CCD Commader Help Needed

[ribuck]

Hi all,

Does anyone know if there is anyway to get ccd commander to record your focuser position after it's focused with stepper based focusers.

All i'm thinking is that instead of focusing in a certian filter, then slewing to light box to do flats then slew back and image target then repeating for each of the different filter,it might be nice to get ccd commander to just record the focuser position so that i can do the flats later on and know exactly what focus postion was set for each filter to create matching flats.

If this isn't possible, does anyone know of any vb scripts which would do that that i could call from ccd commader or even if someone knew the ascom code that is used to read the focuser then i could do my own vb script.

Rich.

[daz]

CCDC doesn't record the focuser position Rich.

You certainly could do in VB - have a look at How ASCOM Works

You could also do in Perl if you know that....

[ribuck]

Hi Daz,

I tried looking at the web site lastnight before i got your post, but i dont think it's vb, i've got a feeling that it's .Net based.

I've donloaded vb.net so i'll give a try in that and see how i get on.

If anyone has any examples, it would be greatly appreciated.

Rich.

[blinky]

Also, remember that the temperature will affect focus slightly so recording it might not be repeatable enough.

[ribuck]

Hi Blinky,

i'm not that bothered about the flats being super perfect as long as they are fairly close.

I just want to avoid slewing to a target focusing then slewing back to the light box then back to the target for each filter especially if it includes a meridian flip.

i just want to record the focus for each filter then do scripted flats at the end of the session or the next day.

Rich.

[daz]

There are (were) VB samples on there Rich...

[ribuck]

Hi Daz,

Maybe i was doing something wrong but the code syntax on the web site seemed to be .Net based. Reading the page it seemed to suggest that Ascom moved away from the old (VB6 / VbScript) in release 5.5 and changed to .Net

I downloaded the free vb.net express edition so i'll give it whir tonight and see what i can come up with, but if anyone has any examples for the focuser api i would be very grateful for any help.

Rich.

[daz]

Ah OK, I hadn't picked up on that....

I assume it still works OK with VBScript..... might be worth checking into as well