ASCOM Driver for Starlight Xpress (SX) cameras

Support/Discussion

There is a Yahoo group dedicated to the sxASCOM driver. If you would like participate in the testing process, receive notifications of releases, or support, please join:

Click to join sx-ascom

Click to join sx-ascom

Driver Downloads

Beta Version

  • None currently available

Production Version

Version 6.2.1.18212 - Production ASCOM ICamera2 Driver
    Requires ASCOM 6.2 or greater
    Release Date: 2018/09/15

    Expiration Date: NA

    Status: This is a production driver.

Cameras Supported

CameraStatus Conform
Costarawaiting test 
Exview Guiderawaiting test 
Lodestarawaiting test 
LodestarCawaiting test 
Oculusawaiting test
Superstarawaiting test 
SXV Guiderawaiting test 
Ultrastarawaiting test 
UltrastarCawaiting test
H9awaiting test 
H9Cawaiting test 
H16awaiting test 
H18awaiting test
H35awaiting test 
H36awaiting test 
H674awaiting test 
H694awaiting test
H694Cawaiting test 
H814awaiting test 
H814Cawaiting test 
M25Cawaiting test 
M26C awaiting test 
SX-46 awaiting test 
SX-56 awaiting test 

 Version 5.5.1 - Production ASCOM ICamera1 Driver

Works with ASCOM 5.5 and ASCOM 6.x

Version   5.5.1.15282:

Release Date:    2015/10/09

Expiration Date: NA

Status: This is a production driver.

Cameras Supported

CameraStatus Conform
 Ultrastarawaiting test 
 UltrastarC awaiting test 
Lodestarawaiting test
LodestarCawaiting test 
Costarawaiting test 
SuperstarConform Pass  Report
SXV Guiderawaiting test 
Exview Guiderawaiting test 
H814awaiting test 
H814Cawaiting test
H694awaiting test 
H694Cawaiting test 
H674awaiting test 
H674Cawaiting test 
H35awaiting test 
H36awaiting test 
M26Cawaiting test    
M25Cawaiting test 
H18Conform Pass Report
H16awaiting test 
H9awaiting test 
H9Cawaiting test

Other Features

FeatureStatus
Multiple USB Cameras accessed by separate programsTested
MainCamera + SXV Auto Guider accessed by separate programsawaiting test
SXVR temperature controlTested
Parallel Port CamerasNo support planned
USB Upgrade for Parallel Port CamerasNo support planned
Serial PortNo support planned

    
This version adds:
        - miscellaneous bug fixes
        - support for extra ccd/register flushes
        - support for Ultrastar/Ultrastar C cameras

Previous Production Versions

Release Candidate Version

None currently available

Acknowledgements/Thanks to:

  • My wife Deborah McKee, who has put up with with me during this whole adventure.  I do lots of my coding late at night on my laptop while in bed, and she has put up with the tangle of wires in her bedroom that goes with having an SX Camera  (or two) connected to your laptop while in bed.
  • Mike Unsold (the creator of Images Plus) who has been extremely helpful.  His involvement began when I emailed him a question about an issue I was having while trying to get an early version of the driver to work with IP. Instead of just deleting the message (a sensible response to any email that begins "I'm having some problems getting your software to work with a camera driver I'm writing" :-),  he borrowed an SX camera from a friend to help track down the issue. He has been very supportive of this effort, going so far as to tweak IP to make it more SX friendly.
  • Terry Platt of Starlight Xpress who has helped fill in the gaps where the documentation wasn't clear on exactly what was going on, and who generously sent me Lodestar camera so that I could get interlaced support working.
  • The folks at SysNucleus who supplied me with a copy of their excellent USB analyzer for use on this project. 
  • Everyone who provided input, feedback and testing via the Yahoo Group.

Disclaimer

I wrote this driver because I was moving from DSLR to CCD imaging and discovered that none of the software I had learned how to use worked with my new camera.  I am a software developer by day, and since it was just a "simple matter of programming" (SMoP) to get my new camera working with my old software I decided to write a driver.  A long run of bad weather gave me plenty of free evenings to write the code

This driver was not written by, authorized by, sanctioned by, or any thing else by Starlight Xpress (SX). It was independently developed from the developer documentation and sample code available from the SX website. Terry Platt of Starlight Xpress is aware of the effort, and has provided me with some missing bits of developer documentation.  He also provided me with a Lodestar camera to faciliate its testing. Please do not make them regret providing developer documentation by asking questions or complaining about problems with this driver to SX.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to make something perfectly clear -- I'm a hobbyist, and I'd rather be imaging than writing software. The driver is currently working well enough that I can use it for my imaging needs, and any other work I do on it will be taking time away from some other part of my life.  I hope to get the driver working for a broad range of cameras, but supporting cameras that I don't own and can't test on is a non-trivial undertaking. If doing so turns out to take a huge amount of time, I might abandon the effort or request donations. If that would offend you, please don't use this software.

The best way for you to get your camera supported is to volunteer to help with the testing.