9 replies to this topic

[etunar]

I have a permanent setup that's been working fine until about 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I went on holiday and took the laptop( which my astro setup is connected to) with me. 

 

Tonight when i plugged the laptop back in, cameras (both main camera and the guide camera) were not detected. Everything else works fine, including filterwheel and rotator which are connected to the main camera hub. 

 

I tried different cables with no luck, so not a cable problem. I re-installed ascom platform, newest ascom drivers and the zwo camera drivers. But still no luck. 

 

I am assuming the windows update before the holiday must have broken the drivers, but I would have thought the latest drivers on the ZWO website should work.

 

Has anyone else been having similar issues, or can advise how to resolve?

[robbieg147]

I had something similar once after installing the Sky x one of my ZWO cameras was not detected.

 

Reinstalling the ZWO drivers cured the problem.

 

Have you tried connecting the camera directly to your laptop?

 

What software are you using?

[etunar]

I had something similar once after installing the Sky x one of my ZWO cameras was not detected.

 

Reinstalling the ZWO drivers cured the problem.

 

Have you tried connecting the camera directly to your laptop?

 

What software are you using?

yea i tried direct connection with both cameras. Normally I use APT, but even with ASI studio it just comes up with no cameras detected. They dont appear on device manager either. 

[unimatrix0]

You have to do a end to end inspection.  There are no silver bullet answers for these.

 

 

Start with your laptop's USB port. Does it even work?

 

Try pluggin in something else and see if that works or not.  

 

Next try a different usb cable

 

Last-  if you have another computer or someone does, try using that. Borrow one if you have to. Temporarly install the asi drivers and see if the cameras connect.

 

Since you mentioned that there are at least 2 cameras not working,  I suspect it's your laptop. Just a guess, based on evidence.

[bignerdguy]

I have a permanent setup that's been working fine until about 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I went on holiday and took the laptop( which my astro setup is connected to) with me. 

 

Tonight when i plugged the laptop back in, cameras (both main camera and the guide camera) were not detected. Everything else works fine, including filterwheel and rotator which are connected to the main camera hub. 

 

I tried different cables with no luck, so not a cable problem. I re-installed ascom platform, newest ascom drivers and the zwo camera drivers. But still no luck. 

 

I am assuming the windows update before the holiday must have broken the drivers, but I would have thought the latest drivers on the ZWO website should work.

 

Has anyone else been having similar issues, or can advise how to resolve?

I had this issue with a tablet PC that i have been using for my astrophotos.  i have a different camera i use as a guider and after a windows update it stopped being detected correctly.  if i look in device manager under the USB section it shows an unknown device and simply will not detect the camera at all even if i try to force the drivers.  I think the issue was the USB chipset drivers were updated by M$ and since then they will not work.  There is no way for me to fix this as the laptop is older and the only drivers out there that it uses for USB hub devices is the M$ supplied one.  You might be running into a similar thing if you can look in device manager and see an unknown device listed too.  If it does not see the camera AT ALL, then it might be a power issue.  if you plug this into the laptop via a hub try this instead:  Disconnect all USB devices from the laptop and plug just 1 camera into the laptop directly.  see if it detects the camera.  if not then either the cameras are having an issue or the laptop USB drivers are corrupt or not a version that supports the cameras needs. You can determine this by plugging the camera into another PC and see if they are detected there correctly or not.  if not then definitely the camera is the issue.

[ttomasik]

I have had similar issues all winter. The big villains in my case were usb cables and usb connectors. It seems like you have addressed this particular issue. I also did reload ASCOM and ZWO drivers was well,  and  did a reinstall of NINA. I did work thru the Windows update instances, thinking the update may have messed with the USB  connection settings for power management but this was not helpful.  I did try using another computer - my laptop, not the mini PC, this did not help.

.

  Long story short, in my case, there seems to be an association with  the operating temperature of the equipment. Below 23 degress  F , the ZWO cameras were very flaky with connections, or if connected, unable to download images.  I have noted that if the temps outsides stay reasonable, the equipment connects, is recognized and downloads images just fine. ( ZWO ASI  2600 mm pro and ASI 120 mm mini) I have imaged in  the winter in previous seasons with a different camera (an ASI 533 MC pro ) and had no issues. Go figure. 

 

Another thought, sometimes the power supply to the cameras was an issue. Using a dedicated AC to DC converter helped occasionally but still had some issues- I think it still is ambient temps of the equipment

 

Just my experience. 

[BlueMoon]

 

I re-installed ascom platform, newest ascom drivers and the zwo camera drivers. But still no luck.

I am assuming the windows update before the holiday must have broken the drivers, but I would have thought the latest drivers on the ZWO website should work.

I've been down this road many times over the years with clients from my prior business. If your checked all the physical layer stuff, cables, etc. and they check out okay, you may need to remove all the drivers, ASCOM, etc. completely. Including any directories that may get left behind. Then, run a registry cleaner to be sure all references to those applications and drivers have been removed. Reinstall them clean. Windows has always had this nasty problem of not updating the registry when programs are removed or updated. The old references are still there so updating drivers for instance, doesn't always fix the problem.

[etunar]

I have had similar issues all winter. The big villains in my case were usb cables and usb connectors. It seems like you have addressed this particular issue. I also did reload ASCOM and ZWO drivers was well,  and  did a reinstall of NINA. I did work thru the Windows update instances, thinking the update may have messed with the USB  connection settings for power management but this was not helpful.  I did try using another computer - my laptop, not the mini PC, this did not help.

.

  Long story short, in my case, there seems to be an association with  the operating temperature of the equipment. Below 23 degress  F , the ZWO cameras were very flaky with connections, or if connected, unable to download images.  I have noted that if the temps outsides stay reasonable, the equipment connects, is recognized and downloads images just fine. ( ZWO ASI  2600 mm pro and ASI 120 mm mini) I have imaged in  the winter in previous seasons with a different camera (an ASI 533 MC pro ) and had no issues. Go figure. 

 

Another thought, sometimes the power supply to the cameras was an issue. Using a dedicated AC to DC converter helped occasionally but still had some issues- I think it still is ambient temps of the equipment

 

Just my experience. 

So today after reading all the recommendations i went back to try all the different suggestions. Annoyingly as soon as i plugged in the main usb cable from the hub to the laptop, everything was detected. I did not restart the laptop since then. Yes it was a bit cooler last night than this morning but i operated this equipment much colder temperatures than this. So even though the temperatures above freezing, that's the only variable i can think of between last night and today. 

[bignerdguy]

So today after reading all the recommendations i went back to try all the different suggestions. Annoyingly as soon as i plugged in the main usb cable from the hub to the laptop, everything was detected. I did not restart the laptop since then. Yes it was a bit cooler last night than this morning but i operated this equipment much colder temperatures than this. So even though the temperatures above freezing, that's the only variable i can think of between last night and today. 

If you were plugging the camera into a hub before in the cold temps then it was the hub.  not all off the shelf hubs can handle cold weather.  Most of them in fact are supposed to be used inside and not outside. Sounds to me like you need a different USB Hub.

[etunar]

If you were plugging the camera into a hub before in the cold temps then it was the hub.  not all off the shelf hubs can handle cold weather.  Most of them in fact are supposed to be used inside and not outside. Sounds to me like you need a different USB Hub.

i tried plugging directly as well last night. Plus other items, including the mount, connected to the hub were fine.