Sort Your Useless Drivers Out!

[deleted]

Seriously, guys, stop making new cameras, and concentrate on making the existing ones work! My useless little ASI120MM-S is garbage. It won't run reliably on any machine I've connected it to - XP, Win 7 32 and 64, AMD and Intel, doesn't matter. The camera will work for a little while and then packs in, so I have to restart the whole computer. If I want to do a nightsky timelapse whilst I sleep, or entrust a camera to guide my mount whilst my BETTER cameras do their job, what use is a camera that I have to keep a constant eye on? And what use is "restart the computer" as a solution? If the computer is running other things like mount,m cameras, power supplies, then restarting isn't an option.

I'm one step away from calmly unplugging it, walking into the garden, and throwing it as far into the woods behind my house as possible.

Worst £300 I ever spent. Your camera or software or both sucks. Fix it. It's been months. Don't waste time replying to this message. Just fix it.

Thanks!

redtail

ReEspith wrote:
Seriously, guys, stop making new cameras, and concentrate on making the existing ones work! My useless little ASI120MM-S is garbage. It won't run reliably on any machine I've connected it to - XP, Win 7 32 and 64, AMD and Intel, doesn't matter. The camera will work for a little while and then packs in, so I have to restart the whole computer. If I want to do a nightsky timelapse whilst I sleep, or entrust a camera to guide my mount whilst my BETTER cameras do their job, what use is a camera that I have to keep a constant eye on? And what use is "restart the computer" as a solution? If the computer is running other things like mount,m cameras, power supplies, then restarting isn't an option.

I'm one step away from calmly unplugging it, walking into the garden, and throwing it as far into the woods behind my house as possible.

Worst £300 I ever spent. Your camera or software or both sucks. Fix it. It's been months. Don't waste time replying to this message. Just fix it.

Thanks!

Well said the camera drivers suck.

Sam@ZWO

I don't think its a driver problem

but maybe a hardware problem

I suggest you can change one from dealer and try again

you can email us if you have any problem with our dealer

riklaunim

There were hardware/firmware compatibility issues with ASI USB3 cameras quite constantly. You could conduct a wider hardware testing - find a friendly PC/laptop dealer that has a lot of display units on which you can test ;)

[deleted]

ReEspith wrote:
Seriously, guys, stop making new cameras, and concentrate on making the existing ones work! My useless little ASI120MM-S is garbage. It won't run reliably on any machine I've connected it to - XP, Win 7 32 and 64, AMD and Intel, doesn't matter. The camera will work for a little while and then packs in, so I have to restart the whole computer. If I want to do a nightsky timelapse whilst I sleep, or entrust a camera to guide my mount whilst my BETTER cameras do their job, what use is a camera that I have to keep a constant eye on? And what use is "restart the computer" as a solution? If the computer is running other things like mount,m cameras, power supplies, then restarting isn't an option.

I'm one step away from calmly unplugging it, walking into the garden, and throwing it as far into the woods behind my house as possible.

Worst £300 I ever spent. Your camera or software or both sucks. Fix it. It's been months. Don't waste time replying to this message. Just fix it.

Thanks!

I cant even capture an image as an error keeps coming up...sent emails to the 'support' department and never heard back !!! looked everyhwere on my laptop to try to solve the problem and a dozen uninistall and reinstalls later and the same thing. it shouldnt be this difficult !!! its just a paper weight on my desk! wheres the 'support' ?!!!!!!!!

Sam@ZWO

sorry， you can send email to me: sam.wen(at)zwoptical.com

there is problem with our contact us page some days before

so we must miss it

Admin

Sam,

Have you considered releasing beta versions of the drivers so we can test them? I don't mind testing as long as we have a stable release to fall back on. If the ASCOM driver can generate a log its easy to send you the logs so we can help get make the drivers more robust.

Dave

Sam@ZWO

Guest wrote:
Sam,

Have you considered releasing beta versions of the drivers so we can test them? I don't mind testing as long as we have a stable release to fall back on. If the ASCOM driver can generate a log its easy to send you the logs so we can help get make the drivers more robust.

Dave

yes, we will release a new ASCOM driver soon

welcome to test

bigol

So, we all are your beta-testers for free?

Nice decision. Very original.

I try to use ASI120MM with ascom driver as a guider camera in Maxim DL.

16-bit mode doesn't work. Bin 2x2 mode doesn't work.

I am now forced to use Video DS mode in Maxim DL with this camera.

Is it too hard for you, guys, write some good drivers for some years?

Sam@ZWO

our USB2.0 cameras support guiding only at 8bit output mode

but bin2 should be supported

you can contact us through email if you still have the binning problem

bigol

Oops! Indeed, bin 2x2 in ascom driver works now.

Just a miracle! ;)

bigol

After all - it doesn't! Bin 2x2 mode doesn't not work right in ASCOM driver with Maxim DL .

If you will try use ASI120MM as guide camera and set bin 2x2, you could expose image and calibrate.

But when you select star for guiding by mouse - you will recieve just black square for guiding and "star faded" message.

If you will NOT select star yourself and let program do it - it will work. But it is not right.

james_screech

bigol wrote:
But when you select star for guiding by mouse - you will recieve just black square for guiding and "star faded" message.

If you will NOT select star yourself and let program do it - it will work. But it is not right.

Thanks a bug in Maxim, I've had the same problem using another guide camera make.

James

bigol

james_screech wrote:
bigol wrote:But when you select star for guiding by mouse - you will recieve just black square for guiding and "star faded" message.

If you will NOT select star yourself and let program do it - it will work. But it is not right.

Thanks a bug in Maxim, I've had the same problem using another guide camera make.

James

Ops! Thanks, James, for the info.

May be I am wrong, but in Video DS mode everything works right in bin 2x2?

bigol

One more bug.

In FITS header driver reports pixel size 5.5999999999999996 microns, must be 3.75 microns.

After some tests I could say next.

If you use ascom driver, pixel size in FITS header is correct - 3.75mic.

But if you use Video DS mode - pixel size in FITS header is not correct - 5.59...microns.

So, when you use ASI120mm as a guide camera in Video DS mode - it doesn't work correct, because pixel size is not correct and calibration is not correct, so you guiding will be bad.

Sam, please, correct pixel size in WDM driver ASI120mm and may be other cameras too.

Sam@ZWO

bigol wrote:
One more bug.

In FITS header driver reports pixel size 5.5999999999999996 microns, must be 3.75 microns.

After some tests I could say next.

If you use ascom driver, pixel size in FITS header is correct - 3.75mic.

But if you use Video DS mode - pixel size in FITS header is not correct - 5.59...microns.

So, when you use ASI120mm as a guide camera in Video DS mode - it doesn't work correct, because pixel size is not correct and calibration is not correct, so you guiding will be bad.

Sam, please, correct pixel size in WDM driver ASI120mm and may be other cameras too.

WDM driver pixel size is not possible to set through software

but maybe there is some place can set in MDL

for the bin2 problem, we will check and feedback

Sam@ZWO

bigol wrote:
One more bug.

In FITS header driver reports pixel size 5.5999999999999996 microns, must be 3.75 microns.

After some tests I could say next.

If you use ascom driver, pixel size in FITS header is correct - 3.75mic.

But if you use Video DS mode - pixel size in FITS header is not correct - 5.59...microns.

So, when you use ASI120mm as a guide camera in Video DS mode - it doesn't work correct, because pixel size is not correct and calibration is not correct, so you guiding will be bad.

Sam, please, correct pixel size in WDM driver ASI120mm and may be other cameras too.

please try this ASCOM driver, old ASCOM driver seems have such problem

http://zwoug.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2124