Hi All,

Just to cap the problems of getting the DSI's to operate together, I've spent the last hour trying to get Envisage to autoguide. The problem is somewhat bizarre because Envisage can talk to the scope via the manual guide buttons and will focus the scope, but the guide commands don't seem to get to the scope? After two hours of re-booting, restarting the the 497 handbox, and connecting/disconnecting, it finally seems to have connected and is working again. I wondered if anyone else had seen this? Also worth noting that it's taking several minutes for Envisage to find the scope.

Envisage is latest version, the 497 has some patches in, but has worked quite happily for several months in its current build state. Serial connection is via a prolific USB-Serial converter located at the powered scope hub. Operating system is XP.

JonW

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

JonW wrote:

Hi All,

Just to cap the problems of getting the DSI's to operate together, I've spent the last hour trying to get Envisage to autoguide. The problem is somewhat bizarre because Envisage can talk to the scope via the manual guide buttons and will focus the scope, but the guide commands don't seem to get to the scope? After two hours of re-booting, restarting the the 497 handbox, and connecting/disconnecting, it finally seems to have connected and is working again. I wondered if anyone else had seen this? Also worth noting that it's taking several minutes for Envisage to find the scope.

Envisage is latest version, the 497 has some patches in, but has worked quite happily for several months in its current build state. Serial connection is via a prolific USB-Serial converter located at the powered scope hub. Operating system is XP.

JonW

Is the scope in the Polar Mode?  It won't guide if not.

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10" Meade Lx200-R
Mitty Evolution Wedge
Canon Digital Rebel DSLR
Meade 5000 Series 80mm APO
SBIG ST402-ME Imager
Meade DSI-c for guiding
San Diego Skys
California Taxes
Yada Yada Yada

Yes, the scope is polar mounted and had been operating ok when last used back in September. It is a strange problem as I said, the scope is connected ok according to the dialogue box, and you can move the scope with the navigator buttons in envisage, but the guide commands did not get actioned at all by the scope. It seems to have cleared itself now, though I'm still wondering if there is a problem with the resilience of the link between netscope and my USB to serial converter. Also worth noting that the scope would quite happily take commands from PHD when connected directly to the com port after I got fed up trying to get Envisage going.

JonW 

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

What brand is your USB convertor?  Belkin will NOT work.

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10" Meade Lx200-R
Mitty Evolution Wedge
Canon Digital Rebel DSLR
Meade 5000 Series 80mm APO
SBIG ST402-ME Imager
Meade DSI-c for guiding
San Diego Skys
California Taxes
Yada Yada Yada

It's supplied through Maplin and the driver supplied signs as "Prolific"... I avoided the Belkin one.

Not had much chance to do much over the last few days, so can't say if it's going to be an ongoing problem. Bit suspicious that it was playing up at the same time as the DSI (I had to increase the line delay).

Probably could get hold of a Meade one, but have serious objections to paying over £30 for something as generic as a virtual serial port... however it's 100% reliable with netscope then maybe it's a price worth paying. Wonder what others' experience is with USB to serial converters?

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

Just an update...

I got hold of a Meade USB-Serial converter as part of my "long service" present (ETX-90PE) from the salt mine... It uses exactly the same driver as the Maplin one, byte for byte. Anyway, time will tell if it proves any more reliable! Still takes an age to connect though.

JonW 

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

Well, just had a bad evening with Envisage... The software connects correctly to the autostar via the network server, and it will slew the scope with the buttons and focus the scope, so the connection must be fine. But if you try to cal, the target just stays in the same place on the screen (normally it's moved around during the cal process.) Envisage thinks everything is fine, and lays down the round target, but if you move the target, the image just stays where it was... The software correctly reports the deviation from the new target position, but no commands seem to be getting to the scope.

Bit lost with this one and don't know where to go next apart from re-installing Envisage or re-flashing the autostar. I've spent the evening guiding with PHD instead...

JonW

 

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

Just to round this post off... I tried the following in this order:

1) re-installed Envisage 7.05: no change

2) re-installed usb driver and changed the com port: no change

3) re-flashed the Autostar (the same patched 43eg as originally installed): Everything is now back to normal... Though it can still take up 5 mins for the autostar to connect to Envisage.

Really not sure why this worked... I would have thought that if the applications can connect via the com port directly, then it should be no different via the netserver, and why is the fault with the Autostar?

