Orion SSAG for image capture

[Outcast]

I have acquired an Orion SSAG as part of a bundle of astro equipment I picked up locally for a good price.

I have successfully installed it's drivers & PHD2 so, one day I can use it with the little Orion 80mm ST Guidescope & use it for it's intended purpose.

However, I would like to try & use this for some simple mono image capture.. I have researched the hell out of it online & came up with three options:

(a) Fastcap - select QHY camera... doesn't work, doesn't detect camera
(b) Sky Video 2011 - advertises itself as working with SSAG.. doesn't work, doesn't detect camera
(c) QGVideo (QHY5 software as these are the same camera I believe)... doesn't work, doesn't detect camera

Has anyone had any success using this camera for image capture & if so, what program have you used? How did you make it work?

I have read about reflashing the Orion SSAG to make it into a 'real' QHY5 but, can't find any detailed instructions on how to do that & the thought of messing with reflash instills a fair bit of fear into my heart..

Don't want to ruin the camera for it's intended purpose, would just like to wring a little more out of it if possible...

Thanks in advance...

[Ukastronomer]

You are not alone there are problems with "these" cameras on all forums, I avoided Orion and Meade completely, good luck

GOOGLE "Orion SSAG problems" as I did for forum solutions

https://indilib.org/forum/ccds-dslrs/3479-issues-with-orion-starshoot-autoguider.html

Unfortunately it makes a "good price" less so if it was considered part of the deal, if unexpected and not considered then nothing lost

[Outcast]

Fortunately, it was just a bonus in the deal... I haven't setup to guide with it yet, I'm a ways from that part of my AP journey. It seems to work fine with PHD2 on Windows 10 (at least Orion have put out a Win10 driver).

It's basically a rebadged QHY5 as I understand it, just has it's own firmware.

I'm just trying to make it do something it wasn't meant to do in it's Orion guise...

[Cimitar]

Hi Calton,

I use my Orion SSAG with SharpCap, works a treat :thumbsup:

Specifically, I use the polar alignment tool (SharpCap) in combination with the SSAG and my 50mm guide scope. It works surprisingly well considering it's riding piggyback on a Meade LX200 ACF (fork mount, with a wedge).

Cheers, Evan

[Outcast]

How did you get Sharpcap to recognise the camera..

I have tried sharpcap but, no success...

There must be some trick I'm missing perhaps.. have you used native Orion SSAG drivers or ASCOM drivers... I currently have Orion drivers loaded & associated with the camera..

Cheers

[Outcast]

It's all good, I found a very old (2015) thread in IIS quite by accident which detailed the procedure for getting this to work using a combination of the native driver & ASCOM in Sharpcap..

It's a little clunky in that there is no native gain control within Sharpcap for the way it's setup.. but, there is a button labelled 'show' which when selected opens up a small ASCOM window with a gain slider, shift the gain control, hit okay & then get an exception error, hit okay to acknowledge & everything just worked & the gain is adjusted.. not perfect but, it works...

[NorthernLight]

Hi Carlton, do you mind sharing the link?

[Outcast]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=136367