alan potts

Not a big moon fan but very nice images there.

Alan

I am noticing it rather quickly now, even a couple of days you can see a bit of a difference.

3 minutes ago, symmetal said:

You can set the APT cooldown/warmup times in the 'Cooling Aid' and 'Warming Aid' boxes. The default is quite slow as you found. This is intended to prevent thermal stress to the sensor. 12-15 minutes is rather over cautious. 

It was the USB speed setting slider on the same panel I was concerned with in case you had accidently set it too high. For the moment, just check it's at 40% (fully to the left) when it appears when you first connect the camera.

We'll let you play with a new scope. Can't see you getting into trouble with that. 

Alan

Ok I can play with the cooldown which as I start it way before dark don't really matter.  What is a reasonable warm up form zero or whatever to how many below ambient, like say it's 23/4c tonight do you warm back to 24c or cut it at say 16c.

Also if I were to want to change the gain as I no doubt will, how do you do it?

All worked well this morning but couldn't see the moon as it was just too sunny on the screen but it was visible more or centre on a piggyback scope..

Alan

A mate of mine that has Camtech cameras always said a box is worth 10-20 quid, well that would be on a fairly pricey item like a Canon body. Personnally I would say a tenner however if it were a TeleVue I wanted I wouldn't care if it had a box or not, all of mine do have boxes but then that just luck. Oh and many were bought new, the boxes are in big box in the barn.

Also looking at what you have offered so far I am sure they are in top condition.

Alan 

25 minutes ago, StarDodger said:

They are not rubbish, in fact excellent laptops, , but they lack  power on the USB boards, which for office and everyday computing is fine, but for astro they can be troublesome..have you tried a good quality powered USB hub..?  does that make a difference..? 

 

Edit: never mind I see you are sorted now.. nice one,  and clear skies..

I will consult my mate his understanding of all things computer is legendary around here, he solved a problem I had that no one on site even thought of, understandable when it was to do with local power from the socket. He can also get me stuff like a hub cheaper which is always nice. It may well help tidy things up too, he has mention one before..

Alan

I full believe any Canon model can be modified but even though old now I would not want to start pulling mu 1DS mk 2 apart, you don't need full frame though that is nice, APS C like 40,50,60 D models etc would give very god results and is kinder on scopes and flateners, though you would still require one.

As for buying, look for one on here. 1200D 1300 D etc

Done well to get that it is only reasonable from here with a scopes and I am 10 degrees better off than you are, not tried imaging though maybe a bit low for any worthy result.

Alan

Thank you everyone that helped.   It would appear that I have named the guide camera and the imaging camera to do the same job, I have redone this so things are correct and all programs are working together I think, though of course I can't actually guide but took a set of darks for the library, which was when the main camera was doing darks too. It's tracking but I don't know what it's pointing at, a bit later I will try the moon.

I make a deal with you all. I will stand in the corner with the dunce cap on and not buy anything IT related for a while so you can all have a rest, you must be fed up with me. May well buy a WO 73mm scope next month, get ready.

Alan

I use a light box from my photography days of film and neg viewing, don't see how they could with one of those.

Alan

10 minutes ago, daz said:

Alan

In the ASCOM profile editor, you can rename the Camera 1 and Camera 2 to something more meaningful!

Once you know which is which of course!

 

I dare say I could Daz but with my level of IT knowledge I may well re-direct air traffic. I am going to look at the issue a bit later, I feel sure this is the problem, caused by me and not a cable this time.

Alan

7 hours ago, StarDodger said:

Lenovo laptops are all renowned for having poor USB power output, that is your issue, they barely provide enough power per port to power a USB thumb drive, never mind an Astro imaging or guide camera...you have probably picked the worst laptop around for astro use to be honest.....sorry to say...

I have 5 laptops 2 x Dell and 3 Lenovo Thinkpads, the Lenovo have worked fine with various Canon, cameras, PHD 2 and ASI guide camera , C-du-C, and EQdir. Whilst these are a few years old now and were got for me by an IT mate, these are were very expensive machines 6 years back, they are not normal tech market ones costing a few hundred quid . Or are they all rubbish?

Alan

8 hours ago, Hughsie said:

Hi Alan,

As Laurin suggested, best check which camera is Asi camera 1 and Asi camera 2. I have been down that frustrating road and an easy way to see which one you are connected to is to check the pixel size for each camera (online specs etc), then click on the brain on PHD2 and select the Camera tab. At the bottom left of the screen you will see the pixel size being used for calibration. If its your imaging camera pixel size, then you need to go back to the connection settings in PHD, click the spanner icon and choose the alternate camera which will be your guiding camera and remember which is which.

Hope this helps,

John

I have just recalled I got a black circle in the PHD2 that I could not work out, this must have been data from the imaging scope, this happened just before I had had enough for the night.

Alan

3 hours ago, symmetal said:

Good news Alan,

I did a test with a sliced open USB2 cable and can confirm that with the 12V supply connected there is no significant USB power used on the ASI071, less than 5mA, so that shouldn't be causing any power issues. That's satisfied my suspicions as to whether the manual was correct.  With the 12V removed, the USB power varies between 0.4A and 0.56A,  the higher value when reading/downloading the image. This is outside the USB2 spec so the camera should always be used with the 12V supply if using USB2.

