ASCOM Camera

For this driver, please select ASCOM on the Setup tab.

This plug-in supports cameras supported via the ASCOM standardized interface. To select and configure the camera, click the Advanced button. This will bring up the ASCOM Chooser.

Settings for the camera will depend on the individual model, as determined by the manufacturer and/or driver author.

The ASCOM Platform and appropriate camera driver must be installed in order for this plug-in to work.

Please see http://ascom-standards.org for more information on ASCOM drivers or to download the ASCOM Platform.

There are also two options available:

Important Note:  Although most cameras work well with threading, some models might not be compatible.  If you experience problems operating your ASCOM-based camera, try disabling threading - see Setup Tab Options dialog. If threading does not cause problems then we strongly recommend leaving it on, as it improves program performance and responsiveness.  

 

ASCOM Camera Gain/Offset

If the camera driver reports that it supports gain/offset controls, a Gain/Offset Control panel will appear:

Some ASCOM drivers report gain/offset capability, even though it is not present.  Also in some cases you may not want to adjust these settings.  If so, you can disable this dialog by settings Offset/Gain Dlg to Disabled.

Depending on your camera model, you will be able to set Gain and/or Offset either via a drop list or a numerical input.  This is controlled by the ASCOM driver.

If you do not need to adjust the Gain/Offset Control, turn off Always on Top. This will allow it to float behind the MaxIm DL window.  If you need to access it, use the Windows Taskbar icon.

The control panel will not appear if the ASCOM driver does not have gain or offset features.

 

In-Driver Stacking

This plug-in has the capability to perform in-driver stacking, which is useful for some limited-exposure CMOS cameras.  To enable this feature, open this file in Notepad:

Documents\MaxIm DL 6\Settings\CCDPlugASCOM\Settings.txt

Add the line:

SubExposureSec 0.0

The default of 0.0 retains the standard behavior.  If you change the value to, e.g. 2.0, then a 6.0 second exposure will actually be comprised of three 2.0 second exposures taken by the camera, stacked within the plug-in.  If the sub-exposure does not divide evenly into the total exposure requested, then the last image taken will be shorter; for example, a 5.0 second exposure would result in three exposures of 2.0, 2.0, and 1.0 seconds respectively.  

 

Availability of this feature depends on Product Level.