makes sense..

Bill

 

[uhb1966]

I also have been running APT CDC and phd2 concurrently, without issues. However, only phd2 and cdc were connected to the mount, so this indicates that Bill is right. This was working off the shelf with no changes of any of the default settings...

Maybe you could drop ivo a message on the apt board, he is usually extremely fast with help?

[uhb1966]

yes apt and cdc can not talk at the same time to the mount with std settings, heres what ivo suggested

http://aptforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=768

[michaelmorris]

I may have been mistaken about having CdC, APT and PHD all connected to the mount simultaneously, but I could certainly have APT and PHD connected to the mount at the same time by starting PHD in server mode. I've uninstalled>rebooted>reinstalled PHD and still get the same issue.

Help.

[uhb1966]

Quote Ivo from above."Just select POTH (...Hub...) instead of telescope driver and in POTH's properties select the actual driver. This is one time setup...
Then you just have to select POTH"

 

 

[uhb1966]

Hello Dear Michael, did it work ?

 

[michaelmorris]

POTH would connect to the Meade driver, but would crash out when trying to connect POTH to PHD.  However, it all seams to work okay when using PHD2, so (fingers crossed) problem solved. Thanks for all the advice.