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Autoguiding PHD issues...help please!

wavydavy

By wavydavy
in Discussions - Software

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wavydavy

wavydavy

Posted
Posted

Hi can anyone recommend any free autoguiding software?? Im using PHD2, and have for some time, but I keep "losing" my green crosshairs when I autoguide, its a major pain cos it means I have to stay with the computer set up and make sure it doesn't stop guiding, ive asked for help on here before, but to no avail. My camera I use is ZWO ASI120MM, and its possible it may have something to do with this, ive also used PHD1 and if memeory serves, I had the same issues. Everything runs fine, then, without any warning the green crosshairs just vanish, and then you have to quickly restart the guiding again. All my settings on PHD are fine, unless anyone can think of any ideas??

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red dwalf

red dwalf

Posted
Posted

i use a zwo 120 mm camera as my guide camera on a 10 x 60 scope, i used to have loads of issues with it but i updated the version of phd2 and it has worked flawlessly ever since, shouldn`t have said that, have you downloaded the latest version ? if not go to this page,

http://openphdguiding.org/snapshots.html

i have my gain set to around 85%

there are lots of other actions that will help also, are you using eqmod to control the mount ?

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libraryman

libraryman

Posted
Posted

Just a point about gain, i use a QHY5l-ii mono, they may share the same sensor, my gain is set at 12..85 seems quite high, i doubt this is your issue but worth noting.

any connectivity issues would i assume; turn off the capture...is this happening?

PHD2 is very good and it will tell you if your camera has disconnected.

i would think its more likely that the star has drifted out of the guide box ??

Ray

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  • 5 weeks later...
Jonk

Jonk

Posted
Posted

Bit late to reply, but I've had PHD2 problems recently, where 'star lost' appears randomly even though it's there clear as, well night!

It turned out that running my DMK through a hub caused bandwidth loss.

Whilst at SGLX a couple of weeks ago, my PHD screen would flash white and fail, mostly when I was trying to calibrate. Very frustrating.

Now I run the camera directly to its own USB 2 port on the laptop and I don't appear to have had either of these issues so far. So I think bandwidth is the culprit.

One other thing about PHD2 I don't get, is why the screen flashes red for no apparent reason?

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  • 3 weeks later...
griz11

griz11

Posted
Posted

I've found if you can connect to the mount directly without going through any ascom hubs or anything like that gives the best results. Never had a problem with it connected this way but have had problems with it going through an ascom hub. If you are going to use a USB hub don't get a cheap one. And they work better if they have their own power and aren't having to get it from the usb port on the computer. I power it from the cig adapter block I have. It has a couple of usb power ports.

If you have a usb3 port on the computer get a usb3 hub even though all the stuff plugging into it are usb2 or usb1. I run the guide camera DSLR and mount all off one usb hub with no errors. The computer is an Asus transformer so its not all that powerful. But it does have a usb3 port. The messages going to the mount are only a few bytes so that traffic is negligible.

One thing I found that improves everything is not to use too short of an exposure on the guider. Mine seems to work best at 3 to 3.5 sec. Watch the signal to noise readings along the bottom bar. Sometimes what looks to be the brightest star in the guide camera field doesn't have the best signal to noise ratio. So spend a little extra time and see which star in the field has the best s/n and pick that for your guide star. Use the dark library function in PHD2 to get rid of any hot pixels. Ever tried to guide on a hot pixel :)  The graphs look spectacular but the images don't. 

Don't forget to put a note in the box for the drift alignment so you know which way the mount needs to go depending on if its minus or plus. I really like PHD2. After I configured it initially its worked flawlessly every night I've used it. Love the polar alignment tool. Its quick and accurate. Doesn't take any time at all to get the mount right on the money after you've used it a few times. Another piece of free software that works well with PHD2 is PHDLab. Use it to analyze the PHD logs. It will do it in real time so you can use it to replace the graphing on PHD while you are imaging if you want. Much more detailed information. I've used them both together since I bought the Lodestar and both have worked flawlessly.

Griz

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Davey-T

Davey-T

Posted
Posted

One other thing about PHD2 I don't get, is why the screen flashes red for no apparent reason?

I think the screen flashes red as some sort of warning, it beeps at the same time if you have the sound on.

Dave

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daz

daz

Posted
Posted

A huge +1 for griz11's post....

Cheap USB hubs are cheap for a reason! I now use a StarTech 12v 7port USB3 in the obsy and a 4port version in the field.

Same for the USB leads - get some decent ones - shielded ones with a nice thickness to the lead. The thinner ones are cheap for a reason. And make sure they are not too long. Some cameras will not like cables > 2m in length....

I have my mount, AtIkOne and BaaderSteel Track motor focuser through the hub and it all works flawlessly.

Use the same ports on the computer to connect the equipment - use usbdview to identify any USB devices that can be removed. If necessary, remove them all and add them back, one at time to you are sure it's all clean.

Label the cables!!

Make sure ASCOM is on the latest 6.1 release, and your drivers are the most stable up-to-date versions

Do a Windows update - and then turn off the automatic updates!!

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