AUTOSTAR INFORMATION Last updated: 9 March 2008

Subject:	Autostar Suite-Envisage Meade LPI Installation with Windows 2000
Sent:	Saturday, March 8, 2008 16:24:13
From:	Nohr Tillman (ntillm01@yahoo.com)
I came across your site trying to solve a problem I have been having
getting the Meade LPI working on my system. What follows is a solution
you may find value in for posting to your site. I hope to contribute
"non-problem" ideas in the future as I continue to learn my new toy.
Keep up the good work!

I could not get my LPI camera to work with AutoStar Suite. Three calls
to Meade Customer Support resulted in 6 uninstalls and re-installs.
Their last recommendation was to send me a replacement CD, which I am
sure will/would not solve the problem. Thoughts that the LPI camera may
be bad were also considered, except successful installation on an XP
computer dis-spelled that.

I have searched the 'net and have seen 2-3 others with my same problem,
including a gentleman who wrote on your site and  gave up and went back
to Windows 98 to get his stuff working. I have resolved this myself, and
wanted to offer my solution in case it may help someone else in a
similar situation.
 
The Computer:
IBM 600E, 400 MHz PII, 288 MB Ram, USB 1.1
Windows 2000 Pro, automatic Windows Updates
 
The Scope:
Meade ETX-60AT
AutoStar 494
LPI
 
The AutoStar Suite:
CD Installation Disk Version 2.0
Envisage 4.0
 
The Problem:
Installation of the AutoStar Suite was smooth and completed without
needing any reboots. When plugged in, Windows 2000 recognized the Meade
LPI, installed resident drivers, appeared in Device Manager as an
Imaging Device, and appeared in Add/Remove Programs as Meade LPI
software. At the same time, the LPI red LED lit up and appeared to be
working. Launching Envisage yielded no "live" imaging, and in the
Telescope tab, Imager drop-down box showed "no Imager".
 
The Fix:
I have spent an entire Saturday thinking about the problem, and getting
every Windows Update possible for my OS. Without the gory details, here
is my solution.

Envisage needs DirectX and .Net to operate. Numerous updates from
Windows Update were required to get everything (be patient, it does take
many tries to get everything). Even though I have Windows automatically
update, it only gets the High Priority fixes. You have to run the Custom
search to get all of the Windows 2000 updates. Then, once the Optional
updates are installed, you have to run Windows Update again, and again,
to get the security fixes for the optional updates. I'm not sure if it
was DirectX or .Net that was the most important, but after getting
everything, I tried AutoStar install again.

I had un-installed AutoStar Suite and the LPI Driver so the computer
acted like it had never seen it before. I ran the installation disk and
followed the questions. When asked to overwrite newer files, I answered
no to every one. With all the Windows updates, my computer had newer
files than the install disk. When done, I plugged in the LPI, watched it
find and install the driver and took a deep breath.

I then launched Envisage, and proudly saw a "live" LPI tab and active
pixels appearing on the screen. The Telescope Imager drop-down box now
shows "LPI" as the device. All is well and I hope to get some acceptable
images out of my beginner (but I love it) scope. Meade will get a report
of my experiences, and maybe they can add this to their support help for
(admittedly out-dated) Windows 2000.
 
Thanks for the read,
Nohr Tillman
Troy, MI

Go back to the Autostar Information page.

Go back to the ETX Home Page.