Focusmax 4 and old profile

[Joel Hatfield]

I'm going to download Focusmax 4 this week and I'm wondering if I can use my saved profile to carry over to FM 4? I'd like to save the time of running new v curves.

Thanks,
Joel


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dick Berg]

Hi Joel,

Yes, you can move your profile from FMx3 to FMx4.

I did this by copying the <myprofilename>.ini file from the C://.../MyDocuments/FocusMax folder to the C://Program Files (x86)/FocusMax 4 folder.

You will have to do some setup and "connections" through the chooser for the focuser and telescope, but that is straightforward. The v-curve and all your focusing settings will be immediately available from the .ini file you moved.

[Joel Hatfield]

Thanks Dick, I was hoping that's the way it would work.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Bob Denny]

Thank you for helping Dick!!

[Karsten Schindler]

Joel,

Out of curiosity, how does v4 compare to the last freeware release v3.8.0.20?
I am pretty happy with v3.8.0.20, and have not yet tried a demo of v4. I was just wondering in which regard FocusMax has improved significantly... Maybe there is a good reason to try out the new version.

Karsten

[Joel Hatfield]

Hi Karsten. To be honest I downloaded FM 4 to help with an issue of losing focuser connection and it didn't help with that. I'm not blaming Focusmax but it may be an issue with my mount connecting and Maxim. Seems when my mount disconnects so does the focuser. I made a Maxim change and I haven't had a chance to test it more since I'm having an autofocus issue that's unrelated to Focusmax right now that we're trying to get to the bottom of and I haven't been able to get any good imaging runs lately since I downloaded FM 4.

Because of this I really haven't been able to evaluate FM 4. I wish I could help you with a recommendation but maybe someone else can.

Joel


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Rob Hawley]

A number of things that were turned off in FM3 reappeared. FM4 kept registering errors talking to Maxim 5. Was never able to complete a focus cycle. After an hour I decided I had spent enough time on a dark night on this and rolled back to FM3.

I will revisit this next week during the full moon. Ultimately I will need to move to FM4 since that is now the only version supported (although FM3 works fine for now).

[Karsten Schindler]

Thanks for the honest opinion. We will stay with FM3 for now as long as we do not experience any compatibility issues.

[Rob Hawley]

After two more nights work I finally have FM4 running.

One problem was definitely pilot error. The new First Light Wizard works very differently than FM3 and I kept killing it too early.

Aside from that it is important to go through every configuration setting. Many new parameters were added. Not all parameters that were in FM3 moved over.

Still in the end I think it was worth the work. It has several new features that will allow it to focus better with my ultra narrowband filters.

[Bob Denny]

Rob -- Thanks for getting back here with your experiences and advice. I also think FM4 is worth the upgrade.