Autofocus

[ridgesoar]

Just been talking to Starizona about using their MicroTouch auto focus and discovered that their Focusmax software does not work with BYN. Is there any plan to make these compatable?? Seems a shame to have such a GREAT capture program but miss the chance to have the computer constantly focus and adjust for temp.

[admin]

Not at the moment

 

Here is a lengthy conversation in the feature suggestion box forum.

[astroman133]

First, FocusMax is not "Starizona software". FocusMax is sold by CCDWare and the author is Steve Brady.

 

BYE and BYN have a callable API that FocusMax could use to capture an image, save that image to disk, and give FocusMax the file path. However this is not enough for FocusMax which in addition needs functions like being able to provide only part of the image around the focus star.

 

Personally, speaking as a retired developer, I think that FocusMax is missing out by not having camera capture alternatives, like BYE and BYN, that are more currently popular than software like CCDSoft and less expensive than software like MaximDL. The place to put a wrapper to provide the missing support for FM is in a wrapper that FM would use to access the image.

 

One possibility that I have suggested to others but have not heard back is that The Sky X can use BYE/BYN for image capture and FocusMax can use TSX to get images for focusing. I do not know whether this would work, but it may be possible to have FM use TSX to have BYN take a picture. That may be worth asking Software Bisque about.

[ridgesoar]

I see that I've jumped into an ongoing process. I stand anticipating a solution . Thanks. John

[s3igell]

I see that I've jumped into an ongoing process. I stand anticipating a solution . Thanks. John

Push the Idea to the Folks at Starizona (since they are a Major Retailer for FocusMax/CCDWare), and/or directly with CCDWare.  The Ball is in their Court...

[ridgesoar]

New question. If I used the starizona Micro Touch and loaded just their MicroTouch software and not any Focusmax, would I be able to use the focus arrows on BYN to manually focus?

[astroman133]

You would need the ASCOM Platform and the ASCOM driver for the MicroTouch focuser. Then you would be able to manipulate the focuser with the Premium version of bYE or BYN.