Meade DSI II Pro drivers - weird installation

[troypiggo]

Just received a DSI II Pro (monochrome with the LRGB filter set, but that doesn't affect my question). I'll be running it through my Acer Aspire One netbook which doesn't have a CD ROM, so can't install the software that came with the camera directly. I could copy the CD to a flash drive and install from there, but knowing that the software that was on the CD was outdated anyway, I downloaded the latest from Meade website - AutoStar Suite 5 and Envisage 7.05 IIRC. I assumed one of those contained all the necessary drivers, and some reading later it appears that Envisage does have the drivers.

Loaded both of those, plugged in the camera to a USB port, and the WinXP found new hardware dialog pops up as though the drivers aren't there or found. Did a manual search for the drivers in the C:/progfiles/meade/envisage/drivers path (or whatever it is) and it found them and appeared to install them ok.

With the DSI plugged into that same USB port I could now connect to it and use PHD guiding etc.

But if I plugged the camera into a different USB port, I had to go through the driver installation process again. The netbook has 3 USB ports so I had to install the drivers 3 times.

This didn't seem normal, but...

So now it's working for all USB ports, but another "issue" is that the little green USB device icon that appears in the WinXP system tray (the one you click to "remove device safely") for more generic devices like flash drives etc appears whenever the camera is connected. Do you do the "safe remove" thing or just unplug it? Never had to do this before for webcams (incl Toucam).

This also doesn't seem normal, or at least not the same as most USB devices behave if the drivers are installed properly. Anyone else found this?

[peter_4059]

Troy,

The driver install process was same for me - if you add a hub you have to go through the same process for that. Haven't noticed the safely remove hardware thing and have always just pulled the camera USB plug out (after closing Envisage). I've found it to be a bit temperamental if you mess with the camera end of the USB cable so I now ensure the cable is anchored to the camera to prevent this connection getting broken while the camera is operating.

Peter

[troypiggo]

Thanks mate. Got the same response on CN (http://www.cloudynights.com) also. At least I'm "doing it right".

[pjphilli]

Hi Troy
I used to have all sorts of trouble along the lines you have described. Had to keep reinstalling my DSI2 Envisage driver. The problem appeared to be that XP in its wisdom kept deciding that it had a default driver that was better than the Envisage one but it would not work with Envisage. After hunting down and deleting this default driver my problems disappeared.
I always dutifully click on the "safe to remove hardware" button when removing any hardware but others tell me they never to this without problems. Perhaps I am just another of Microsoft's little Pavlov's dogs!
Cheers Peter

[kinetic]

Hi Troy,

FWIW, here is a rundown of what problems I had installing the
DSI Pro II on my Win XP laptop.

1. Installed Autostar Suite/Envisage.
2. Plugged in DSI.
3. XP would see new device, start installing something, then hang.

The problem ended up being that my laptop USB was unable to supply
enough milliamps to run the DSI. (laptop was also USB1.0)

3. Tried a Cardbus PCMCIA USB2.0 in the laptop.(with external power
jack)
Seemed again to be an insufficient power issue....

So I tried a powered USB hub with the laptop.....
Still problems....
Came to the conclusion the laptop would probably never be able
to drive the DSI.

The Yahoo DSI forum mentions this a lot in the FAQ section.

An install on a desktop (with USB 2.0 ports) worked fine.


My dome desktop PC runs fine, I can hot-unplug it without any disasters
or re-installing drivers that others mention.
As a bonus, the hub suits the situation anyway:
I have the USB hub on the scope pier for connection of any USB
device on the OTA, and the only cables that run under the floor are the
12v plugpack for the Hub and the USB feed for the Hub.

Steve

[troypiggo]

Thanks for the input again guys.

Steve - Interesting on the power issue. My netbook is all USB2. As I said, it does run. Just weird on the driver installation.

I like your USB hub on the mount idea. I'm still playing around with configurations trying to get the setup that suits me.

[renormalised]

Steve, did you try run the lappie off the battery whilst trying to run the DSI at the same time??. Or was it off mains...

[kinetic]

Both, Renormalised......

Steve

[renormalised]

Yeah...thought it might be a problem with battery amperage, but it's most likely the old ports on the lappie, since you had no probs with the USB 2.0 ports on the desktop.



XP, Vista and such are like that with some installations. Most of the time it'll recognise that you've previously loaded software for a device and will detect it when you change ports, however for some installations it'll only recognise the one port (since they all have different memory addresses) and when you stick your device into another, it can't detect the software you've previously loaded. So it asks you for software. You could manually change the HKEY values in the registry to point the device at the software's location, and also add the appropriate USB port numbers, but you'd have to know what you're doing otherwise you may make the problem worse!!!!.