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TCF-S Software Control
The TCF-S focuser was the first telescope focuser to offer serial port control and ushered in an era of telescope accessory automation. Focus is the single most critical factor in astronomical imaging and the TCF-S family of focusers are supported by most telescope and camera control software packages currently available.
Optec provides the TCF-S Control stand-alone
program and ASCOM drivers for the Microsoft Windows platforms available
for download at no charge here.
Mac and Linux users can also find links to software platforms for these
operating systems on our Resources
page.
AutoFocus Software
The real power of the TCF-S Focusers come alive with AutoFocusing
software. There are many autofocus routines being developed with
Larry Weber and Steve Brady's
FocusMax
being one of the first. FocusMax was originally designed to take
advantage of the TCF-S focuser's absolute positioning capability.
CCDSoft and Maxim D/L include native autofocus routines as does Equinox
for Mac OS users. While exceptionally powerful, autofocus requires
a relatively high degree of understanding to set up your system
properly. We recommend visiting the website of your favorite
autofocus software vendor to configure and optimize your system for
quick, repeatable, and reliable focus with every image.
Important information for TCF-S3 users of CCDSoft:
For users of CCDSoft and the TCF-S3 and TCF-S3i focusers, it is
necessary to increase the maximum number of steps allowed by CCDSoft
from 7,000 to 10,000 steps. This can be done easily by editing the
SBFocuser.ini file in the C:\Windows folder.
Scroll down through the SBFocuser.ini text file to the
TCFS section and add the following line:
[TCFS] MaxPos=10,000
Restart CCDSoft and verify that the TCF-S3 now allows the full range of focal travel.
Important Information for TCF-S3 ASCOM users including MaxIM:
The ASCOM driver version 4.1.0 formerly available on the ASCOM website and now mirrored on our site is a full executable setup package. However, this package does not provide full support for the TCF-S3 and so we recommend downloading the version 4.2.0 zip file found here.
Unzip the package and copy the file OptecTCF Driver.dll to the following location:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\ASCOM\Focuser
Restart the ASCOM chooser to select the new version. Feel free to contact Optec if you have any problems with this procedure.
