Controller for "Skywatcher" [clone] DC motor focuser?

[Rusted]

Thanks John. I'll give that a try tomorrow.

 

 

[Rusted]

No progress [at all] despite repeated attempts over further, completely wasted hours.

Handed the problem to HitecAstro support.  Life's too short.

Google spelling checker keeps wanting to make HitecAstro into "Catastrophic."

Oh the irony?

[johninderby]

Just a thought do you have the Windows Net Framework installed as it won’t see the Hitec wirhout it.  🤔

Edited July 19, 2019 by johninderby

[Rusted]

41 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Just a thought do you have the Windows Net Framework installed as it won’t see the Hitec wirhout it.  🤔

Thanks. I seem to have .Net Framework up to at least 4.7.

[johninderby]

Hmmmm 🤔

Old thread by someone with a similar problen but with an earlier version of Windows.

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by johninderby

[Rusted]

Thanks John. I found that discussion during my search for a solution.

Let's see what HitecAstro support suggests.
 

 

[Rusted]

Guess what? I cleared everything Hitec focuser related off the PC. For the umpteenth time!
Deleted all the HID references under Device Manager. Restarted.
Checked and all the HIDs had repopulated automatically.

Then I downloaded the ASCOM and Focuser drivers but chose 1.2 instead of 1.3.
Reinstalled and was offered a Restart for the very first time!
Opened Hitec and hit Connect then plugged in the USB cable and it finally Connected! Phew!

I had to whack the settings right up to maximum to see much movement on the motor shaft.
At least I can play now to see what more I can squeeze out of it.
A light grey screen format would be infinitely better than this dull red and black! Night Vision is even worse!

Now it is on to the laptop to try and repeat what I did on the PC.

I'm most grateful for all your efforts in trying to help John. Thank you! 

[johninderby]

 Some installations do fight you every step of the way and seem like they are doing it on purpose. Oh well at least you got there in the end.

Edited July 19, 2019 by johninderby

[Rusted]

Hi John

I can now confirm that both the laptop and PC will Connect and work with driver 1.2 but NOT in 1.3.
I swapped back and forth, uninstalled and restarted both. ONLY 1.2 offers a Restart after installation.
The basic focuser control panel will work on both machines but ASCOM reports a fawlty Hitec on both machines within SharpCap.

[Rusted]

Yet another update: The first ASCOM driver must be chosen from the unlabelled HiTec software list.
Otherwise ASCOM can't recognise the device.

After a few more error notices I found a yellow "Telescope Control" bar right at the bottom of the camera control list on the right in SharpCap.
Opening the menu allows a tiny focuser control panel to open amongst the other tiny, camera control panels.
The 'Skywatcher' DC focus motor speed can then be adjusted and movements applied.

I have attached a considerably enlarged image of the focuser control panel in SharpCap.

[johninderby]

Good news. You seem to be getting things sorted out. 👍🏻

[johninderby]

Hitec is rewriting the current driver to work properly with 64 bit third party imaging apps and should be ready early next week. The problem is that while the current driver works with 32 and 64 bit Win 10 Ascom doesn’t recognise it as being compatible although it actually is. . 

But anyway the Hitec focus works fine with the 32 bit version of Firecapture. Basic focuser control is a little box in the side panel on the screen. Can open more detaled control settings.

Edited July 24, 2019 by johninderby

[Rusted]

Hello John,

Thank you for that good news.

The present HitecAstro software immediately crashed SharpCap on my 64 bit laptop.
It refused to do anything including shutting down. I had to Restart a couple of times.
So I had to set "Focuser" to "Simulated" under "File" & "Setup."
Then I was back to pressing manual buttons on the little box.
It has been far too hot to image so I hadn't updated this thread.

I experimented with a 20T pulley driving the black focus knob but it made the motor labour.
Though this was when the telescope was vertical along with its massive FT3545 focuser.
I had the heavy Lacerta 2" Herschel prism fitted on a 4" extension as my heaviest possible load.
So it's back to the 14T timing pulley for focusing reliability under all conditions.

[szymon]

On 24/07/2019 at 20:17, johninderby said:

Hitec is rewriting the current driver to work properly with 64 bit third party imaging apps and should be ready early next week. The problem is that while the current driver works with 32 and 64 bit Win 10 Ascom doesn’t recognise it as being compatible although it actually is. . 

 

Hi there,

Did you ever get an updated driver from Hitec Astro?  I am trying to use my HitecAstro DC Focus Controller with NINA, and I can only get it working with the 32 bit version -- the 64 bit one tells me that it's only a 32 bit ascom driver.

