ToupCam GuideScope and Windows 10

[adyj1]

Hi,

I'm making a tentative foray into guided AP, and have got a ToupTek GCMOS01200KPB Colour guide cam from FLO (to use on an ST80 I picked up from the forums).

I can't get PHD2 to recognise the camera, in fact I can't even get the ToupTek software to see the camera. I wonder whether anyone else with experience of this camera, or Windows 10 might be able to help?

I managed to overcome the initial problem of Windows recognising it as a 'USB2.0 Camera' even thought I had 'installed' the DirectShow driver that came with the camera. It seems that running the driver installation program didn't actually install the driver, it just put the necessary files on my hard disk. I then had to do the windows thing of selecting 'update driver', 'have disk', etc. to point at the ToupCam.inf file that had been copied onto my laptop. After this, when I plug in the camera it correctly recognises it in Device Manager correctly as a GCMOS01200KPB camera (now under 'Imaging Devices' in device manager rather than 'Cameras').  The red LED on the camera flashes when it is connected.

This took me about a week to work out, so I was feeling quite pleased with myself - until I tried running any camera software. Running the ToupSky software showed 'no device' under cameras. I installed the ASCOM drivers, and when I run the ASCOM diagnostics it appears to see the driver but cannot connect to the camera.

I'm stumped. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

Ady

[Zakalwe]

If it's not being recognised in Device Manager then it's possible that the camera is a dud.

[adyj1]

32 minutes ago, Zakalwe said:

If it's not being recognised in Device Manager then it's possible that the camera is a dud.

Zakalwe, thanks for the quick reply.

The camera is visible, by correct name, in Device Manager (once I worked out how to manually update the driver). 

You've reminded me of one other useful info I should have included - the camera has been tested on a friend's Laptop running Windows 8.1 with all the guiding software installed. Got the normal blurred image from it (indoors and not attached to a scope).

Thanks

Ady

 

PS - your avatar freaks me out ;-)

[Grierson]

I wonder what comes up when you click on Connect in PHD2. On my W10 laptop it comes up as ASCOM Toupcam Driver which is second (in my case) on the dropdown camera list. Did you install ASCOM before or after the ST4 and Camera Drivers? (From the CD) I ask because for my ZWO camera their website makes a point of installing the ASCOM platform first. It may be the same for any camera but I am no expert.

If I were to face the issue I would be inclined to delete ASCOM and re-install it and then install the ST4 and camera drivers from the disc. As far as ASCOM is concerned it might also be sensible to install the latest version from their website rather than from the disc that came with the Toupcam which I guess may be well out of date. 

John

Edit - Just in passing I found that the Toupcam website was poor, with no updated drivers available!!

Edited January 23, 2018 by Grierson
Added line

[adyj1]

Grierson,

Yes, the ASCOM Toupcam driver is second in the list in PHD when I start the New Profile Wizard. When I click 'detect' for it to get the un-binned pixel size, it errors with an error message which includes "could not connect to camera". 

This seems to be the same thing I see in ASCOM Diagnostics; I select Device Type 'Camera', click on 'Choose' and it gives me a dialog box where I can select 'ASCOM ToupCam driver' from a list of 3 (the other 2 seem to be defaults of 'Camera V2 Simulator' and 'Simulator'), so this makes me think the ASCOM driver software is being picked up, but when I click on the 'properties' button after selecting the Toupcam Driver,  a setup dialog appears with a 'camera' dropdown which has one blank entry (so nothing to choose).

You're right about the website being poor, but it is still better than the install instructions that came with the camera - none. Just a ToupSky software quick-guide printed on four A4 sheets...  I was hoping to create a beginners guide after I got it working, but that seems to be a way off yet! 

I will try uninstalling ASCOM and reinstalling.

Thanks

Ady

 

[adyj1]

More information:

I've installed SharpCap and whilst I can see some very odd behaviour, have managed to see that the camera works!

When I open the 'Cameras' menu, I can see four sections;

      'Altair Cameras' under which the 'GPCAMAR0130C' is listed,

      'DirectShow Cameras via SharpCap Pipeline' under which 'Integrated Webcam' and 'Toupcam' are listed, and

      'ASCOM Cameras' under which 'Camera V2 Simulator' and 'ASCOM Toupcam Driver' are listed

Selecting either of the Toupcam drivers listed results in errors, however the Altair GPCAMAR0130C works (shows a blurred unfocused screen that reacts to light).

Which has reminded me I tried installing ALTAIR drivers during my many attempts to get the Toupcam working as I understood it was compatible, but I thought I'd uninstalled all of them...

Checking the Windows folder I do find the 'altaircam.sys' driver installed, so I'll do a bit more investigation...

Ady

[adyj1]

Soooooo.....

