Quote:
Originally Posted by dtrewren
Morning Ray,
Dave here (SharpSky designer).
That is an interesting problem, however all sorts of crazy stuff can happen when an operating system goes over.
You don't need to re-flash the PIC microprocessor - it has no concept of being connected to Windows or any other operating system for that matter. The PIC only sees the USB connection and only sees the driver and ASCOM interface.
First of all when you plug in the SharpSky controller do you get the characteristic noise (ding-dong) from the PC and the Link LED goes out ? This indicates the PC has identified the SharpSky controller as a generic HID device and subsequently enumerated.
Assuming the above :
Following a re-boot uninstall the driver via the windows control panel. Check the .DLL has been removed and if not delete the .DLL
Now re-install the driver as normal.
Try connecting using SGP - does SGP actually say that it is connected ?
Let me know how you get on and we will go from there.
Cheers & clear skies,
Dave
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thanks for the quick response Dave - really appreciated.
. I will not reflash the PIC - that's good
- get the "boing" on connection - it sees it as a USB peripheral (family something?) not actually in the HID list. I didn't wire up the link led.
- have done the uninstall - reinstall, reboot a few times to no effect. It seems to clear the DLL from the uninstall region OK
- SGP says it is connected to the focuser - seems quite happy, but just doesn't do anything
- I just fresh installed ASCOM 6.1 and SS software on my old Vista system with the same result
- also bypassed the USB HUB and connected a (brand new) USB lead straight into the SS box with no result.
I don't know enough to make sense of this, but it seems to me that everything ASCOM is working OK (the filter wheel, cameras, mount etc) and the box is working OK (heartbeat and via encoder) - there just does not seem to be any comms between the two. Just so I am clear, the ASCOM driver does everything necessary to interface between ASCOM6.1 and the box - there is no other lower level driver? If of any help, a while ago I tried using the latest software, but had to revert to an earlier driver to get it to work. However, that was two operating systems ago and those versions of the software are long gone. The current driver is not the software that I was running before it all went pearshaped - the max step size definitely was larger than the current 30ms.
another observation that may be significant is that after a fresh install, the first try to move causes the screen to flicker slightly as it does when working. thereafter it remains dead - as though the software is dormant and waiting for the box to tell it that the original move is finished maybe?
Anyway, don't sweat too much on this Dave - I have well and truly had my money's worth from this great bit of kit. Regards Ray