Which driver to select for Paramount MX+

[robertson...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I have an embarrassingly simple question but confused about the answer. I’ve been using PHD2 to guide my Losmandy G11 with great success. This week I did a major upgrade to Paramount MX+. I’ve got a lot to learn about it. PHD2 says to select ASCOM for the mount profile. But the mount profile list includes many ASCOM options (Dome Control, POTH Hub, Generic Hub, Gemini). I saw an instructional video that says Paramount does not support ASCOM, uses their own from “The SkyX” instead. What is the correct action?

Thank you,

Robertson Miller

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Robertson.  Software Bisque doesn’t support ASCOM without a little extra work on your part.  You first need to install their plug-in, called the Ascom 2x Mount Adaptor:

https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm#Bisque2x

When you connect to that, you then need to make sure the settings match this guide:

The important settings here are ‘use DirectGuide’ and ‘Can Get Pointing State’

You must be running TheSkyX for any of this to work - the 2x Mount Adaptor is simply translating ASCOM mount commands into SB scripting commands that are sent to TheSkyX.  From inside TheSkyX, you have to choose from the list of ASCOM drivers, you can't just connect to their own Paramount driver.  Don't choose any options that talk about running in Administrator mode, that will also cause problems.

Good luck,

Bruce

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[robertson...@gmail.com]

Thank you Bruce! 

[robertson...@gmail.com]

Follow-up to this thread. After installing the ASCOM driver for TheSkyX and selecting it in PHD2 I got another error, "TheSkyX was selected, but it does not appear to be installed or configured for scripting.” I put that question to the TheSkyX forum and got a reply from Tom that TheSkyX needs to be run once in Administrator mode to register com. He said launch  TheSkyX in admin mode, then immediately close it, then relaunch TheSkyX in normal (not admin) mode. I did that and then PHD2 was able to connect successfully.

Thank you,

Robertson

[bw_msgboard]

Thanks for letting us know, Robertson.  I'll update our support info on this topic because this really is yet another bizarre way to further confuse users.

 

Bruce

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of robertson...@gmail.com

Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2021 10:14 AM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] Which driver to select for Paramount MX+

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/27edc785-3a68-415f-a64a-2618cf74cbb8n%40googlegroups.com.