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New Cx and Gx camera drivers
 While the proportion of Cx and Gx camera users on non-Windows platforms is small, the popularity of these platforms is on the rise. That's why we provide an overview of new native drivers for Linux and macOS operating systems.

Native libraries

In addition to native Windows camera drivers, native Cx and Gx camera libraries are also available for macOS and Linux operating systems. For the Linux variant, there is not only a choice of i686 (32-bit) and x86-64 (64-bit) architecture, but also ARM architecture, in versions 6, 7 and 8 (AArch64). The macOS library is universal — it contains code for the 64-bit variant of Intel processors and the ARM64 variant for Apple Silicon processors.

These libraries allow you to operate all Cx series CMOS cameras (models C1 to C4) and Gx series CCD cameras (models G0 to G4) connected via both USB and Ethernet interfaces. A list of these functions and their documentation can be found directly in the gxccd.h header file inside the library archive. Also included is a source file with a small example of how to use the library.

All libraries can be downloaded from the Download section of this web site.

Drivers for TheSkyX

We have been providing the native camera driver for TheSkyX software from Software Bisque for Windows since 2013. Now 4 more variants have been added to this driver, thus covering all platforms on which TheSkyX runs.

macOS version:

The driver works on macOS 10.12 or higher on Intel 64-bit processors and macOS 11.0 or higher on Apple Silicon processors.

To install, simply download the Moravian-Camera-Driver-for-TSX.pkg file and run it. It will run the classic installer, which will do everything necessary to install the driver:

Driver Installation Wizard

Driver Installation Wizard

More information can be found in the documentation here.

TheSkyX running on macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" operating system.

TheSkyX running on macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" operating system.

Linux and Raspberry Pi version:

After downloading the driver archive, just extract the contents. Inside the folder with the name of the driver (e.g. libx2gx-3.2-linux-x86_64), there is an installation script, the driver files themselves, a rules file for the udev daemon, and a README file with a description of the installation and other information.

To install, just run the installation script with the following command:

Example:

$ sh install.sh

Remark:

The script uses the sudo command to install the udev rules, so it may require a password to continue the installation.

TheSkyX running on Ubuntu 16.04.

TheSkyX running on Ubuntu 16.04.

All these drivers can be downloaded from the Download section of this web site.

INDI

We have already written about the driver for the INDI library in the article The Gx CCD camera drivers for INDILIB. Newly, this driver can also be used with Cx series cameras and also with macOS operating system.

INDI Server running on macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" operating system.

INDI Server running on macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" operating system.

INDIGO

INDIGO is a relatively new standard for the development of astronomical software. It is backward compatible with the INDI communication protocol, but it also brings many improvements. The focus of the INDIGO standard is mainly on user-friendliness of operation and working with various devices. In addition, INDIGO is not burdened with the GPL license as the INDI library, so it can be used, for example, in commercial applications.

You can find the Cx and Gx camera driver for INDIGO under the name ccd_mi directly on the Github server. You can also download installation packages for Linux (Intel 32-bit and 64-bit or ARM v7/8) or macOS from the INDIGO Astronomy site.

Warning:

This driver currently only supports USB-connected cameras.

AstroImager program connected to INDIGO server running on macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" operating system.

AstroImager program connected to INDIGO server running on macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" operating system.

 
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