Q-Guider and Windows 8

[emag]

New member, but an old guy who's been imaging for a while.  I recently picked up a Windows 8.1 / 64 laptop when my Vista / 32 laptop choked (display).  I'm gradually installing all my astroimaging programs on the new laptop and have hit a wall wrt my Q-guider.  I tried installing ASCOM; tried the QHY5 drivers; tried a few other things, but the best I can get is the "semaphore timeout" message.  PHD works with my unmodified SPC900NC so that's my fallback for now, but I still need to install the drivers for USB to serial cable so I can use ASCOM to send guide pulses to the mount.  Anyone had any luck getting the Q-Guider to work with Win8/64?  I have a buyer for it if I decide to go that route (replace the autoguider, that is).  IIRC, it's at least possible to reflash the Q-Guider to make it a vanilla QHY5, but that's beyond my ken.

I also have a SSD to put in the Vista laptop, just for grins I did that and ran it with Ubuntu/Wine and an external monitor.  I'm considering repairing the display, migrating Vista to the SSD and continuing to use that strictly as my field laptop for imaging.  It's a Compaq and had the left-hinge-crushes-the-video-cable issue, a relatively cheap fix.  Sure would be nice to have the Q-Guider working in Windows 8, though.

[Merlin66]

Hmmm

I have a QHY5 camera....

Under XP it needed to be set as a "CCDLabs QGuider" under PHD, but for Win7 it only worked with the ASCOM drivers and select "CMOS QHY5 Camera"

Hope this helps...

[Vanilla]

Put the program files on your desktop. Find the executable file and right click on it.

click on "properties". You should see a window that has something like "Run this program in compatibility mode".

For more info, you can Google "Windows 8 compatibility mode"

Compatibility mode lets Windows 8/8.1 treat a program like your Windows 8/8.1 is windows 7 or XP (It can be very helpful to learn about it)

[GuillermoBarrancos]

I just stumbled on this 3 year old topic: http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=3051.0 . Seems this guider is getting a bit ancient now.

Personally, if you already have a buyer for your Q-guider. Get rid of it and buy a new one, like the QHY5L-II. color or mono depending on budget.

I got the QHY5L-IIc and it Works like a charm in PHD2 on Windows 8.1.1.

The new barrel body is nice too. Light little camera that fits straight into 1.25" EP holder.

I don´t see how XP compatibility mode is going to help you here, as both ASCOM and PHD work fine on Windows 8. So running them in compatibility mode is not going to change anything, other than maybe introducing even more problems.

Also  thing of concern. Your Serial to USB cable? Which one is it? If it´s an old one with a prolific chipset, you might be out of Luck there too. As they changed the prolific chipset 2-3 years ago and only the latest chipset is supported on Windows 8.

I ran into that problem with mine and now stay clear of Prolific altogether and went for a new cable with the FTDI chipset. Much better and it´s plug and play under Windows 8.

Tho, if you have a Skywatcher Mount and bypass the handset entirely and operate the Mount through EQMod, you need to buy the New Version of the HiTechAstro cable:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/hitecastro-eqdir-adapter.html