At least if these symptoms happen to anyone else, they'll know what to do!

JonW

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

Thought the above fixed it, but came to use the kit tonight, and exactly the same problems over again. This time however I decided to restart the autostar from scratch rather than the parked position, and interestingly, envisage decided it could connect and guide again. Be interesting to see what happens in the next session.

JonW

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

Hi JonW,

Just thought I'd let you know that you've got company with this problem. I have an LXD75 10" and have the exact same problem. The Envisage works fine but the scope won't budge. I'm using the RS232/USB adapter from Meade. I tried an older computer that has an RS232 serial port thinking maybe it was the adapter. Nope. It said the scope was connected, but it didn't move. Experimented for days and had to put it away before I broke something. Next time, I may try tracking with the AutoStar hand controller and forgetting the Envisage tracking. It's not worth the trouble.

Good luck.

Ray

OK, latest update in this saga as follows...

1) disabled the serial port FIFO buffers in case data was not being flushed out in a timely way over the USB: no change.

2) re-built the Autostar minus the peek/poke patch (couldn't remember if this was put in before or after this problem): anyway, no change

3) noticed I had 3 versions of .NET on my laptop, so stripped them all out and reinstalled .NET 2.0 SP1: and seems ok now...

So, I've parked the scope several times and restarted and the problem seems to have gone away. Maybe the problem was with .Net installation? Not sure on this but this is definately one to check if you get the same symptoms, particularly if you've upgraded from an earlier version of Envisage and have .NET 1.1 already on your system.

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

This sorry tale continues...

Tonight was the first time I've operated the scope since the last post, and guess what? You got it, exactly the same problem. This time I spent a bit of time connecting directly between Envisage and the scope via the com port. Whilst the scope connects super fast (instantaneous as opposed to minutes using the netserver) using this route, I still have the situation where the scope connects, correctly reports the firmware, and will slew the scope via the buttons in Envisage, but no guide commands get sent to scope when trying to autoguide. Again, no problems when using PHD... So I don't think this is a USB related problem, and the direct connection to the com port rules out the netserver. Worse still this time, the problem was not resolved by restarting the autostar and re-aligning.

I'm hoping someone has some ideas here, as I don't really want to ditch Envisage...

JonW

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

Hi, John

It should not take so long for Envisage to connect to the scope.

What (exactly, including spaces and capital letters) do you have entered in the Envisage connection box?

And what, exactly do you have entered in the Netscope Server boxes?

Is there anything else at all running which could possibly be interfering with the serial or USB connections?

Chuck

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Chuck Reese
CDIP Certified: Nebula, Galaxy, Solar System, Stars & Clusters Imager
CDIP Mentor: Nebulae & Solar System Categories
For information on the Certified DSI Imager Program, see:
http://autostarsuite.net/forums/1427/ShowForum.aspx

Hi Chuck,

I use 127.0.0.1 for netserver and COM7 for direct connection. The Netserver is set up to run on COM7 and port 5400. The COM port speed is 115200 and has the FIFO buffers turned off. The Autostar build is 43EG + patches for: cord wrap on at boot, Park at 0 degrees, training editor, brightest star off at boot.

There are some background programmes running: windows firewall (set to allow the netserver to use port 5400), AVG anti-virus, and Skype. No conflicts can be seen in the device manager.

I still think this is a problem in either Envisage or the autostar, I'm struggling to see why it won't guide when the scope can be manually slewed and the focuser operated from the buttons within Envisage? I also suspect that the guiding problem is unrelated to the slow netserver connection.

If I knew the difference in commands being sent from the buttons and when autoguiding, this might provide a clue as to what's going on.

Thanks,

JonW

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8" Mead LX-90 + DSI III
Isle of Wight

I would try backing off the serial rate...try 9600 and work up from there (although you don't need any faster).

Then I would try turning of the firewall - that could be conflicting somehow even though you have the port opened up. Maybe try opening port 5401 if you can't bear to run without the firewall while you image.

Other than that - all your settings work fine for me on XP Pro (right down to the AVG & Skype!)

Chuck

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Chuck Reese
CDIP Certified: Nebula, Galaxy, Solar System, Stars & Clusters Imager
CDIP Mentor: Nebulae & Solar System Categories
For information on the Certified DSI Imager Program, see:
http://autostarsuite.net/forums/1427/ShowForum.aspx