BYN w/ D300 using Parallels on a Mac

[btrabucco]

Hello.

I am unable to connect to my Nikon D300 running Parallels on my MacBook.   It works using Lightroom on the Mac side and shows up in the Windows device manager (see attached).

Know issue? Any suggestions?  Or do I have to accelerate my plans to get a cheap Win10 laptop for asto purposes?

Thanks!

[astroman133]

I wouldn't buy a PC just yet. Some people have problems when first sorting out how to get their camera connected to BYE or BYN on a Mac.

First is being able to see the camera in the Device Manager...You've got that one from the screenshot above.

Next, are you sure that there is no other application that is connected with the camera? Once that app has control of the USB port, no other app will be able to talk with the camera until the first app releases the port.

Then there is the issue of having a memory card full of images in the camera. The Nikon SDK tries to index all the images on the card and appears to stall for a few minutes. This prevents BYN from completing its connection with the camera. Be sure to use an empty (or nearly empty) memory card when using BYN.

Looking at the log file could help to determine the cause.

[btrabucco]

Thanks for the response.

The memory card is empty.   Nothing I know of is using the USB - not sure how to 100% be sure though.

The log goes through initializing the drivers "Type0001_D300\Type0001.md3" without any logged issues - It just has the "Camera Not Found! Make sure it's connected to the PC and turned ON :)"

Thanks for the help!

 

logfile-[20180304-13h02m27s492]-[5388]-2018-03-04.txt

[admin]

I see you are using the Nikon2015 drivers/sdk files; this should be correct.  However, try the other an see if this works.

[s3igell]

There are multiple Posts on the Forum about using Parallels or other VM - search for them...

One of the common issues is making sure that the Physical USB Ports on your MAC are Fully Shared via Parallels into the VM Environment...

 

[btrabucco]

@admin - I tried both sets of drivers for the D300 - still no joy.

If I switch the in camera setting for USB from MTP/PTP to Mass Storage Windows 10 recognizes the camera as a drive as it should.

I do have USB 3.0 shared to Windows.

I'll try to do a search again.  

[astroman133]

Have you tried running BYN in XP Compatibility mode?

[btrabucco]

2 hours ago, astroman133 said:

Have you tried running BYN in XP Compatibility mode?

Yes.  And as administrator just for good measure too.  Didn't work.

To eliminate problems with the camera and the cables I brought the camera to work today and tried it on my Windows 10 work machine.  That connected right up.

 

 

[btrabucco]

Did everything in this post:

https://kb.parallels.com/en/111725

Downloaded trial version of Camera Control Pro from Nikon - it doesn't work either.  

I think I gotta find a cable for my D7100 and see if that works better than the D300.   Prefer the 300 as it is modified.  Dedicated laptop is looking better!

[admin]

3 hours ago, btrabucco said:

Did everything in this post:

https://kb.parallels.com/en/111725

Downloaded trial version of Camera Control Pro from Nikon - it doesn't work either.  

I think I gotta find a cable for my D7100 and see if that works better than the D300.   Prefer the 300 as it is modified.  Dedicated laptop is looking better!

Camera Control Pro from Nikon uses the same SDK files as BYN.  Once you get Camera Control Pro from Nikon to work BYN should as well.

Keep us posted, these issues are painful to solve

[btrabucco]

34 minutes ago, admin said:

Camera Control Pro from Nikon uses the same SDK files as BYN.  Once you get Camera Control Pro from Nikon to work BYN should as well.

Keep us posted, these issues are painful to solve

Thanks and will do.   Can't wait to start using the software - looks awesome!

I created a support request with Parallels.  Let's see how that goes...

On 3/4/2018 at 3:27 PM, astroman133 said:

I wouldn't buy a PC just yet. Some people have problems when first sorting out how to get their camera connected to BYE or BYN on a Mac.

First is being able to see the camera in the Device Manager...You've got that one from the screenshot above.

Next, are you sure that there is no other application that is connected with the camera? Once that app has control of the USB port, no other app will be able to talk with the camera until the first app releases the port.

Then there is the issue of having a memory card full of images in the camera. The Nikon SDK tries to index all the images on the card and appears to stall for a few minutes. This prevents BYN from completing its connection with the camera. Be sure to use an empty (or nearly empty) memory card when using BYN.

Looking at the log file could help to determine the cause.

 

[btrabucco]

So I finally got a cable for my D7200.  It failed miserably as well.

So I said screw it and created a brand spankin' new Parallels Windows 10 VM and that solved the problems!  So I am in business.  I'll rock this for a bit until I find a great deal on a dedicated windows laptop.

Thanks for all the input!

 

 

[s3igell]

16 minutes ago, btrabucco said:

So I said screw it and created a brand spankin' new Parallels Windows 10 VM and that solved the problems!  So I am in business.  I'll rock this for a bit until I find a great deal on a dedicated windows laptop.

If you are familiar enough with Parallels, it would be great if you could compare the settings - especially the USB and Device Control - between your failed and successful VMs.  Posting your findings might help future Apple Users avoid similar issues...

 

 

[btrabucco]

I spent a bit of time last night comparing them.  I saw no obvious mismatches.  All the Parallels settings were the same as was everything I can find in the Windows settings. 

However - I did discover a bit to my surprise that the original VM was Windows "N" variant.  (stripped down of multimedia stuff).  I'm surprised if that mattered.  Maybe MS also stripped out some camera driver support in N.  The primary function of that VM is my software development work so it was installed from a MSDN subscription and I never noticed the missing features.

The new one is a clean straight up Windows 10 pro install.

In short I believe the best advice I could give anyone with Parallels issues is to create a new small VM just for your astro stuff if you can spare the drive space.  With all the basic thingees mine clocked in at 28gb.