Lodestar Problems

[Forum_2015]

Hi,

My Lodestar works with the SX software but not in AA5. I have the driver loaded! in AA5.
I am plugging the Lodestar directly into my PC and is still does not work with AA5???

Windows8
Any ideas?

John

[Forum_2015]

Hi John,

Are you using the Lodestar standalone or as an autoguider?

Bill

[Forum_2015]

Hi Bill,

My config is:
Main camera: - SXVR-H18 monochrome
Guide Camera: Lodestar
Filter wheel: SX
PC Windows8

I have set H18 as main camera. PID 0128
Lodestar PID 0507.

When I connect using SX on the same laptop (coreI5) it works. So it is just AA5. I checked it was the Lodestar connecting using SX software by light dark test.
it connects fine when plugged in. It comes up as Starlight Xpress CCD under Universal Serial and description. Bus Device. (same as the SXVR-H18) but each has different PID and description.

It was sort of working but I am not sure what happened. I tried loading the latest drivers etc.

????
John

[Forum_2015]

John,
That's the first step.
Then the Lodestar driver FOR AA5 needs to be in place...
Do you have this DLL in the AA5 folder.
If so then the CCD driver dropdown should show the Lodestar as an available camera.

[Forum_2015]

Yes that is in the Astroart5 folder and there is indeed Lodestar in the two pull downs.
I have tried to get Lodestar to run with all the same settings I have used in the past.
I have also gone back to basics and tried Lodestar stand alone. Just a Lodestar. No joy.

John

[Forum_2015]

Well it has just decided to start working.... Must be the three reboots since I reloaded the drivers?
It was working for years on the old XP machine.
Strange.

Thanks for all the support though.

All the best,

John

[Forum_2015]

Hi John,

Just a thought if this happens again...
Try plugging in the Lodestar to the laptop after a reboot and after connecting the H18 in AA and see what happens.
I have intermittent issues where either my H9 or M7C (both USB2) are not found in AA but are seen in device manager. I need to unplug/plug the camera for them to be recognized. This is an older XP laptop. You may also want to check the settings for camera control under 'Options 2' in the CCD camera control panel and tweak some of these options and see if this helps.

Bill

[Forum_2015]

No it is not working....
Because when I connected the H18 it will not work!!

It seems there is a conflict between the two SX cameras. Well they did work together on XP. But not on the new Win8.1 setup.
This must be an astroart5.0 problem or maybe the astroart drivers for the two cameras?

What is the SXVIO? seems that H18 has it but not the Lodestar?

Any suggestions.

I have gone through the setup 2 or 3 times. and both cameras work on their own?

John

[Forum_2015]

Another thing... When the SXVR-H18 is connected and the Scope is connected if I try to connect the Lodestar it fails and even before it tries to connect it disconnects the scope!!!

I have seen that before though.
John

[Forum_2015]

Hello, the safer way to connect to a SXV-H and a Lodestar is to set the option "Check vid/pid" for both of them, and NOT setting the option "primary device" which forces the connection to the first camera phisically attached to the PC.
In any case, the telescope must be "setup" after both cameras have been "setup".
Fabio.

[Forum_2015]

Actually it was not working...
Does anyone have the definitive reinstall process for a two camera system H18 and Lodestar (guider).
I have all the zipped drivers and software.

I still cannot find a way to get the lodestar and H18 both working together on Win8.1.
I really don't want to have to buy a new guide camera.

From the information on the Starlight Xpress forum it seems that this is a Win8.1 and Astroart5 problem that is known.... Not by me!!

I think this is an issue for "Super Fabio".

Regards,
John

[Forum_2015]

John,

I was successful in getting my SXVF-H9 and Lodestar working together in Windows 8.1 64 bit.
At first I installed the Signed 32 & 64 bit Win 7 & 8 camera drivers.
Updated Astroart to SP4 and Camera Interface to 5.41
SXV/SXV CCD control is version 2.80 as 2.90 added Trius support which I don't require.
Lodestar Control version 1.00

After a clean reboot both devices were present on the usb device list. I used USBDeview to verify this.
At first I had trouble with Astroart not recognizing the connected cameras until I tweaked the parameters for each until both were recognized and was able to take exposures with both cameras without a problem.
Here are my settings:

I rebooted the laptop 3 times and after each restart I went into AA and made sure both camera were present and was able to take exposures.
The laptop used is a HP Envy6 64bit 8GB ram i5 processor with Intel 7 series/C216 chipset. No additional USB devices were present on the buss (Mouse, Memory, etc...)
I hope this information helps.

-Bill