Atik 16ic dec guide issues?

[ollypenrice]

This is an odd thing; I have two 16ics for guiding, a mono and a colour. A while back the mono, after years of great service, seemed to stop guiding on one of the two Dec directions. I cleaned up the ST4 and it worked for a bit but wasn't dead reliable in Dec so I took it out of service. The colour one was fine till last week and then it started to do the same sort of thing, not guiding in Dec. Finally, yesterday, I had a phone call from a guest in the Netherlands asking if I could help with his guiding issues. His mount wasn't responding in one of the dec directions to input from his... Atik 16ic.

Strokes chin...

Any thoughts, anyone? I guide in AstroArt, the guest in PHD. My Lodestar works fine.

Olly

[Spikey]

Funny you should mention that; my 16ic mono failed calibrating in N/S a while ago so I replaced it with a QHY5 I was keeping as a spare.

I stripped it and did some basic checks, continuity etc.. but couldn't find any fault. Reset and cleaned the pins in the RJ11 on the camera and tested that the cable was OK.

I've not set it up and tried calibrating since then but when using Maxim or PHD I've used the software to make very small nudges to the guiding and listened to the subtle changes in pitch to the whine of the NEQ6.

It's fine E/W and you can hear the change but in N/S nothing. I'll try a calibration again next chance I get but it may be time for pulse guiding with the 16ic which will be a shame as I prefer to use the ST4. But ultimately the 16ic outperforms the QHY5 as a guide camera so it would be my first choice.

Sounds like a similar fault though, worth a mail to Atik perhaps?

[ollypenrice]

Thanks Simon. It does rather look like a systematic issue. I've never used pulse guiding. Would the cameras work in that mode, do you think? I know nothing about it.

Olly

[Spikey]

Yes I'm sure they would and a lot of people swear by pulse guiding. I've never tried with the 16ic as up to now the ST4 has worked and I've never had to fiddle with settings in Maxim or PHD - just plug & play.

If mine doesn't work via ST4 then I'll switch to pulse guiding with it; it's too good a guide camera and is far superior to my QHY5. Plus if the 16HR gives up I can use it to image with

I'm not sure how to setup the 16ic for pulse guiding but I understand there are a few changes to make in EQMOD (if you use it) and Maxim/PHD. I use Maxim to guide and PHD for a backup if Maxim freaks out.

[chrisshillito]

Thanks Simon. It does rather look like a systematic issue. I've never used pulse guiding. Would the cameras work in that mode, do you think? I know nothing about it.

Olly

With pulseguiding the camera doesn't have to do anything other than provide a guide image to the guiding software. The only real difference is that rather than sending guide commands to the camera's driver guiding software sends guide commands to the mount's ASCOM driver instead. You don't have to change any "mode" in the camera itself as its operation really doesn't change - it just never receives any guide commands. With in the guiding software you will naturally have to select ASCOM pulseguiding and within the ASCOM driver set the guide rate you wish to use.

Chris.

[ollypenrice]

With pulseguiding the camera doesn't have to do anything other than provide a guide image to the guiding software. The only real difference is that rather than sending guide commands to the camera's driver guiding software sends guide commands to the mount's ASCOM driver instead. You don't have to change any "mode" in the camera itself as its operation really doesn't change - it just never receives any guide commands. With in the guiding software you will naturally have to select ASCOM pulseguiding and within the ASCOM driver set the guide rate you wish to use.

Chris.

Thanks Chris, that's nice and clear. Much appreciated.

Olly

[Spikey]

I would be interested to see how you get on Olly as you get more clear nights than myself, you use AstroArt to guide don't you ?

[ollypenrice]

I would be interested to see how you get on Olly as you get more clear nights than myself, you use AstroArt to guide don't you ?

Yes. Its a little fussy to set up but the scattergram it generates as a guide history is really addictive because it shows you just what's been going on all night without looking back through the trace.

In fact I've sold the mono (with the issue declared of course) and have the OSC up as well. I ho=ave one Lodestar here and would like to have all the same guide cameras for ease of setup, spares, etc.

Olly