Thanks,

-simon

[johninderby]

Hi

Sent them an email last week but no answer yet. I’ll try again tomorrow. Maybe it’s proving more of a problem than expected. 🤔

[szymon]

Please keep us up to date -- I'm very keen on getting this working 🙂

 

[Rusted]

8 hours ago, szymon said:

Please keep us up to date -- I'm very keen on getting this working 🙂

 

As am I. The HitechAstro DC Focuser crashes SharpCap so badly I have to restart the laptop to undo the total lock-up, with all that entails.
I'm now setting the hardware to ASCOM simulation. But, of course, that doesn't actually move the focuser.

There is nothing on the support section of HitechAstro's website about the 64 bit catastrophe. Nor mention of any coming updates.
Nor did they bother to make it clear on the support page which of the similarly named softwares is essential not to break anything.
I even sent them a handy page grab with added explanatory text but they were obviously far too busy with the 64 bit driver to respond. 
I'd send it back to the retailer for a refund but for the international postage and all the hassle of finding a real DC focus motor controller.

[szymon]

So, I've been trying to get it working with 64 bit NINA by following this:

https://techtalk.gfi.com/32bit-object-64bit-environment/

but no joy yet.  I really hope that we can get this working 🙂

[szymon]

4 hours ago, Rusted said:

As am I. The HitechAstro DC Focuser crashes SharpCap so badly I have to restart the laptop to undo the total lock-up, with all that entails.
I'm now setting the hardware to ASCOM simulation. But, of course, that doesn't actually move the focuser.

There is nothing on the support section of HitechAstro's website about the 64 bit catastrophe. Nor mention of any coming updates.
Nor did they bother to make it clear on the support page which of the similarly named softwares is essential not to break anything.
I even sent them a handy page grab with added explanatory text but they were obviously far too busy with the 64 bit driver to respond. 
I'd send it back to the retailer for a refund but for the international postage and all the hassle of finding a real DC focus motor controller.

That's interesting.  I can use it with SharpCap no problem, and also with 32 bit NINA.  The ASCOM driver works perfectly for me -- it just doesn't work in a 64bit app.

Perhaps you have the DCFocuser2 rather than the DCFocuser?  There are two drivers and two devices -- the second one only exists so that people can run two at the same time (say they have two scopes), but the hardware is identical apart from the ID's it reports to the OS.  I've heard reports of people having serious issues if they install the wrong driver for the wrong device...

[Rusted]

31 minutes ago, szymon said:

That's interesting.  I can use it with SharpCap no problem, and also with 32 bit NINA.  The ASCOM driver works perfectly for me -- it just doesn't work in a 64bit app.

Perhaps you have the DCFocuser2 rather than the DCFocuser?  There are two drivers and two devices -- the second one only exists so that people can run two at the same time (say they have two scopes), but the hardware is identical apart from the ID's it reports to the OS.  I've heard reports of people having serious issues if they install the wrong driver for the wrong device...

Thanks. There is considerable confusion over model numbers and matching software/drivers.

The DC Focus V2 is NOT the ADDITIONAL FOCUS2 for those who need to run TWO DC FOCUS UNITS simultaneously.

I can only find images of the original, black cased FOCUS2. No red cased V2 Focus2's appear to exist online.

The V2 is the later casing of the original unit with a "proper" power cable instead of a cigarette lighter. 

[szymon]

1 minute ago, Rusted said:

Thanks. There is considerable confusion over model numbers and matching software/drivers.

The DC Focus V2 is NOT the ADDITIONAL FOCUS2 for those who need to run TWO DC FOCUS UNITS simultaneously.

I can only find images of the original, black cased FOCUS2. No red cased V2 Focus2's appear to exist online.

The V2 is the later casing of the original unit with a "proper" power cable instead of a cigarette lighter. 

Oh!  I didn't realise that there was actually a v2.  Mine has a cigarette lighter (well, had, I own a soldering iron).

Nontheless the point remains -- the focus controller works very well for me both with SharpCap and with NINA in 32 bit mode (x86 as opposed to x64).  My only problem is with the x64 version -- I need an updated driver from Hitec.  Your problems sound more serious, possibly hardware related?

[johninderby]

FLO has stock of the new V2 and use the proper image of it. Apparently a lot of other dealers are still trying to shift old stock so hence are using the old photo.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/hitecastro-dc-focus-controller.html

BTW have just sent them an email so hopefully will get a reply and update.

Edited August 30, 2019 by johninderby

[szymon]

I bought the old v1 from Ian King -- but I paid half of the price of the v2 🙂

[Rusted]

Thank you, all.

I have been using the tiny buttons on the red case to focus. It's all very HiTec around here.

I have the latest SharpCap 3.2.6086. No mention of 64 bit unless deliberately chosen and downloaded.

[szymon]

Just to say that I now have a workaround for using the HiteActro DC Focus with 64bit NINA, using these instructions:

https://techtalk.gfi.com/32bit-object-64bit-environment/

This basically allows the 64bit process to use the 32 bit ascom driver.