Another connection issue

[diane_miller]

We just got a new Win 10 laptop and I have BYE installed.  I have both a Canon 5D Mk III and 7D Mk II which I use with Canon lenses for AP with Helicon Remote (for focusing) and Adobe Lightroom for watching captures (which are done with an intervalometer).  I've been using my MacBook Pro for this, and would like to try BYE on the new laptop.  (Sure wish it would run on a Mac...) 

 

So, I plug in either camera and a thing comes up in the lower right that properly identifies it.  (I assume that is from Win 10?)  BYE says the camera is not connected and when I click on Connect in the UL nothing happens.  I've tried clicking on the choices for drivers, and again, nothing happens.

 

They both work just fine on my Mac laptop with the software listed above.  Yes, the cameras are turned on.

 

Suggestions??

[admin]

ALL connection issues are related to USB cable and/or drivers.  

 

Please try with EOS Utility first.  It that works so will BYE. 

 

Keep us posted.

[astroman133]

Both of your cameras are new enough that either of the top 2 driver choices (Canon or Canon215) should work.

 

When Windows recognizes the camera does it pop up a window asking you what you want to do with the camera?  How do you dismiss that?

 

Do you see the camera listed in the Windows Device Manager? If not BYE will not be able to connect. On my Windows 7 system the camera shows up under Portable Devices.

 

Is any other application talking to the camera? If so, this may be preventing BYE from connecting.

 

If the camera has multiple communication modes (PTP or Normal) you should set it to Normal (not PTP). PTP mode will not work with the Canon SDK or BYE.

[diane_miller]

Yes -- I dismissed the Win popup with Do Nothing.  I can't find the Device Manager.  Guess they don't want to bother people with techie stuff like that.

 

I put EOS Utility on the laptop and it recognizes the camera -- reads settings from it and lets me change settings on it and shoots a picture.

 

When it was installing I had to OK some change to the Win firewall settings.  BYE still wouldn't connect to the camera.  Rebooted.  Waited for updates.  Finally got to the desktop and started BYE.  First thing that happens is a message that BinaryRivers.Backyard EOS.Start has stopped working.   Win will close the program and notify me if a solution is available.   (Yawn...) 

 

BUT, now BYE can recognize the camera.  Was the problem the firewall settings?

 

I've never encountered different communications modes with any camera -- didn't know there was such a thing, and I've been doing serious photography for many years. 

[admin]

Firewall settings would have no impact on the camera ability to connect.

 

However, installing EOS Utility may have installed the proper Canon drivers as well.... which led to BYE now connecting.

[diane_miller]

Could be, but why wouldn't they have installed when I clicked on the various choices in the camera connect dialog?  A Win 10 issue, or something in McAfee blocking it?  (No indication of that.) 

 

I don't drink the Apple Kool-Aid, but coming back to Windows after several years with a Mac platform has been one unpleasant surprise after another.  I had been a PC user since MS-DOS on an 808x (forget exactly which one) and switched when my XP workstation died just after Vista came out. 

 

It appears BYE won't drive the AF directly on the lens, as I can do with Helicon Remote.  And I can't imagine a better way to monitor my subs than with Lightroom's Tethered Capture, all on my MacPro laptop. 

 

What am I missing???

 

Hope this new laptop will prove more useful to my husband, who has a problem with unfixed bugs in the Mac version of his aviation GPS updates.  I'm skeptical of it's use for me at this point.

[astroman133]

So, is your issue resolved? 

 

The Device Manager should be accessible via the Control Panel.  But if Windows is asking you what you want to do with the camera, then it has recognized the camera, so it will show up in the Device Manager.

 

The drivers for most Canon cameras were part of Window 7, 8, and 8.1, so I would assume that they are part of Windows 10.

 

Does Backyard EOS "stop working" every time you try to run it? If so then you could have a corrupted installation.  To resolve it you should un-install BYE and re-install it TO A DIFFERENT FOLDER.

[admin]

When you select the drivers in BYE you are actually only selecting *which* Canon SDK version to use.

 

The actual drivers are between the camera/Canon and Windows.  Installing EOS Utility may have installed a bit more from Canon that BYE can not package.  Hope this makes sense.

