I'm using CCDI along with CCD Soft and an SBIG camera. I'm particularly interested in the defocused star collimation procedure. When I tried it last night, I made sure that in CCD Soft the "CCD Monitor Relay" option under "Plugin Events" was checked. I made sure that CCDI knew that CCD Soft was the imaging software. I started the continuous focusing exposures with CCD Soft, then in CCDI I started the Real Time "defocused star" collimation. The window with the 3 collimation screws showed up; so did an "image window". The problem was that the image window had a message which simply said "waiting for image", but the image never showed up (though the images were appearing in CCD Soft).

So, what did I miss? How does CCDI get the images for the collimation routine?

Hi Brian,

Sounds like you are doing all the right things, and it's still not working. To troubleshoot, let's make sure that:

1. You are running the latest CCDSoft update from Software Bisque. The current version is 5.0.195.

2. You may want to re-install CCDSoft, even if you have the latest version.

3. Make sure to go and check that the Images to Average setting is set to 1 under Real-Time menu in CCDInspector

4. Disable any other event plug-ins you may have in CCDSoft to see if that will help, make sure CCD Monitor Relay has a check-mark next to it.

5. Start CCDInspector, and go to Real-Time->Collimation->Defocused Star Collimation Viewer... You should see the image with three knobs, A/B/C.

6. Then, go to CCDSoft, and start taking short images of a defocused star. You should now see the collimation viewer display the amount and direction of the collimation error.

If you'd like, you can now also display the Image Viewer (must be shown with collimation viewer to see it update with collimation values).

Let me know if you are still having problems, and please tell me what version of Windows you are using.

Regards,

-Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your advice. The clouds finally cleared so I got a chance to try this again, but still no luck.

I'm running Windows XP. I've done everything that you've suggested, except updating the CCDSoft program (which is version 5.00.186). I can't find any webpage for updating to a newer version, but I've only had this for a few months, so I doubt that it is too old.

I'm using CCDSoft as the camera software (and CCDInspector is set to use that program). The focusing routine runs fine, the image of the defocused star updates in CCDSoft's window with no problem. But when I start the CCDInspector's "defocused star" collimation routine, the 3-knob window shows up, but never shows any collimation error. The "view" window remains blank, and says "waiting for image".

So, any other ideas of what I can do to get CCDInspector to see the focus images? This is the main reason I was interested in this program, and I'm hoping I can get it to work.

Thanks again.

Brian

Brian,

the latest version of CCDSoft is .195, you can download it from here:

http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/

If this still doesn't help, I'm afraid I'm out of ideas. The link between the plugin and CCDInspector is very simple, and if it doesn't work, something is pretty wrong with the software setup or your system.

You can try a work-around to make this work, without the CCDSoft plugin. You'll want to use the "Generic" camera driver instead of CCDSoft in CCDInspector. Pick an empty (or new) folder on your hard disk when prompted. You may want to delete these images after they are analyzed, otherwise you'll have a ton of saved images on your hard disk after collimation.

Then, set up CCDSoft to save focus images into this same folder.

Now, start taking focus images of the defocused star, and bring up CCDInspector defocused star collimation viewer. Every time a new image is saved by CCDSoft, the CCDInspector viewer should update and show new collimation error value and direction.

Regards,

-Paul

Paul,

Thanks. I'll give this a try, and let you know how it goes.

Brian