LX webcam PHD guiding crash

[theodore]

Hi,

I have an LX modded (yes yes style) SPC900 that works fine in non-LX mode with PHD guiding, but when I try to use the LX camera option, PHD crashes. Does anyone know how to solve this? I've seen an answer somewhere before but can't find it again...argh...

Thanks,

Theo

[yesyes]

Hi Theo,

did you set the camera type to "Long exposure webcam + Parallel/Serial" and set the COM port parameters correctly?

[theodore]

hi,

yes, its when I set it to "Long exposure webcam + Parallel/Serial" it crashes...

Works fine in Sharp Cap, but I want to use PHD for guiding.

Theo

[themos]

Have you got the latest PhD

http://www.stark-labs.com/depot/beta/Setup_PHDGuiding_1_13_2.exe

[theodore]

hmmm, thanks.

I'll try the latest version. I have a netbook.. so maybe the screen fix in 1.3 will help.

theo

[theodore]

thanks themos, it works now with the new version of PHD. Drops some frames though - so will have to see how that effects the guiding...

Theo

[themos]

for dropping frames, click on the brain and see if you can find the "LE read delay" field. That's the one that needs adjusting, try steps of 10 from 0 upwards. What that does is it waits for this additional number of milliseconds after the exposure timer has finished before it reads a frame from the camera. Remember, the camera is still sending frames 5 times a second but they are all just empty+noise except the "good" LX one we want. But PHD can't know which one in the stream is the good one unless it could look inside and sniff good data (and it doesn't do that unfortunately). So we are reduced to finding a delay time that works most of the time.

The other thing I've learned not to forget is to set the camera at 5fps after I connect.

[theodore]

more great advice - thanks, I'll try that.

Theo