-= Vista 64bit MX716 Driver Package =- v1.0.1.1 BETA This package contains 64bit Vista drivers for the Starlight Xpress MX716 CCD camera. Users of 32bit Vista or XP systems should use the official Starlight Xpress drivers available from the StarlightXpress website. Please read through the installation instructions before attempting to install and use these drivers. These drivers are in BETA. They may contain bugs and/or not work as expected. As the drivers are user mode however any crashes will be restricted to the driver and at worst the application using it, such as Star_MX7 or MaximDL. Please report any problems you may have with these drivers, my email address is at the bottom of this text file. -= Package Contents =- The driver package you downloaded should include the following files - WdfCoInstaller01007.dll - WinUSBCoInstaller.dll - WUDFUpdate_01007.dll - BlockIO.inf - BlockIO.dll - MX716Loader.inf - MX716Loader.dll - 05472131.HEX - this readme -= !WARNING WARNING WARNING! =- DO _NOT_ use windows update to locate drivers for the Starlight Xpress USB1.1 interface, doing so will likely result in the wrong drivers been downloaded and installed. If you have already done so, skip down to the windows update troubleshooting section for details on how to recover. -= Installation Instructions =- The following installation instructions will cover installing the drivers and firmware files needed to use the MX716/7C camera with the Starlight XPress software, AstroArt4 and MaximDL (when using Obsolete Camera Models pack) along with any other software compatible with the original Startlight XPress firmware. MaxIM DL users wishing to use the custom SX Universal firmware rather than the "Obsolete Camera Models" pack should refer to the "MAXIM DL" section below for additional installation steps and instructions on how to manually switch between the two firmwares. Users with technical experience may want to skip down to the less verbose "Quick Installation" section. 1 - Connect the USB1.1 interface (do not plug into mains at this time) 2 - The "Found new hardware" dialogue should appear. 3 - Select "Ask me again later" Failure to do this, may result in windows downloading an unsuitable driver via windows update. Refer to the "Windows Update Troubleshooting" section if you have already done this. 4 - Open the "Device Manager" found in the Control Panel 5 - Locate and expand the "Other devices" section. You should have an unknown device entry. Right click on the device and select properties. If you have more than one unknown device listed, locate the correct device as follows. On each device in turn, right click and select "properties". In the details tab, select the "Hardware IDs" property and look for an entry with the VID 0547 and PID 2131. 6 - In the "General" tab, select "Reinstall Driver" 7 - You should be presented with the option to either search automatically for an updated driver, or "Browse my computer for driver software". Select the Browse my computer option. 8 - Click Browse and locate the folder you extracted the drivers to (the one that contains this readme_first.txt file) then Click Ok and then click NEXT. 9 - You should now be presented with a RED Windows Security box stating that it cannot find the publisher. Click Install this driver anyway. Windows will now install the first of the two drivers, this may take a few minutes. 10 - Device manager should now show a MX716Loader group with a single device "Starlight XPress Empty USB1.1" 11 - Copy the 05472131.HEX file to c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\ 12 - Unplug the USB device, wait 10 seconds and reconnect. 13 - When the find new hardware dialogue appears, again select "Ask me later" 14 - The device manager should have a "BlockIO" device listed in "unknown devices" Right click, select update drivers software. 15 - Select browse my computer for driver software, the search location should already be correct, click Next and again select "Install driver anyway" when prompted about signing. 16 - Device manager should now show three new devices Human Interface Devices\HID-compliant device Human Interface Devices\USB Human Interface Device Starlight Xpress MX716 BlockIO 17 - Fill kettle with water and boil 18 - Insert tea bag + milk into empty mug 19 - Make yourself a cuppa :) -= Quick Installation =- 1 - Plug the device in and cancel any installation dialogue that appears 2 - In device manager, locate the unknown device with VID/PID 0547/2131 and select update driver. 3 - Point windows to the folder you extracted the drivers to and install 4 - Copy the 05472131.hex file into c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\ 5 - Remove and reconnect the usb device 6 - Update drivers for BlockIO device pointing windows to the folder you previously extracted the drivers to. -= MaxIM DL SX Universal Installation =- MaxIM DL users have two firmware options available. Users of other software products such as AstroArt can skip this section. * ORIGINAL STARLIGHT FIRMWARE The first uses the original Starlight Xpress HEX file included with this driver and requires the "Obsolete Camera Models" pack installing (for MaxIM 5). Which may be obtained from:- http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/Obsolete_Camera_Models.htm If you wish to use that option, follow the standard installation instructions above and select the appropriate camera model from within the MaxIM DL Camera Control window. You do not need to do anything further. * SX UNIVERSAL FIRMWARE The second (and newer) option is to use the custom SX Universal Firmware that ships with MaxIM DL. Doing so requires a few extra steps. First follow the instructions in the "standard installation" section. NOTE: When using MaximDL with the Universal driver firmware, you must manually install the firmware rather than use the Hex File Manager built into MaxIM. If you use the built in Hex File Manager, not only will you need to first run MaxIm as Administrator, but it will install the 05472131.HEX file into the SysWOW64 directory rather than the System32 