guiding with ZWO ASI120MC

[mikeneitzel]

Hi, Has anyone tried guiding with this camera using PHD Guiding 2? I cannot get it to work. I can put a green rectangle around my chosen guide star, but nothing happens after that and the Guide button never becomes active. Any idea??

[red dwalf]

i use a 120 mm, it can be a little pain to use but does work, firstly when you start phd 2 and you see the camera and mount, are you selecting asi ascom camera ? this is the one you are supposed to use but it worked for a while for me then stopped performing very well, now i select zwo cam in the list of camera choices, it`s right at the bottom.

secondly when you see the main page, go to tools at the top or the one nest to it, i can`t remember and select enable server, tick mark should be next to it,

camera and mount should be connected at this stage, select 2 seconds in the exposure settings, then the green loop arrow to start the exposures, i now click on the top tools button and select auto select star, but you can select your own if you wish, you should then see the phd button light up, click it, and wait for calibration, after that has finished it should say guiding.

if the guiding fails, click on the brain and go to mount and put in the details of you guide scope i.e. focal length and click on calibration setting, it should calculate the calibration steps needed for you, click on ok

hope that helps

[red dwalf]

there's also an update to the normal phd 2 which might be helpful,

http://openphdguiding.org/snapshots.html

[mikeneitzel]

Thanks a lot! Will give this a try!!

Cheers,

Mike

[red dwalf]

should add also that these cameras do not like powered hubs or active usb cables, if you need a longer usb cable i bought a 5 meter extension usb 2 cable from flea bay with a 1.6 meter printer cable attached to thet giving 6.6 meters in all and it works fine, doing exactly the same frame rates, if i use a active usb cable i`m lucky if i can get 3 or 4 fps.