[1DegreeN]

Re BYE controlling the lens focus, I happened to use BYE on a Win10 laptop and Canon 7D Mk2 a couple of days ago. I could control the focus on a 70-200F4 L lens which was the only one I tried that night but previously, on the same laptop but Windows 8 and a 700D, I've also been able to control the focus on the 400mm F5.6 L. 

[astroman133]

Diane,

 

Using a new operation system (switching form Mac to PC) is somewhat akin to driving in a different country.  It is dis-orienting until you get used to it.

 

The Windows Device Manager is available from the Control Panel.

 

Some early Canon DSLR cameras supported 2 communications modes (PTP and normal). If I remember correctly, PTP was for printing images directly from the camera.  If your camera supports this functionality, the mode must be set to Normal for use with BYE. Your cameras are new enough that they may not but I put this information in here for the benefit of someone with one of those cameras.

 

BYE uses the Canon Software Development Kit or SDK to communicate with the camera. When Canon releases a new version of the SDK they typically add support for new cameras and drop support for old cameras.  So, in order for BYE to support older cameras it installs multiple versions of the SDK.  When you click on Connect, the dialog that you are seeing allows you to select which version of the SDK will be used by BYE.

 

In an attempt to avoid this explanation previously I called it "selecting a driver". I apologize for any confusion this caused.

 

There IS a low-level driver that needs to be on your PC.  It is typically as part of Windows and is always installed, but since some people have had communications issues after upgrading to Windows 10, I would say that there is some kind of issue where Windows is unable to load that driver when the camera is first connected to the PC and powered on.  It appears that this was fixed for you when you installed the EOS Utility.

 

Now that you have the EOS Utility installed you should know that BYE and the EOS utility cannot both be connected to the camera at the same time.  Also know that EOS Utility may start up in the background automatically when Windows first recognizes the camera.  This can prevent BYE from attempting to connect.  If the EOS Utility is running but not connected to the camera you can turn off BYE's "EOS Utility Check" option in the Advanced Settings.

 

Now, if you haven't already gone back to your Mac at this point...

 

Are you still having an issue driving your lens with the buttons in BYE? You have multiple cameras and multiple EF lenses. Is your issue consistent with all combinations?

 

I tried to duplicate your issue. I have one camera (T5i) and 2 lenses (EFS 18-135 and EFS 55-250). I have no problem with BYE 3.1.5 driving either lens on my Windows 7 x64 PC. I used both the newest version of the SDK and the Canon215 version which is older but still supports the T5i.

 

If you are now able to connect with your cameras but are still having a problem with driving the lenses, please post with more information about what you are doing and what you are seeing.

 

Thanks,

[diane_miller]

Thanks for further information (and patience). 

 

BYE doesn't stop running, it just wouldn't connect to the camera, either 7D2 or 5D3, when both work fine with all appropriate software on my Mac tower and laptop.  Somehow I stumbled into Devices on the laptop and the camera shows there.  And, as you said, as soon as I turned it on, EOS Utility started.  But this time, I closed EOS Utility and then BYE would connect. 

 

So now can someone please help me get rid of EOS Utility.  I've had to banish it from every computer I've ever had (Mac and PC) because it is always in the BG grabbing control of the camera and refusing to share.  I've never been able to run any other camera utility when it is installed.  So I had to figure out how to get it not to start on boot and then delete it. 

 

So -- please -- how do I get to the settings that control what is in the startup menu, and where is the install/uninstall menu?   I don't see anything like that.

 

Thanks!

 

Then I'll look at the tutorials to see if I figure out how to control focus.

[astroman133]

Look in the Control Panel under Programs and Features.  It should give you a list of installed software that you can uninstall.  Another option is that the installation of EOS Utility may have created a program group with a shortcut to launch the EOS Utility.  There may also be another shortcut to uninstall it, however I don't know this for sure.  Others have reported that there is an option in the EOS Utility program's menus to set your preference to not connect when the camera is recognized.

[diane_miller]

I tried just EOS Utility -- there are controls there for focusing the lens -- the same kind of chevrons that are in Helicon Remote -- but they are grayed out.  (Have the 5D3 connected, with the 100-400 II.)  Lens is in MF.  I have a good live view display and can change focus with the ring on the lens but apparently not with the software.  Looks like the same issue I'm seeing with BYE.

