Allowing Maxim to control all scope

[p1taylor]

Hi All,
I would like to get Maxim to control my Meade RCX 400 10", to guide it has a Celestron 700mm X 60mm and SX Lodestar
at present guiding thou PHD and autoguider port ST4 on scope, main imaging camera is SX H9C, all this is run on
2 computers all cameras and scope use USB,one computer runes Meade Autosuite for GOTO and PHD for guiding,
the other runs Maxim 5.12 to image, what I want to do is run it all on one computer which has 3 USB ports,

this is what I have,
Meade rcx 10",
celestron 700mm X 60mm set up on scope,
sx h9c imaging camera,
lodestar guide camera,
I download thees ASCOM drivers,
platform 5 and 5.5,
meade lx 200 gps and r 5.0.0,
POTH 5.0.5,
But what do I do with all this to make it work all together , I have set maxim as suggested in
stargazers lounge guide to guiding with maxim.

peter

[DavidTrap]

Peter,

Break it into chunks and get each bit sorted before you try doing it all together.

Assuming you can image with Maxim, the next thing to try is guiding with Maxim. It's really not that different from PHD - you take an image, select a star, it calibrates on that star and then starts guiding.

Once you've got that sorted, setup your telescope under the "observatory" button. You'll need to have ASCOM installed - sorry, can't talk you through this as it sort of just happened when I did it.

Then, once the telescope is setup, try slewing the scope with Maxim, and then plate-solving and aligning your mount to the solved images.

I might be making this sound easy, but it just clicked for me a month or two ago and I was very impressed with all of the capabilities of Maxim.

DT

[Tandum]

Peter,
I have a hub on my mount and run the guide camera, mount, robo focus and filter wheel through that back to one usb on the PC. I always run the imaging camera through it's own USB back to the PC. I do have a problem sometimes when the USB filter wheel turns the guide camera drops out. This is because there is not enough go juice (volts) at the hub on the mount and I will have to power it with a seperate power supply to solve the issue. I currently have all imaging/guiding functions controlled by maxim but use TheSky to control the mount.

[DavidTrap]

Isn't the point of ASCOM that multiple programs can talk to the mount at once through a common pathway?

DT

[TheDecepticon]

Howdy. I use one computer to do all my stuff. :)
I use a USB Repeater cable to a powered 7 port hub(not a Belkin unit).
From that I run my focusUSB, GPUSB, DSI I guide cam, QHY9 and filter wheel, scope and a game pad to control the scope with EQMOD. I then use MAxIm to do my main imaging and pointing, plate solving and alignment refinement through pinpoint. I was guiding with MaxIm however, I had some sort of glitch where it just started to guide like a woolly goat, and PHD has not let me down since.:shrug:
You need to do the updates to ASCOM 5.5b, I think it is and then as the others have suggested, get it all happening bit by bit, during daylight hours. When you have all your drivers loaded and talking to one another properly, (you should not need POTH) then do some dry runs on moonlit nights to test and refine your guiding and polar alignment. When you are confident that you have it all working, give proper imaging a go.:thumbsup:
Expect to have a few glitches and headaches, but remember to have fun in the process. Don't get hung up on getting it all working straight away. If you have to, pack it all up and go inside with your loved ones, crack a scotch and have a go tomorrow night.:D

[Tandum]

You need to use ascom POTH (Plain old telescope handset) for that. Then you get POTH to connect to the mount, dome, focuser, rotator etc. Then you can connect multiple programs to POTH and they should all play together :) I don't think poth does cameras though.