Telescope Reviews: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding

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Equipment Discussions >> Mounts

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Patrick
Postmaster

Reged: 05/16/03

Loc: Franklin, Ohio

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: JoseBorrero]
#5635727 - 01/21/13 09:12 PM

Quote:

Patrick you're the second person I know with same problem on same mount. A faulty ST-4 was rule out when using the SX guiding software all work. On other threads out CN I found that was possible that a driver from the SX installation disk came without the proper driver that PHD needs. In my opinion contacting Terry at SX can be productive. Other failed try's was to install an older version of PHD. Good Luck

Hmmm...interesting! I will contact Terry. Thanks so much for the tip.

Patrick

Post Extras:

Patrick
Postmaster

Reged: 05/16/03

Loc: Franklin, Ohio

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Peter in Reno]
#5635734 - 01/21/13 09:16 PM

Quote:

There are several drivers for SX cameras depending on Operating System and 32 or 64 bits:

Peter,

Thanks for the link. I noticethat the drivers are for USB 2.0 or 1.1. I've had my USB hub connected to a USB 3.0 port. Do you suppose that could make any difference? I can try hooking it up to one of the USB 2.0 ports to see if it makes a difference.

Patrick

Post Extras:

Peter in Reno
Post Laureate

Reged: 07/15/08

Loc: Reno, NV

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Patrick]
#5635754 - 01/21/13 09:26 PM

Patrick,

I think it would be safer to use USB 2.0 ports. I have read issues of USB 2.0 devices connecting to USB 3.0 ports of PC. In theory it should not matter. What computer, Operating System and is it 32 or 64 bits? If you have USB 3.0, it sounds like you have a new computer.

Peter

Post Extras:

mmalik
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 01/13/12

Loc: USA

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Patrick]
#5635788 - 01/21/13 09:50 PM

Quote:

I notice that the drivers are for USB 2.0 or 1.1. I've had my USB hub connected to a USB 3.0 port. Do you suppose that could make any difference? I can try hooking it up to one of the USB 2.0 ports to see if it makes a difference.

I should have mentioned, USB 3.0 didn't work for me. I had to plug into USB 2.0 port for PHD to work properly. I would also suggest removing hub from the equation. I think you are close to solving your problem. Thx

Post Extras:

Peter in Reno
Post Laureate

Reged: 07/15/08

Loc: Reno, NV

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: mmalik]
#5635804 - 01/21/13 10:00 PM

A powered USB hub should be fine. I use 35ft active USB cable from laptop to powered hub and then 6ft USB cable from powered hub to Lodestar. Works great.

Peter

Post Extras:

Patrick
Postmaster

Reged: 05/16/03

Loc: Franklin, Ohio

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: mmalik]
#5635961 - 01/21/13 11:31 PM

Quote:

I should have mentioned, USB 3.0 didn't work for me. I had to plug into USB 2.0 port for PHD to work properly. I would also suggest removing hub from the equation. I think you are close to solving your problem. Thx

I will try plugging into the USB 2.0 port. I hope it's not the hub because I don't like the idea of adding 3 more cables to the equation.

Patrick

Post Extras:

Patrick
Postmaster

Reged: 05/16/03

Loc: Franklin, Ohio

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Peter in Reno]
#5635968 - 01/21/13 11:33 PM

Quote:

What computer, Operating System and is it 32 or 64 bits? If you have USB 3.0, it sounds like you have a new computer.

Sony Vaio laptop...Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I think I got the computer last spring, 2012, so yes it's fairly new. It runs great.

Patrick

Post Extras:

Patrick
Postmaster

Reged: 05/16/03

Loc: Franklin, Ohio

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Patrick]
#5638081 - 01/23/13 12:08 AM

Quote:

I will try plugging into the USB 2.0 port.

I believe that is the problem. I plugged the USB hub into the 2.0 port and now PHD seems to be guiding through the ST-4 port, at least I think so. It's cloudy here so I'm basing that on using manual guiding and reading out the RA/DEC coordinates on the hand controller. The coordinates seem to be changing direction when I switch back and forth in directions, ie North-South, East-West.

I can also run PHD Guiding at the same time that Starry Night Pro Plus 6 is connected to the mount.

Thanks everyone!

Patrick

Post Extras:

pfile
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 06/14/09

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Patrick]
#5639947 - 01/24/13 02:05 AM

good news. by the way, there can be differences between ascom pulse guiding and ST-4 guiding depending on the mount. for instance, on the gemini-2, the RA ST-4 inputs are serviced by interrupts. the Dec is polled. so short dec pulses on the ST-4 input can be ignored by the G2 if it gets busy.

Post Extras:

aberrs
member

Reged: 08/23/11

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: Peter in Reno]
#5649246 - 01/28/13 08:56 PM

Quote:

Hi Patrick,

If you did, then the only thing I can think of is faulty white ST-4 autoguider cable that came with Lodestar. Not the first time I've heard.

Peter

This EXACT thing happened to me with a lodestar I bought a few weeks ago. The white cable had 1 or two wires that were not connected right, so PHD saw it, and it would start to calibrate, but never calibrate correctly, and the mount would only guide on one axis.

A polite email to my vendor with an image of the cable (once I figured out where the issue was) and a new cable was on the way, which, of course fixed everything....

except for the 2 nights I spent tearing my hair out trying to figure out the problem!

Post Extras:

WillCarney
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/08/09

Loc: Bloomington, ILL

Re: PHD Guiding and On-Camera Guiding new

[Re: aberrs]
#5656232 - 02/01/13 12:05 PM

Sometimes I have issues with guiding and my Atlas. I generally have to reinstall ASCOM and guider drivers. Over time they can be damaged. Seems like a few times a year I have a FUBAR-SNAFU with ASCOM and my Vista Home. Also I found that you have to do things a certain way.

I found if I don't do this in sequence the same way each time for some reason I have problems.

Power and align mount as uaual.
Open and bring up Starry Night. Plug in cable and connect. To the mount.
Make sure you talking to your mount through Starry Night.
Open and bring up PHD. Plug in camera to computer and mount.
If it connects then try to guide and get calibration.
If all that works then bring up Maxium or whatever to control you astro camera.

Often if I connect the PHD before Starry Night the PHD will fail. It has to do with ASCOM and Windows assigning ports and conflicting each other. William

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