Bresser HP and SharpCap woes

[WatcherF]

Hi All,

I've just started looking at imaging and have bought a Bresser HD Deep Sky Camera.  Looking around, many people advise using SharpCap rather than the included Toupsky software.  Unfortunately, sharpCap can't see the camera.  Things I've done so far after looking through various forums:

• Checked I have the latest camera drivers - check
• Checked I have the latest toupsky software - check (camera appears to be working in toupsky)
• Checked the camera is there in device manager - check
• Copied what I think are the driver files into the SharpCap folder (toupcam.sys, .cat, .dll & .inf) - check

does anyone have any other ideas?  Operating system is Windows 11

Cheers

Watcher

[Tomatobro]

A couple of questions. which version of Sharpcap have you installed?

Edited May 28, 2022 by Tomatobro
edit

[WatcherF]

HI tomatobro, it's v4.0.8973 64bit

[Tomatobro]

I dont have the camera you have but do have some others that run on the older version (3.2 I think) which when I last looked was still downloadable.

Otherwise try the 32 bit 4.0 version.

[newbie alert]

Ascom platform?

Have you tried Nina or APT? Far superior to sharpcap in my opinion

Edited May 28, 2022 by newbie alert
Added info

[WatcherF]

Nope, not really tried anything yet coz couldn't get the camera going with sharpcap 😀

Was looking at sharpcak as seen others say it was easier to use than toupskay and, as I'm just starting out, easy is good.

I'll take a look. Thanks.

[WatcherF]

Tomatobro, will have a look at that too. Cheers

[WatcherF]

Hi Everyone,

I got my Bresser HD Deep Sky Camera working with SharpCap after some jiggery pokery.  In the end (if I'd been able to find the right details and order of things) it's fairly easy.  The steps I followed are here:

1. Make sure the camera is visible in Windows Device Manager - it was for me on Windows 11 just by plugging it in
2. Install ASCOM Platform latest version - I used version 6.6 from ASCOM Platform (free) download Windows version (freedownloadmanager.org)
3. Install ToupTekToupSkySetup from Toupsky(Windows)/Dshow/ASCOM Driver for Astronomy Camera (touptek.com)
   • NOTE: This does not install the ASCOM Driver for ToupCam style cameras (Bresser HD Camera is one of these)
4. Install ASCOMToupTekSetup Driver for Touptek Camera from the same place
   • This is the bit that actually makes SharpCap recognise the Camera 
5. Restart your PC (VERY IMPORTANT)
6. Install SharpCap from Downloads – SharpCap – Lunar, Planetary, Solar and Deep Sky Imaging. EAA and Live Stacking.
7. Launch SharpCap
8. Select 'ASCOM ToupTek Camera Driver' from the 'Cameras' menu

I found that if I installed SharpCap before the ASCOM driver it simply wouldn't find the camera, however, if I then uninstalled SharpCap and re-installed it, it worked fine.  I didn't need to copy files around after the install - as long as you reboot after step 4 the camera appears as 'ASCOM ToupTek Camera Driver' in Sharpcam.

Hopefully that's useful for anyone having the same issue that I had.

Now - on to actually doing some imaging😀