Starlight Express Trius won't run on my Win 7 64 bit laptop

[gregbradley]

I tried to install the software to use my Trius 694 on my Wins 7 64 bit laptop and it has failed. I tried again today after downloading the latest signed drivers, ununstalled the original files etc and no go. I have the latest CCDsoft plugin and that is copied and installed in SB/CCDsoft?camera plug ins.

Basically it does not recognise the device so I can get a green ticked your driver is installed correctly but when I go into device manager echo2 (what SX calls this device) it says no driver installed. I install it and it comes up the same each time.

Any suggestions?

Greg.

[Star Hunter]

Simply contact Terry Platt of SX in the UK. I'm sure he'll sort it out for you.

[PRejto]

Hi Greg,

I had the same issue on my Win7 64 bit computer, but I eventually solved it. Firstly, be sure to read the help file on the CD that came with the camera. There are very specific instructions on how to uninstall the driver. It isn't quite enough to uninstall the driver from the device manager! Without looking it up I won't get it quite right but you need to run the command function and then paste in some specific instruction, then scroll down the list until you find the driver, the run a command to uninstall it. I think if you do this, then reinstall the driver, you will be home free. You need to get to the stage where when you plug in the camera the computer gives up and won't automatically install the driver. Then you can reinstall and should have success. Also, just be positive you don't have a bum cable. I did and I wasted hours!!!

Mine is running great in CCDSoft using ASCOM. Is there a better way to run it in CCDSoft? It also seems to run fine with the X2 driver in TSX.
Peter

[gregbradley]

Thanks Peter.

I deleted all the old drivers (BlockIXO) and reinstalled. Same thing. No device recognised and the Echo 2 item in device manager says no driver loaded. I load the driver, it says its successful yet when I plug in the camera it does not load and says no driver.

X2 driver in TSX is that the SB one or one off SX site?

In the TSX on XP computer if I try to connect to the camera which works fine in CCDsoft it freezes and I have to shut down the program.

Greg

Greg.

[PRejto]

Hi Greg,

Just to be sure, are these the instructions you followed?

Manual Uninstall
=================================== ===================================
Plug your camera in, open device manager and right click on the entry for your camera then select uninstall. If there's a check box to delete driver files, tick it then click ok.
Look in
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\UMDF (for 64bit)
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\drivers\UMDF (for 32bit)
for a file called SXCCD.dll and delete it if it still remains.
Unplug your camera.
Open a cmd prompt (type cmd into the start "search for programs and files", right click on the cmd.exe and run as administrator ) and run
pnputil.exe -e | more
browse the list it returns for one that says
"Driver package provider : Starlight Xpress Ltd"
"Class : Universal Serial Bus devices"
note the published name, such as oem12.inf (actual number will vary)
Now type,
pnputil -f -d oem12.inf
(Be sure to use the correct oem number, 12 is just an example)
Repeat the above until you find no more entries.
Reboot.

There is also this statement on the SX website:

If you are using the supplied SX software, you will need to assign 'Administrator' rights to it, or disable 'UAC' in the Windows security settings. Otherwise it cannot write a temporary file to drive C and you will get the message 'Unable to create bitmap file' or similar, when running it.

Not sure if you ever get the opportunity to "install the software as administrator" but that might make some difference. I know I could not install Focus Max without doing that. Also, did you reboot before reinstallation? Perhaps one other thing you could try is to roll your Win7 machine back in time before you ever tried to load the SX drivers. That might insure a clean installation.

It is so frustrating when something that ought to be simple turns into a nightmare!!!! Best of luck.

Peter

PS It's odd that the X2 driver doesn't like TSX in WinXP. Thanks for pointing out the CCDSoft driver on the SX website. I'd missed it somehow. So far, though, I've had no issues running it through ASCOM with CCDSoft. Pity also that CCDSoft cannot deal with 7 filters (or at least I don't know how to do that!).

I tried using my camera last night for the first time on NGC1365. I managed a single 3 minute exposure at .5 arc-sec (barlow + TEC140). It showed great promise and then the clouds rolled in as I was trying to go for 5 min. Yikes.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the detailed response Peter. Yes that was the procedure I followed. Although the file being deleted is blockxo or similar spelling. SXCCD.dll is the current driver.

I did reboot at one point as that was mentioned. I got an email from Terry on something to try. I will give that a go.

Install as administrator is not an option that comes up when I install so I don't how to do that. This is Windows 7 64 bit. I know you right clicked to get a sub menu in Vista to do that. I am not sure if its needed or even an option in Wins 7.

Same with UAC. I will look at that as I suppose that is in control panel somewhere.

It does appear the problem is something is blocking the Echo 2 device having its driver written to it or activated. I can write the driver to it but then when I plug in the camera Echo 2 says it has no driver when it just said it did when I installed the driver to it.

On another point did you find you got bloated bright stars with the SX694 with your TEC140? I am with my TEC180 and also to a lesser degree on my CDK17.

