Cartes du Ciel - Celestron - Vista ?

[BlueAstra]

I have a new laptop with Vista home premium. I loaded Cartes du Ciel v3, ASCOM platform 5a and ASCOM Celestron driver 5.0.14. Cartes runs normally, but when I select 'Telescope/Control Panel/Select' I get a box with:

-Run Time error - 2147220416 (80040440), Failed to open root registry key (5).

Clicking OK gives another box with:

- Check ASCOM driver installed properly.

I think the ASCOM stuff loaded normally. I can used EQMOD to control my EQ6 mount with the same hardware. I've tried reloading s/w but get the same errors. Any ideas?

[Sam]

Have you tried setting Cdc to run under Windows XP under the compatibility tab in properties of the exe file for cdc? Just a thought, that seemed to solve most of the vista problems I was having with the same app.

Sam

[BlueAstra]

I tried setting the properties to 'xp compatibility' and it now runs without the error, and I can select the Celestron scope. I also selected 'run as administrator'. Not had a chance to try and connect to the scope to check control. Thanks for the tip!

[Sam]

No worries, glad it worked!

[BlueAstra]

Spoke too soon. Although CdC now doesn't give the runtime error, when trying to connect to the scope it displays a message 'There doesn't appear to be a Celestron scope connected to the COM port'. I immediately pulled out my old xp laptop and plugged the USB/serial adapter in and CdC connected and controlled the scope! I found another Vista laptop (from work) and again got the 'no scope on COM port' message.

Stellarium/scope also will not connect to the scope. I would welcome any other suggestions.

[BlueAstra]

Ok, managed it in the end. Went to Yahoo group-ASCOM talk and managed to message the ASCOM Celestron driver writer Chris Rowland. He pointed me at a program on that site called HelperNet that repaired my registry (apparent damaged during loading some element of ASCOM/CdC). My problem I think was related to the dll called to access the serial emulator of mu usb/serial adapter.

[BlueAstra]

I may have been premature in assuming success. I ran the HelpNet program and then CdC froze when I selected the celestron driver in the telescope option. I had to close CdC with task manager. I Re-run CdC and I successful connected to the scope, and could control it. I restarted the computer and again CdC stated it did not think a celestron scope was connected, and froze on the select scope option.

I used the same hardware (but no usb serial dongle) on a different Vista (Utimate)laptop with a built in serial port. This worked with no problems. The hardware (with usb/serial dongle) also works with a different XP laptop.

I think the problem with this Vista laptop may be in the communications between the Celestron driver and the USB/serial dongle serial emulator, but I'm not sure what to do to correct it.

[Parallax]

Just a thought: others have found that some 'cheap' USB to serial adaptors don't always work as expected. I read somewhere on this forum that those adaptors with the Prolific chip are OK.

Steve

[BlueAstra]

It is a cheap adapter, but its also a Prolific one. I've also read that the Keyspan adapters are quite good.