Raspberry Pi, TheSkyX and Two SBIG Cameras

Discussion in 'CCDOPS and SBIG Universal Driver (Retired)' started by Steve McKinney, Apr 13, 2020.

  1. Steve McKinney

    Steve McKinney Standard User

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    Hi all,

    I’m able to use both my ST-8300M and ST-i one at a time with the SkyX on my Raspberry Pi but I can’t get them both to connect at the same time. When I try to connect the second camera I get the following error: “SBIG Error: Driver not closed. Error = 30021.”

    I remember I had to do a bit of a dance when trying to connect both to my MacBook Pro (e.g. plug the USB cables into the computer one at a time, etc, I don’t remember what worked now) but none of the sort of thing seems to work.

    Anyone have any luck with this?

    Regards,

    Steve
     
    Steve McKinney, Apr 13, 2020
    #1
  2. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    We don't support this; out of curiosity, what versions of everything are you running?

    You might try asking on the Software Bisque website as well.
    There may be an issue with the driver trying to talk to two different vintages of SBIG hardware, or that it is being used for different devices and different names; or Bisque never tried this combo.
     
    Colin Haig, Apr 13, 2020
    #2
  3. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    To clarify what Colin said, we cannot provide technical support for TheSkyX software as it is not our product. Our driver does support running multiple cameras on one computer.
     
    Doug, Apr 13, 2020
    #3
  4. Steve McKinney

    Steve McKinney Standard User

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    I'm not asking you to support issues with the SkyX. I'm trying to figure out what appears to be an integration issue between theSkyX and my SBIG cameras. Your drivers are obviously part of the story here and I'm trying to figure out the root cause of this problem. The error I'm getting is an SBIG driver error. What does error "30021 driver not closed" indicate?

    And who knows. Maybe you've seen this problem before and you could help whether it's a problem with the Sky or with SBIG drivers.

    I've also asked for help on theSkyX forums, by the way.
     
    Steve McKinney, Apr 14, 2020
    #4
  5. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    and
    Yes, our drivers are part of the story, but we're not experts on the TSX software. We wish we could help.
    The 5-dgit error code is a TSX error code; we have no way of knowing what it means.

    It would be great if you could give us a bit more context - eg what versions of everything you were running.
    Plus what steps to reproduce the problem, that sort of thing.
    Have you tried getting a single camera to run on it's own?
     
    Colin Haig, Apr 14, 2020
    #5
  6. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    One other thought for you - are both cameras showing up as Linux device under /dev /usb and so on?
     
    Colin Haig, Apr 14, 2020
    #6
  7. Steve McKinney

    Steve McKinney Standard User

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    My understanding from the SkyX forums is that the 3XXXX five digit codes are SBIG codes not TheSkyX codes (a common one on TheSkyX forums is "30008 - receive timeout error"). As I posted in my original post, the error message box says "SBIG Error: Driver not closed. Error = 30021." My guess is that this is likely the same as SBIG driver error code 21 "Driver not closed".

    I did state in my original post that "I’m able to use both my ST-8300M and ST-i one at a time with the SkyX on my Raspberry Pi but I can’t get them both to connect at the same time." They both work fine if only one camera is connected.

    I'm using version 10.5.0 (build 12304) of the SkyX for Raspberry Pi, which is the latest, as far as I can tell and I installed the drivers from post #9 in this thread. The operating system on the Raspberry Pi 4 is Raspbian Buster.

    1. Power on Raspberry Pi.
    2. Plug in ST-i USB cable.
    3. Plug in ST-8300M USB cable.
    4. Start the SkyX. In the Imaging System Setup Camera Setup Settings for each camera "USB" is the selected interface for both cameras. Note that there are specific USB1/2/3/4 choices but it's not clear to me to what these enumerations refer.
    5. Connect the ST-i in the SkyX camera add on. It works fine. Can capture images.
    6. Connect the ST-8300M. SBIG Error: Driver not closed. Error = 30021. Doesn't indicated connected in the SkyX. Cannot capture images.

    Same behaviour if ST-8300M is connected in step 5 and the ST-i in step 6.
    Same behaviour if the ST-i is the only camera plugged into USB and the SkyX is started and ST-i is connected in the SkyX. Then connect ST-8300M USB cable and connect in the SkyX. Same connecting the ST-8300M first only then connecting the ST-i.

    I checked for the cameras in /dev but I don't see a /dev/usb directory but nonetheless the cameras work (one at a time).

    Steve
     
    Steve McKinney, Apr 16, 2020
    #7
  8. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    With both cameras plugged in, what does lsusb show you?
    I'm starting to suspect that you need to tell TSX specifically which camera is on which USB.
    In other words, I think what's happening is TSX opens the first USB camera it is seeing (maybe the ST-8300M); and then when it goes to open the guider, it is actually trying to open the first camera again because it doesn't know the name of the usb device e.g. usb2 or whatever is attached. So it fails to open because the first camera is already open.
    What happens if you tell TSX to use USB1 and USB2 respectively?
     
    Colin Haig, Apr 16, 2020
    #8

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