Staff Assigned: Adam Robichaud Guiding Camera and Imaging Camera Won't Connect Same Time (ASCOM)

Discussion in 'Aluma CCD Series' started by Jason Handel, Jan 11, 2020.

  1. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Team,

    Over the holiday break, I was able to get some good imaging time and even completed my first full image with the ALUMA camera since I received the camera in early 2019 (attached for FYI).

    As a reminder I run the ALUMA 8300 with FWG Filterwheel and control through Sequence Generator Pro. I have been guiding through a secondary guide scope and camera controlled through PHD2, but with the improvements to the ASCOM drivers that Adam made I was hoping to move to guiding with the ALUMA integrated camera.

    This break allowed me to test this process. I am able to use PHD2 to connect through ASCOM to the DL Imaging Camera 2 and that connects and controls well. However, I can not connect the guiding camera (DL Imaging Camera 2) at the same time as the main camera (DL Imaging). Whichever one you connect first, the other program can no longer 'see' the ALUMA camera to choose, select and connect.

    I am finally getting close to being able to fully use the functions of the ALUMA camera and self guiding filter wheel and would appreciate the team's help.
     

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  2. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Guys, this has been posted for almost two weeks with no reply. Am I posting in the right area ?
     
  3. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    My colleague @Adam Robichaud will need to get in touch on this if my comments below don't solve your issue.

    Meanwhile, there's a couple of suggestions, since you've had the camera since early 2019.
    There are updates to the Camera Firmware, WiFi firmware (if it is a model with Wifi):
    http://diffractionlimited.com/aluma-fpga-firmware/

    There are also updates to the DL Imaging drivers, which includes the ASCOM functions:
    https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/dl-api-version-1-4-0-0-released.6677/#post-35753

    And MaxIm LT has been updated to 6.21 as well.
     
  4. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Thanks Colin. I updated everything a few weeks ago (except the wifi firmware... since I am not using the wifi function) including the latest DL Imaging drivers. After this latest update, i retested the system with the same result.

    Look forward to hearing from Adam.
     
  5. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Ok, sorry, I will try to get his attention on Monday.
     
  6. Adam Robichaud

    Adam Robichaud Lead Developer Staff Member

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    This is, unfortunately, a limitation of the COM platform and how DLLs are instantiated/used within them. In short, this is not a configuration we support at this time. We're discussing options internally to see how we can make this work.
     
  7. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Well, that is disappointing, and doesn't seem to be consistent with the product claims regarding the Camera and FWG. Please advise after your internal review.
     
  8. Bob Denny

    Bob Denny Cyanogen Customer

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    The ASCOM/COM architecture unfortunately did not envision two independent devices of the same general type (camera in this case) within a single piece of hardware, and then handled by single “in process” (DLL) type driver. The driver is loaded into the host program (MaxIm vs PHD) and once loaded it cannot be loaded into another program (PHD vs MaxIm) at the same time.

    There are a couple of ways to address this, and ASCOM Alpaca does not have this limitation at all. I’m not going to put any pressure in any direction. I just wanted to explain the reason for the current limitation.
     
  9. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Bob... Thanks for your comments and interest. I watched your overview of Alpaca a few weeks ago on AIC.

    As a user, is there anything else I can do, or primary avenue of resolution will need to come from Diffraction Limited ?

    Again, appreciate the help from you and the help so far received from DL.
     
  10. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Any progress after discussing the options ?
     
  11. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Guys, Haven't seen an update here in over a month. Any update ?

    Would your new StarChaser Product work in the configuration I am looking for ?
     
  12. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    We contacted Software Bisque about two weeks ago on this and havent heard back.
    They agreed about 7-8 months ago that were going to do the X2 drivers for all their platforms based on the DLApi that we provided. We even sent them a complete camera package with everything.
    We have some development underway and I've provided a test license of TheSky X 10.5.0 daily build 12503 to our developers to have a look at the ASCOM to see if there is anything we can do as a workaround.

    Last night I worked with another customer using TSX, and a StarChaser SC-2 configured as an ASCOM device, and it is working.
     
  13. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    On the ASCOM side, there's a new initiative called Alpaca, which provides the ability to remote ASCOM drivers onto another machine. It will be released shortly. See https://ascom-standards.org/FAQs/Index.htm

    This is promising as the ASCOM Remote program would act as a hub for all devices, which would facilitate sharing.
     
  14. Jason Handel

    Jason Handel Standard User

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    Thanks Doug and Colin. Is the ASCOM Alpaca then something you would support ?
     
  15. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Alpaca is designed to be compatible with ASCOM, so in theory we shouldn't have to do anything extra. Stay tuned...
     

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