directory which is the location the 64 bit drivers expect to find the firmware HEX file. If you've already used the Hex File Manager, delete the hex file that can be found in Windows\SysWOW64\drivers\05472131.HEX although it will do no harm to leaving it there, it will avoid later confusion. To Install the firmware manually, locate the MaxIM DL installation folder, it should contain a SXHex directory which has various firmware hex files. Make a copy of the universal.hex file and rename the copy to 05472131.HEX then copy this file into Windows\System32\drivers\ If you've followed the standard installations instructions, you'll be prompted to overwrite an existing 05472131.HEX file, say yes. (We're replacing the original Starlight XPress firmware with the custom SX Univeral firmware) Now unplug the USB device, wait a short time and reconnect it. Load up MaxIM DL and go the Camera Control window, select "Setup Camera" and change the "Camera Model" to "SX Univeral". The "Connect To" box should now list "Generic". Change the "Guider" box to "No Guider" and the "Camera Model" box next to it to your camera type and set "Select AO" to "Disable" (assuming you only have one camera and no AO ;) Click OK, then select connect. You should now be able to take exposures. If for any reason the Camera Model box displays "No Cameras", ensure you have "SX Universal" selected and then exit and re-run MaxIM DL. * REVERTING Should you have issues with the universal hex file, you can always revert to the original Starlight Xpress firmware by copying the HEX file included with this driver into "Windows\System32\drivers\", overwritting the existing hex file if present. Remember, you will need to download and install the Obsolete Camera Models pack to use the original Starlight firmware with MaxIm DL. Switching back and forth between the original Starlight XPress firmware and the SX Universal firmware is thus as simple as overwriting the 05472131.HEX file in Windows/System32/Drivers with the corresponding HEX file. * COMPATABILITY The universal hex should only be used with MaxIM DL. Once you copy it to "Windows\System32\drivers\" you will no longer be able to use your camera with other software such as the Starlight XPress software or AstroArt unless you revert the firmware as described in the "REVERTING" section above. -= Trouble Shooting =- Should the camera fail to work after installing the drivers there are a few things to check. * INSTALL PROBLEM Firstly, reboot before doing anything else, this can solve most problems that are related to windows having to update locked files. Ensure both HID devices and the BlockIO device are listed in device manager _without_ any yellow warning triangles on their icon. If the devices do have a warning icon, reboot your PC, right click the device and update the drivers again, be sure to select the correct folder path for windows to search. Failing that, follow the uninstallation instructions. After rebooting attempt to perform the installation again. * Star_MX7 - HID Device not found If when running the Star_MX7 software and attempting to access the camera interface you receive a HID error, you may be experiencing a HID conflict. The only current solution to this is to unplug the USB device, then open device manager and look for any other devices that are under the Human Interface DEvice section. You will need to disable each and every device then re-enable them in turn to find out which device(s) are conflicting with the Star_MX7 software. I have experienced conflicts with a built in Infrared port as well as a TrackWheel device. Both of these devices have to be disabled prior to plugging in the USB1.1 box and running the starMX7 software. * Windows Update Troubleshooting If you allowed windows to automatically search for and install drivers rather than selecting the "Ask me later" option, you may have drivers installed that are not compatible with the Starlight XPress USB1.1 interface. Look through device manager for any devices that appear when you plug the usb interface in, for example "Pasco Xplorer Bootload" is one that windows update picked up for me. Right click on this device, select uninstall and tick the "delete the driver software for this device". Unplug the usb device, wait 10 seconds and plug back in. This time, click "ASK ME LATER" ;) and follow the installation instructions as normal. -= Uninstallation Instructions =- Uninstallation can be achieved in a few steps by using the device manager with the device connected. - Open the "Device Manager" - Locate "Starlight XPress MX716 BlockIO" device, right click, uninstall Tick "Delete the driver software for this device" then ok. - Locate the "HID-compliant Device" and "USB Human Interface Device" if you have more than one, check hardware Ids in details to find the devices with VID/PID 4242/4220 and select uninstall for both these devices. You will not have an option to "delete the driver software" for those devices. - Unplug the usb device - Delete the firmware file in c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\05472131.HEX - Plug the device back in - Locate "Starlight XPress Empty USB1.1" device, right click and uninstall. Tick the "Delete the driver software for this device" then ok. * -= Contact Details =- If you have any problems with these drivers, comments or just want to say thank you, feel free to send me an email at the below address. Gary Preston gary@figmentgames.com http://www.figmentgames.com http://blog.figmentgames.com/category/astronomy/ -= Disclaimer of Warranty =- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS". NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE AS TO IT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON. INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. FigmentGames WILL PROVIDE NO REMEDY FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM IT, INCLUDING SUCH FROM NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, EVEN AFTER NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 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