It appears you can't truly repent until you've confessed... In other words until I'd publicly told all you lot what I couldn't do, I wasn't going to be able to fix it.

The good news is that now I have discovered the Altair dshow driver was being used (thank you SharpCap) I've been able to get the camera recognised in PHD using the Altair. It tried to go through the generation of darks (and even told me to put the lens cover on!). The less good news is that the darks didn't complete (more than 16 seconds and not completed a 1s exposure), so I may yet need to get the Toupcam driver working, but at least it is progress!.

I will attempt to make better sense of this, and perhaps write an Idiot's guide - I'm well qualified ;-)

Thanks

Ady

[adyj1]

Darks now completed successfully in PHD. 

[Grierson]

Pleased you have it up and running. - John

[Scorp]

adyj1, did you ever get your touptek to move your scope over the ST4 port with the ASCOM drivers?

Scorp

[adyj1]

On 15/03/2019 at 11:33, Scorp said:

adyj1, did you ever get your touptek to move your scope over the ST4 port with the ASCOM drivers?

Scorp

Unfortunately, my guiding ambitions were put on the back burner once I realised that my EQ5 couldn't take the 150pds AND st80 guide scope. I also found I had a lot more to learn about everything else, so haven't got round to looking at it again. 

Hopefully I'll be able to have a go at it over the summer... 

Ady

[Stub Mandrel]

Has anyone got a Toupcam to work with Sharpcap and Toupcam drivers?

I can only get mine to work with the 'GPCAMAR0130C' driver and the results are disappointing.

[OJ87]

On 28/07/2019 at 19:42, Stub Mandrel said:

Has anyone got a Toupcam to work with Sharpcap and Toupcam drivers?

I can only get mine to work with the 'GPCAMAR0130C' driver and the results are disappointing.

Hi, 

actually I got a lot of troubles running Toupcam too.. 

After a lot of pain I got it work fine in Toupsky , but it makes a lot of problems with PHD 2. It keeps disconnecting from PHD 2. The drivers are there, even after the last PHD 2 version, which supports Toupcam cameras. I tried the development version, it also didn't work. I'm regarding that day, in which I bought this cam.. I hope I could sell it and buy ZWO.

[Stub Mandrel]

22 hours ago, OJ87 said:

Hi, 

actually I got a lot of troubles running Toupcam too.. 

After a lot of pain I got it work fine in Toupsky , but it makes a lot of problems with PHD 2. It keeps disconnecting from PHD 2. The drivers are there, even after the last PHD 2 version, which supports Toupcam cameras. I tried the development version, it also didn't work. I'm regarding that day, in which I bought this cam.. I hope I could sell it and buy ZWO.

I've got it working OK in Sharpcap.

PHD2 makes it hard to 'fine tune'# et camera, it seems the 'advanced' options will let you set the gain.

[SteveBz]

So has anyone got this device working? It looks like very good value for money. The zwo asi290 which I understand uses the same Sony imx290 chip is hundreds of pounds more expensive, but then it works!

I was thinking of buying it and installing it using the zwo driver, but only if someone has managed to get it going.

I'm on Linux, so it'll probably be even harder.

Regards

Steve.

[iapa]

I recently replaced Touptek mono with an ASI174

the toupteck mono worked well with PHD2 as guide camera in StartTravel 80 piggy backed on 8” SCT.

i did put in a USB3 hub so there was no port sharing

i found if the guide camera was on the ASI1600 USB hub I got timeouts

[SteveBz]

20 hours ago, iapa said:

I recently replaced Touptek mono with an ASI174

the toupteck mono worked well with PHD2 as guide camera in StartTravel 80 piggy backed on 8” SCT.

i did put in a USB3 hub so there was no port sharing

i found if the guide camera was on the ASI1600 USB hub I got timeouts

Hi Iapa,

Thanks for that.  Which one did you have?  There seem to be 2, the 1200 and the 2000, one uses the AR0130 chip with 3.75 um pixels and the imx290 which has 2.9 um pixels.  Were you doing OAG?  Which is really where I want to go.

Regards

Steve.

Edited June 6, 2020 by SteveBz

[iapa]

The ARO130 ( II have both mono and colour btw)

Piggy back guiding, but will be going OAG once Dalèkъ regeneration is complete and the cloning starts from the cast offs.

[SteveBz]

3 hours ago, iapa said:

The ARO130 ( II have both mono and colour btw)

Piggy back guiding, but will be going OAG once Dalèkъ regeneration is complete and the cloning starts from the cast offs.

Well I think the ASI174 will do OAG as far as I can tell.  My QHY5 won't unless I chase each guide star individually.  Cant really do with that.

I was thinking the ToupTek cam with the imx290 chip should do it.  But I'm still investigating.

Steve.