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Controlling a T6i with an XP computer

Conrad12n
Apprentice

I have a Canon EOS t6i, and an interest in astrophotography. I have a computer in my observatory running XP to control the telescope. There is a significant amount of software which is not WIN 8 or 10 compatable on this computer.

 

I would like tyo control the EOS t6i with the computer to allow remote focussing, object centering, and evaluation of exposed images. The EOS Utility would be fine but I cannot get it to run on an XP computer.

 

Is anyone aware of software that is T6i and xp compatable for camera control. ( taking exposures, setting exposure time etc)?

Or is there a way to get EOS Utility to load and run on WIN XP?

 

Thank you

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION


@kvbarkley wrote:

If you have some mad coding skilz and a compiler for XP, you could get Canon's SDK and roll your own, but that is probably your only option.


I have no idea how far back in time the Canon SDKs go, but if they released one for XP, it is highly unlikely that it would know hot to communicate with a T6i.  One major issue with the release of Windows 7/8/10 is that Microsoft made a major change in how serial ports worked within the .NET Framework.  

 

Many serial port applications written for .NET 2.0 were broken beyond repair in later releases of the Framework if coders didn't follow the prescribed protocols for abstracting their software.  In other words, all of the applications where developers took shortcuts were broken because they wrote their code to be hardware dependent, instead of writing against a virtual machine.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8

Richard
Product Expert
Product Expert

Hi Conrad12n,

 

Thank you for posting.

 

The earliest version of Windows the EOS Rebel T6i supports is Windows 7. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

Waddizzle
Legend
Legend

Windows XP probably has no idea what a Rebel T6i is.  The T6i was released by Canon a few years after Microsoft ended support for XP.  Unfortunately, I think you may be out of luck using a T6i with an XP machine.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

kvbarkley
VIP
VIP

If you have some mad coding skilz and a compiler for XP, you could get Canon's SDK and roll your own, but that is probably your only option.


@kvbarkley wrote:

If you have some mad coding skilz and a compiler for XP, you could get Canon's SDK and roll your own, but that is probably your only option.


I have no idea how far back in time the Canon SDKs go, but if they released one for XP, it is highly unlikely that it would know hot to communicate with a T6i.  One major issue with the release of Windows 7/8/10 is that Microsoft made a major change in how serial ports worked within the .NET Framework.  

 

Many serial port applications written for .NET 2.0 were broken beyond repair in later releases of the Framework if coders didn't follow the prescribed protocols for abstracting their software.  In other words, all of the applications where developers took shortcuts were broken because they wrote their code to be hardware dependent, instead of writing against a virtual machine.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

I am assuming that the SDK includes support for the T6i and that it can be modified to run on XP - there can't be that much difference given MS's penchant for backward compatibility. One can only hope that Canon writes portable code.


@kvbarkley wrote:

I am assuming that the SDK includes support for the T6i and that it can be modified to run on XP - there can't be that much difference given MS's penchant for backward compatibility. One can only hope that Canon writes portable code.


With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft did away with backwards compatibility.  If you wanted to upgrade your XP install, you couldn't migrate your applications to Windows 7.  A Windows 7 upgrade would wipe your hard drive.  

 

Extensive changes were made in how applications could interact with your computer's hardware.  These changes were made in pursuit of better security against hackers.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."


@Waddizzle wrote:

@kvbarkley wrote:

I am assuming that the SDK includes support for the T6i and that it can be modified to run on XP - there can't be that much difference given MS's penchant for backward compatibility. One can only hope that Canon writes portable code.


With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft did away with backwards compatibility.  If you wanted to upgrade your XP install, you couldn't migrate your applications to Windows 7.  A Windows 7 upgrade would wipe your hard drive.  

 

Extensive changes were made in how applications could interact with your computer's hardware.  These changes were made in pursuit of better security against hackers.


In my last job I was involved in every Windows upgrade from Windows 95 through Windows 10, and I don't recall the upgrade to Windows 7 being more difficult than average. It was certainly easier than the subsequent upgrade to Windows 8. (The really bad upgrade was to Vista, but we skipped that one, thank God.)

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

I wrote the origional question/message.

 

I cannot get the later versions (that support the T6i) of EOS Utilities to run/load on my observatory XP machine. I have been in contact with other camera control software developers (ImagersPlus example) and they tell me their latest updates (which support my camera) need Win 7 or later also.

I am not a SW geek, but I have tried placing drivers from the most recent EOS Utility on the XP, with no success.

 

In short I believe there is not a simple fix. Since I have expensive to replace planetarium SW which I use to remotely point the telescope, I am exploring dual boot options XP and Win 8.

 

Thanks all for your inputs.

 

Conrad

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