I was using Firecapture for testing and I mentioned previously about setting the gain/offset in the Ascom driver setup dialog along with the USB3 speed. As you're using USB2 this speed didn't matter. However, it's not labelled USB3 speed, just USB speed, and it is relevant to USB2. I had to set it to 60% or less for the camera to work reliably in Firecapture. Above 70% it failed to capture/download images. So it's worth checking this value Alan, and perhaps setting it at its minimum of 40% until you're happy that everything is working well.

Hopefully your frustrating session yesterday was as you think, just due to the wrong camera selected in PHD2. Good luck.

Alan

Good of you to test that cable, manuals are often wrong, just like me.

I feel after many chipped in with heads together, the two camera one ID number seems a very good place to start looking. I am also in touch with the APT writer so maybe he can help to.

I was surprised how long cooling took in APT, as in Sharpcap this was fairly quick, APT was about 12-15mins, ridiculous, Sharpcap abot 3mins, this could of course be my settings in APT.

The Gain and offset seems to be a stand setting at 90 and 65, I do not understand anything about this, so have left it alone.

Lets see what today brings, it is bound to be me, odds dictate it can't be another cable surely.

Alan

2 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Alan

in phd2 and apt with the ascom and zwo native drivers installed you should see a list including zwo asi camera 

asi camera (1) (ascom) and asi camera (2) (ascom) 

 

just need to to figure out which is which 

Dave

 

 

 

 

I think I may have 2x camera 1 APT showed ASI camera 1 and 2, I ticked 1, think I have made a mistake, me again, why am II so useless.

Alan

Right thanks everyone for the time being, I am going to bed, dare not got outside there are hammers out there, I will try your ideas tomorrow.

Alan

Just now, Laurin Dave said:

Alan

I wonder if  the no darks library may be the clue that PHD2 is connected to the wrong camera ie the 071

Dave

I wonder if both could have the same ID like ASI camera 1, it did this with the daks 4 times.

2 minutes ago, symmetal said:

A powered hub would be worth trying. They are pretty cheap. As this all started with the 071 just using a powered hub to connect to the the 071 is worth trying.  I'm not convinced that that the 071 is powered from the 12V despite what the manual says. I'll chop up a USB2 lead to measure it just to settle my own curiosity.

Alan

Yes I am not sure I believe that either.

Alan

I am just wondering thinking aloud, have the two Zwo cameras got the same ID like ASI camera 1, is this possible.

11 minutes ago, KyleStoke said:

Hello Alan 

The CDC problem is the date in CDC correct, mine drifts for some reason and I end up pointing in the wrong place. 

The other parts are you using a USB hub? how are the various cameras connected, I couldn't have the guide camera running anywhere near the imaging camera as it jammed everything up.

Thumbs up for the HP desktop im using an old refurbed one 

No Hub but could get one. All connected to 3 of 4 USB ports on the laptop.

Alan

2 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I’ll just add a few nights ago I had similar issues. Turned out a bad cable was causing guid cam to cut on and off.  This is turn turned off the CCDs and stopped their cooling and then APT crashed.  EQMOD also crashed. So I’m betting your issue is due to a USB issue being it a loose connection, lack of power or otherwise. It’s not your spec. 

The guide camera was acting rather odd, never unplugged from where it is on the laptop, same USB, and it is telling no darks library, I know it has. I think the hammer needs to come out.

Alan

4 minutes ago, symmetal said:

The spec required for running those things is not high and your laptop is more than enough. It does look like a USB power issue. Do you have a powered external  USB hub or is everything plugged into the laptop. I assume when you used your DSLR instead of the 071 the setup was the same and there were no problems.

Alan

No all run from the laptop with DSLR and did tonight whilst testing, and it has never caused a problem once we got up and running, I don't have a USB hub

What do you think is required to run C-du C with EQmod,  PHD2 with a guide camera, APT with an 071. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad i5 second gen with 4 gig of ram, I would have though it was enough.

Cooling on the camera stops each time PHD takes a photo with the guide scope.

Apt froze many times and just stopped at first then seemed to settle, this was the only thing running at the time

4 times the PHD 2  tells me No dark library for the guide camera, when I know full well it has.

C-du C slews so far away from any target is is laughable, it was nearer Jupiter than Saturn, and it flashes up some really bizarre messages (Kepler 1000 something or the other)

PA is about 1 arc minute error, so decent. and should offer reasonable slews like it did last night when I used a normal camera.

APT would not take a live shot of anything until I disconnected it and put it on another laptop.

Am I asking too much because I don't believe everyone is working with a massively powerful laptop with 32 gigs of ram and basically doing the exact same thing I am.

Thats 3 clear night lost and I am sick of it.

Can anyone offer any advice.

Alan

49 minutes ago, symmetal said:

Glad to hear it is now all working with APT. I found with mine that 30 degrees is the most it can cool. Hope there's no more thoughts of sending the camera back. 

Alan

A good question, just frustration I guess, am beginning to wonder what the next cable problem I could have may be, it is not as if I am buying anything cheap and nasty. I feel the power system out here has many flaws, worse time is when lightning is about, blew a motherboard on a very high spec computer a few years back, before I had UPS's on everything.

Taken a set of 3 minute Darks but interestingly they failed after 10 of the 20 for some reason, thing the laptop nodded off. All well though awaiting tonight, clear at the moment.

Alan

A very big white T shirt too.

Alan

Good morning all that are trying to help me. Good news!!

Taken everything inside connected up and APT now works as it should, I think a plug connection on the power side was far from good but above all I wonder if inside the observatory it was too hot for the timeouts on the cooling, it was over 30c maybe 34/5c inside.

So all looks OK now lets see if I can replicate things tonight.

Alan