Support for The SkyX Camera Add On

[chrisjbaileyuk]

Guys

Now that CCDSoft is being relegated to the history books  , are there any plans to develop X2 drivers for The SkyX to work with the revamped Camera Add On? The Ascom driver works OK' ish but is very slow to respond to changes and it would be nice not to have to rely on Ascom.

Chris

[Chris]

Hi Chris,

In what way is the ASCOM driver slow to respond to changes?  I'm not sure what you mean.

Which version of the ASCOM driver are you using? An update escaped last week.

Chris

[chrisjbaileyuk]

Hi Chris

I am using the lastest Ascom driver issued last week and it is a vast improvement (I can now take Bias frames  ) - thanks!

The delays come when clicking on settings in Ascom and then when clicking on OK. Ascom/TheSky takes about 20-30 seconds to sort things out. Admittedly you dont have to go through it that often but it is annoying when you do. It would also be nice to have acccess to the fast preview download mode available in Artemis Capture for focussing, sub-framing helps but it is still a little slow.

It would be nicer to have access to the Atik settings direct from SkyX rather than invoking Ascom at all, once less link to play up on occasion.

Chris

[Chris]

20 to 30 Seconds!  No wonder you want it faster!

I'm not sure why it's so slow, choosing and connecting to a camera normally only takes a few seconds.
It might be worth downloading a copy of Nebulosity and trying it in that, I'd expect it to be much faster. If so then the problem is elsewhere and eliminating the ASCOM driver may not help.

Preview mode is available in the driver but will need implementing by TheSky/X2.  Or there's a setup dialog that's available when connected to a camera that will control it but again this needs to be made available from TheSky.

I can't try any of this because I don't have the camera add on for TheSky.

Chris

[chrisjbaileyuk]

Chris

Yes its a couple of seconds in Nebulosity, and I have used that for focussing as a result, which suggests its TheSky Ascom driver that is the culprit. Only problem with using Neb for focussing is that it does not always release the Ascom driver cleanly leading to an exception when I then try and connect to it via the sky for imaging requiring a reboot and restart of The Sky and re-homing and target re-aquisition.

Would be nice to have it all under one roof so to speak and access the Atik cameras features via X2.

Chris

[Chris]

I meant to use the ASCOM driver with Nebulosity.

[chrisjbaileyuk]

Not too sure I have tried Neb/Ascom/Atik or for that matter Maxim/Ascom/Atik. Will try all three and report back.

[afm038]

I also second the request for X2 drivers for The SkyX Camera Add On.

ATB,
Andy

[frank]

Me, too.

Kind regards,
Frank

[Chris]

Use the ASCOM driver with the X2 to ASCOM facade, why develop yet another driver?

[billpellerin]

I have an ATIK 320E and I just tried it with the camera add-on in TheSkyX using the ASCOM driver (without the X2 shim). It works very well and allows for subframe images. The configuration that required the X2 shim did not support subframes.
TheSky doesn't seem to want to control the temperature of the camera... I get an error message in that function. (Why it defaults to 100 degrees C as a temperature setpoint is a mystery.)
Better.... much better.
Clear skies... Bill

[chrisjbaileyuk]

I have an ATIK 320E and I just tried it with the camera add-on in TheSkyX using the ASCOM driver (without the X2 shim). It works very well and allows for subframe images. The configuration that required the X2 shim did not support subframes.
TheSky doesn't seem to want to control the temperature of the camera... I get an error message in that function. (Why it defaults to 100 degrees C as a temperature setpoint is a mystery.)
Better.... much better.
Clear skies... Bill

Bill

I got the 100C default as well! You can amend it in Ascom Profile Explorer.

Chris