SGP doesn't find ASI533MC-Pro

Sequence Generator Equipment Compatibility
1

I received my ASI533MC-Pro two days early from Agena Astro (Great service, again!) So I was able to bring it with me to my pier site hoping to give it a try.

The 533 would not get recognized by SGP. So I got a hold of Agena thinking it may be a faulty camera (on a Sunday evening, of course).

Agena, as usual, had a reply email waiting when I arrived home, this Monday morning. Scott had already spoken with ZWO and they asked if it would connect using their imaging program ASICAP. So I diligently checked all driver updates, ASCOM camera drivers and computer updates. I re-installed everything appropriate from the ZWO page, including ASICAP, to cover all the possibilities, on both my home desktop and imaging laptop, to eliminate the possibility of it being a single computer problem.

Now, after the driver and update installations on both computers, the camera connects to ASICAP fine, and is recognized instantly when the program starts. Also NINA recognizes and connects to the 533, as does SharpCap. (Not meaning to plug other programs I used BEFORE SGP =^)

However, neither SGP (nor Nebulosity after going through my imaging programs) will recognize the 533.

Working:
ASICAP
NINA
SharpCap

Not Working:
SGP
Nebulosity

Strangely, all programs, including SGP, recognize the ASI183MC-Pro I have been using for two months. But no matter what I’ve tried, the 533 remains invisible to SGP and Nebulosity. I have used completely new sequences to eliminate anything from the last sequence causing an error, yet is it still unrecognized.

Are the any ASI533MC-Pro users using it successfully with SGP? Anyone have any idea why this would occur?

I am using Win10 on both computers.

Thanks in advance…

2

Have you tried it with ZWO’s ASCOM driver? The Native driver is not well supported in SGP, we direct folks to the ASCOM driver as that is maintained by ZWO.

Thank you,
Jared

3

Well, Jared…I:

Uninstalled ALL ASCOM from the computer…camera, scope, focuser, etc.

Then reinstalled the newest ASCOM 6.4SP1 Platform (#1) and the ASCOM ZWO Camera Driver indicated by ZWO on their software page (#2). I purposely avoided the native driver (#3).

ZWO%20DRIVER%20PAGE
ZWO DRIVER PAGE.jpg700Ă—669 212 KB

The camera shows up in Device Manager on both computers and the same situation exists:

Working:
ASICAP
NINA
SHARPCAP
(even PHD2 connects)

Not working:
SGP
Nebulosity

I am at a loss as to what to do at this point. Really leaning on you folks for this help, I realize, and I Thank You for it.

Any further ideas? Should I try the native driver now (or a previous version of it)? Or???

4

you still need to install the native driver (#3), even if using ASCOM.

5

Thanks, Joel. I did not know that.

6

I installed the ZWO 3.0.0.7 driver and restarted the computer.

No change.

What confuses me is that it all works fine with the ASI183.

7

When you say that the 533 is not recognized, do you mean that you plug it in via USB then click the “connect” button and then what happens? Do you get an error message or nothing at all? I’m not really sure what you are seeing.

8

SGP%20ERROR

Same on both computers, and only with the ASI533.

9

That is the native driver that we no longer support. Choose the camera that starts with “ASI”.

1 Like
10

You NAILED IT! Thanks Ken!

Such a small difference makes a BIG difference!

Superlative support! Thanks again!

1 Like
11

I have an ASI183MM-Pro and I use the “ZWO Camera” driver because it has the ability to set Gain and Offset for each event. I find I get better results if I use a higher Offset (20) with unity gain and above, but lower Offset (10) works better below unity gain (53 and below). It affects black level clipping. I normally use unity gain or higher with NB filters and 53 with broadband/luminance. Will SGP be adding the ability to set Offset in Event Settings for “ASI Camera” driver? I’m not having any other issues with the “ZWO Camera” driver, but it worries me that SGP no longer supports it. It seems that with the “ASI” driver you can only select a single offset using the ASCOM Device Settings so you can’t have a variety of Gains/Offsets in a given sequence’s targets/events. I see this as a major disadvantage.

1 Like
12

SGPro will implement whatever features the ASCOM group implements. As of now, they have no plans to expose Offset as a dynamic property. You can bring this up on the ASCOM forums if you feel it is important. As of now, the current position is that it is not necessary to expose to clients and users and is a variable that should be handled in the driver or camera firmware. As such, SGPro cannot implement dynamic offset. That said, gain is exposed and can be set as required during sequence execution.