I don't have any of the plate solve images saved so will save some when I next run it all. I have some normal images that don't plate solve, but they have very few stars in the image. My plate solves are the same FOV but 25 sec @ 2x2 rather than 30sec @ 1x1 so I get more stars.
I'm starting to wonder if it's just that I need longer plate solve exposures, perhaps 25 sec @ 2x2 isn't enough. I am getting confused now and need to try it again
(won't be for a few nights, thunderstorms forcast).
I'm quite certain that there's often been countless stars but no successful plate solve ... hmm..
I think it's fair to ignore CCDCommander as all plate solves that have failed in CCDCommander have failed when done manually in CCDSoft (that I've tried). I'm quite confident that CCDCommander is simply invoking the CCDSoft operation without additional restraints.