Greg.

[PRejto]

Hi Greg,

Really sorry this is still a problem for you. Hopefully Terry will help you.

At this point I cannot answer your question about bloated stars. I just have not used the camera enough. In fact, hardly at all. Hopefully soon though. I will be shooting through a Hutech IDAS LP filter and that might make some difference. I assume you are using a UV/IR cut with the TEC180???

[gregbradley]

Hi Peter,

Yes I am using the same filters as usual which have no issue on my FLI cameras. Astrodon e series Gen 11.

I plan to try to remove the flattener from the imaging train tonight and see what that does. I might have another go at getting the SX to work on my laptop (I am using 2 computers instead of one as a work around at the moment).

Greg.

[PRejto]

Greg,

What is the definition of a bloated star? Yes, I know it looks bloated! But, is there a way to measure bloat? Is it reflected in FWHM? Or, is it just subjective? Also, is bloat just well overflow? or, is it caused by over sampling? You and I both would seem to be pushing it to the max. I would be a .55 arc-sec using the barlow. I managed OK at .63 using the same setup with my G2-8300 so it will be an interesting experiment! Maybe the "bloat" is seen more because of the camera sensitivity. Perhaps more of the image dancing around due to seeing is captured by the Sony chip and not so much by a slower Kodak??

Peter

[gregbradley]

The SX Trius 694 is .74 arc seconds/pixel on the TEC180 which is about perfect sampling.

I get a fuzz halo around bright stars. It requires a lot of processing to correct it. I don't get this at all with my Proline 16803 with 95,000 well depth. The QE difference is there around 25% more QE but only from 60 to 77% in green and higher in Ha and O111. The effect is less with my CDK and usually only a few bright stars. I tried it last night (between being battered by winds which my TEC180 does not like!) and without the field flattener I see - on minimal testing - the same effect.

I have seen a similar effect from my ML8300 on a couple of bright stars in a galaxy image I did last year. That I put down to small well depth as well.

What baffles me is I don't see this effect on Mike Sidonios images. His stars look great despite being a fast telescope and 12 inches of aperture so if anything I would have expected it to be worse.

I wonder if SX changed something more than just add argon to the CCD chamber and usb ports on the Trius?

I think its a lack of anti reflection coatings on the CCD chamber window.

I'll take it up with Terry Platt. The camera is good apart from that.

Greg.

[PRejto]

Greg, now that is interesting. I don't know if you saw my earlier thread posted between Xmas and New Years where I was getting a very odd relection using my barlow. It only appeared when the filter wheel was in place but I've not figured out what was causing it...only that it finally went away when Terry suggested that I put black matt paper over all the extension tube threads. Something was/is causing a massive refection back to those threads. Just why it only showed up with the FW in place doesn't quite make sense. But, maybe that is the cause of your issues as well. Please let me know what Terry tells you. I fear I will be plagued with the same issue you are seeing.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=115904

Peter

PS I'd appreciate your opinion as to the quality of the flat in the last post of my thread. I still see a little central brightening. OK??

[gregbradley]

That looks like straight vignetting to me. What size filters are you using? Mike reported the inch and a quarter filters were causing some vignetting but the 36mm ones he got do not vignette.

I also find using a microfibre lens cleaning cloth very handy. I wipe the camera CCD window several times with it (the small dust particles are hard to see). You have a couple of hard dust donuts there I would physically wipe clean rather than rely on flats to remove them. One is also quite close to the target object.

I don't see any star bloat in your image. How long are those exposures of NGC1365?

I should check the adapters but probably not a source of issue for me. I use the same setup with my FLI Proline with no problem so its related to the camera not the setup.


Greg.

[PRejto]

Thanks for the opinion Greg. The filters are 1.25" Baaders (7 of them so I think I will try to live with this size for a while!). I will try the micro fibre cloth trick too. So far I've only used compressed air.

Now, re the reflection I used the exact spacing and tubes with my G2-8300 without any reflection, bt that camera has an inbuilt wheel. So something in the setup is causing a massive reflection but only with the barlow. I speculated that it might be the filter carousel itself as it is quite shiny surrounding the filter and is visible to the barlow. But maybe it has something to do with the CCD window.

The shot of NGC1365 was only 5 min, but binned 2x2. It was done before I had attempted any cleaning. I had taken the darn system apart so many times chasing the reflection it was hopeless to keep clean.

Peter

[strongmanmike]

I also have a huge long 4 element 3" coma corrector in front of everything too :shrug:



Be interested to hear what Terry says but I don't think it is the camera as such Greg, it could be your specific scope-filters combo though :question: but also simply big bright stars combined with a small field so the halos look larger :shrug:..not sure

Mike

[gregbradley]

You might be right Mike. Astrodon filters are the mirror type.
I have some astronomics. They are an earlier version but I should try them and see if they make a difference. I also have some Baaders as well I could try.

Greg.