Is AA6 demo blocked from using any cameras ?

[Forum_2017]

Firstly thank you for letting me join the group.

I decided to try AA6 on recommendations posted on SGL and other forums especially as Olly from France uses it. I also wanted to use Sequence Generator Pro as the front end and use AA6 for guiding, capture and preprocessing. SGPro sees my Atik one6 imaging camera and I can enter AA6 or PHD2 (which connects and runs) as the guide scope. I tried this as I cannot get AA6 to see any Ascom cameras.

I have of course downloaded the plugin (piccdgui.dll)and extracted it to the AA6 directory.

When I first tried to open the CCD camera I get an error saying CCD plug in not installed.

When I tried to extract the plugin the first time directly into the AA6 directory I got a message about being unable to carry out command but when I used explorer the file was there. The error said " Cannot open output file C:\program files (x86)\Astroart6Demo\piccdgui.dll"

I deleted it, extracted to another directory and then copied and pasted it into the AA6 folder. Now when I try to open the CCD Camera it does but in the dropdown for the camera chooser all I see is simulator. I have even copied the Atik dll into the directory as a final attempt but to no avail.

Has anyone else had any similar problem as I am pulling my hair out and I really want to get this to work for remote operation.

Regards

Steve.

[Forum_2017]

Welcome Steve,
You need to install the ASCOM generic driver also! Once you do that you will see ASCOM listed in the dropdown along with simulator. Select ASCOM and the chooser will open.

Iver

[Forum_2017]

Hi Iver

Thanks for the quick reply. I have now installed the Ascom generic drivers (pity there is no where in the instructions where it says you have to install these as well, I thought these would be in the camera interface and not where they are, below the V4 and V5 versions) and now have Ascom showing in the chooser. This only appeared after an uninstall and reinstall of AA6 as first time round, having just pasted the ascom files into the AA6 directory, it just kept saying no CCd plug in installed.

I assume I now must connect my cameras before I can make a model specific choice as there are no cameras listed which I get in any other ascom program chooser drop down.

OK once I connected an old USB powered ascom camera I then get another ascom chooser where all my cameras are in the list.

Once again thanks for the steer in the right direction.

regards

Steve

[Forum_2017]

Hi Steve, just a couple of thoughts. First, I connect to all my gear at start up by running a script, so I forgot that there is an ASCOM window that pops up where you will get to the chooser! Second, I've never experienced the issue where you had to reinstall the program for the plugins to show. Possibly AA was running while you installed the plugins or you didn't unzip them? Possibly the issue is that the developer is in the middle of a user interface change. After the next service pack the Camera interface will be part of the program and not a plugin. Anyway glad you got it going, I think it's a great app. and Fabio the developer is very responsive!