Altair Astro GPCam and Linux

[jdmgray]

Hi all, 

Not sure I'm in the right place or not but I was hoping someone could help...

I have an Altair Astro GPCamV2 and the box tells you to get the software from http://cameras.altairastro.com/ and that it will only work with Windows!

I was wondering if anyone else has gotten this type of cam working on a Linux os before and what the steps were for doing so. (Other software that will work, terminal commands for the drivers etc.)

thank you in advance ?

[JamesF]

There is a beta release of AltairCapture (or whatever it is called) for Linux and OSX that may well support it, though I don't have one to test.

If it does work with AltairCapture then there's a strong possibility that it will also work with the next release of oacapture on Linux and OSX, along with many, if not all, of the other Altair cameras as long as the beta release is already installed so the drivers are available.

James

[JamesF]

Actually, to save you having to go through the hassle of joining the support group just to download it, the beta for 64-bit Linux is available here:

http://cameras.altairastro.com/drivers/linux/AltairCapture.x64.run

James

[jdmgray]

Thanks James ? I'll look into it. I appreciate that 

[jdmgray]

Just thought I would leave some feedback on this.....

First off, it worked!!!

I thought I'd leave some steps on how I did it to help the next person.

1) click on the link and download the file that James posted.

2) next right click on the file, go to properties and make sure "Allow executing file as program" is checked

3) open your terminal and type the following:

cd /home/user/downloads

chmod +x AltairCapture.x64.run

./AltairCapture.x64.run

4) after this an Altair Capture icon should appear on your desktop....

Once again many thanks to James.

 

[JamesF]

Depending on which release of which distribution you're running, I believe you may also need to restart udev using something like:

  $ sudo service udev restart

(or a reboot should work).

James

[philpugh]

Many thanks JamesF and Vacuum - just what I was after - works nicely on Debian 9. 

Phil

[B_ickringill]

Hi 

Following with interest. 

I’m trying to build a pi3 to run my imaging rig. I guide with a gpcam. Will the above work with ubuntu mate on a pi? I did try and got a desktop shortcut but I couldn’t get it to run. 

Thanks 

Brendan 

edit: should have added that I had to re image the card shortly after but not due to the altair software. 

Edited October 28, 2017 by B_ickringill
Left info out of post.

[JamesF]

Sadly no, it won't work on any ARM device as far as I'm aware.  There's no reason why it shouldn't, but Altair don't provide ARM binaries at the moment.

James

[B_ickringill]

Ah. That’s a shame. Hopefully they will in time. Thanks for the info. 

[freeway]

no luck for me,

After i followed the above instructions ( restat also) I got this  but no button

Quote

install AltairCapture ok

in php2 the camera is not recognised

in lsusb gives me

Quote

 Bus 002 Device 007: ID 0547:b121 Anchor Chips, Inc. 

Its a intel processor

anything else i could check?

Edited August 4, 2019 by freeway
addition

[JamesF]

Altair have dropped support for some of their older cameras, which may be the issue.  That's fixable by using an older version of their libraries (or in fact I have hacked the new library to bodge in support for the older model that I have, but that's not easy to do for third party software).  I can probably send you a copy of the older library if necessary.  I'll try to remember to check tomorrow if my camera is the same model (same USB VID/PID) as yours.

By "php2" did you mean "phd2" ?

James

[freeway]

On 05/08/2019 at 02:21, JamesF said:

By "php2" did you mean "phd2" ?

 

yes, sorry, 

Great if you could help me get this camera working,

Unbeleavable that altair stopped support for this relative new camera.

Thanks most greatfull  

Gerard

[JamesF]

I should have asked, did AltairCapture work ok with the camera?

James

[B_ickringill]

Hi 

Revisiting this thread after a few years. 

Did altair ever release the binaries for arm processors?

 

Thanks 

[JamesF]

They released hardfloat and 64-bit ARM versions of the SDK.  I don't know how much software there is that supports them though.

James

[B_ickringill]

 

Thank you! I'm still hoping to use pi ( or similar) with ekos so will have another play. 

[JamesF]

You may need to use the latest release rather than what's in a particular distribution.  I tried the other day with whatever is current for Ubuntu/Mint and the Altair interface just crashed.  I'm fairly sure the Altair SDK has been updated since the package was last built.

James

[B_ickringill]

16 hours ago, JamesF said:

You may need to use the latest release rather than what's in a particular distribution.  I tried the other day with whatever is current for Ubuntu/Mint and the Altair interface just crashed.  I'm fairly sure the Altair SDK has been updated since the package was last built.

James

Thank you for the advice. When the children let me I'll have a go!