[astroman133]

In order for EOS Utility and BYE to drive the lens it must be in AF, since MF disengages the motors from the focus ring.

[s3igell]

Look in the Control Panel under Programs and Features.  It should give you a list of installed software that you can uninstall.  Another option is that the installation of EOS Utility may have created a program group with a shortcut to launch the EOS Utility.  There may also be another shortcut to uninstall it, however I don't know this for sure.  Others have reported that there is an option in the EOS Utility program's menus to set your preference to not connect when the camera is recognized.

In EOSUtility "Preferences" "Basic Settings" Tab, simply Uncheck the "Start EOSUtility automatically when Camera is Connected" setting.

No real need to Uninstall EOSUtility, after all it is sometimes Useful in order to determine/confirm certain Hardware/Driver or Camera/Lens or OS/App Issues.

 

I tried just EOS Utility -- there are controls there for focusing the lens -- the same kind of chevrons that are in Helicon Remote -- but they are grayed out.  (Have the 5D3 connected, with the 100-400 II.)  Lens is in MF.  I have a good live view display and can change focus with the ring on the lens but apparently not with the software.  Looks like the same issue I'm seeing with BYE.

Looks like an Issue with the Canon SDK interface with the Driver and/or the Driver with the Camera Firmware.

 

In any case, your Test Results with EOSUtility shows that this is not an Issue with BYE.  (See, a reason to not necessarily Uninstall EOSUtility.)

[diane_miller]

Look in the Control Panel under Programs and Features.  It should give you a list of installed software that you can uninstall.  Another option is that the installation of EOS Utility may have created a program group with a shortcut to launch the EOS Utility.  There may also be another shortcut to uninstall it, however I don't know this for sure.  Others have reported that there is an option in the EOS Utility program's menus to set your preference to not connect when the camera is recognized.

 When I click the Windows icon in the lower left of the screen I get a popup with a bunch of squares displaying all sorts of garbage, and there are listings for File Explorer, Settings, Power and All Apps.  None of which leads to a Control Panel.

 

Settings --> System --> looks promising and I did find an uninstall feature where I might get rid of this piece of junk called KNCTR, which is going to make me take the computer out and shoot it.  It won't uninstall until I tell it to quit, which seems to be very obscure.

 

Sorry this is getting into Windows details, but they are in the way of BYE and right now I'm going nuts.  I just want to get EOS Utility and KNCTR out of my face so I can pursue BYE.

 

Thanks for any help.

[astroman133]

s3igell gives good advice about not uninstalling EOS Utility.

 

I can't help directly with Windows 10 issues, since I am running Windows 7 and only have limited experience with Windows 8 and 8.1. However there are lots of resources on the web.  Here is a link showing ways to launch the Control Panel ==> http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2691-control-panel-open-windows-10-a.html.

 

I think the key to your lens control issue is the MF/AF switch must be in the AF position.

[diane_miller]

I can live with EOS Utility if telling it to quit works -- which it seeems to be doing now.  There is no option in its Pref's to not start on camera connection.  (This is the version that came with the 7D2, 2.14.10.2.)

 

So now I can connect the camera and clicking Frame and Focus gives the focus chevrons.  They work in both AF and MF -- but I don't think I'd want the camera body trying to AF on a star field in live view mode.  (But maybe BYE somehow prevents that.) 

 

Having gotten this far, I'll go to the manual and tutorial links that someone provided and hope not to have to bother you for a while. 

 

I do appreciate the help!

[astroman133]

Diane,

 

When you use the camera manually, pressing the shutter down halfway causes the lens to auto focus, if the switch is set to AF.  When tethered to the PC and connected to BYE, there is no software equivalent to force the lens to refocus, so when you use the chevron buttons to focus that setting should stay until you use those buttons again.

 

Good Luck!

[1DegreeN]

On Windows 10, to prevent EOS utility from starting automatically when a camera is connected:

On the task bar at the RHS click on the uo pointing arrow symbol. This opens a small square window of icons for various things. One of those icons (a camera) is for EOS utility. Right click on that and a menu pops up -  on that menu choose the option to not start EOS Utility automatically when a camera connects.

You can also quit EOS utility from that pop up menu.

 

Personally I like to have EOS utility configured to start automatically - it shows there are no connection problems. Of course I have to Quit it before launching BYE.