PHD signel to noise, and star not moving enough

[Davey-T]

I'm running Win 7 Pro on an i5 machine with 6 gig ram. Device Manager shows two USB controllers, with 4 sockets, all are USB 3 I think.

Will try to find the post about QHY5 and USB 3.

Dave

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/221134-qhy5l-ii-mono-finally-working-after-a-few-issues/?hl=usb

There you go

[DaveS]

Thanks. All my ports are USB3, but the problems appear after some time. Will try tonight without the hub.

[Thalestris24]

Ahhh missed that you said you had a hub! It's almost certainly the reason for all the problems!

Louise

[Davey-T]

There have been posts about QHY 5 needing its own dedicated USB socket, have you done a search on here  for QHY5/USB, lot's of info out there.

Probably a driver problem with some computer configurations that you could spend a lifetime trying to fix.

Keep an eye out for new drivers.

Dave

[DaveS]

Ah, yes, sorry I should have said. I only have 4 USB 3 ports on my laptop and I'm trying to run:

Filter wheel (Needs power)

CCD camera, has hub, non powered

Mount, needs its own port

QHY II camera, needs its own port

Joystick

Mouse, as my trackpad is rubbish

Hence using a powered hub. I'll try losing the mouse and putting the joystick on the Trius.

[Thalestris24]

Hi Dave

Yeah, I think it's a case of trying out various configurations and seeing what works - and what doesn't!

Good luck

Louise

[DaveS]

Looking in Device Manager I see two USB driver sets, while there are physically two pairs of sockets on either side of the computer, so I may have each pair on its own root.

We'll see tonight, I hope.

What irks me is that all these shennegens are stealing my imaging time.

[Davey-T]

You can right click the USB controllers and uninstall them, windows will reinstate them when you reboot so they don't remember what was plugged in them before.

Are you running your laptop of of the battery ? as windows has some power saving thingy that suspends USB devices if it thinks they're not being used, this has been known to malfunction believe it or not.

Dave

[Thalestris24]

Hi Dave

Um, if all your usb connections are USB 3.0 you shouldn't have any bandwidth problems! How long is the cable to the guide cam? What make/model of powered hub do you have? No reason not to try stuff during the day - needn't worry about getting a guide star just need to see guide images are being displayed and connections maintained. I often test my qhy5l-ii guide cam in the day when I'm fiddling with things - I set exposure to something around 1-2ms or sometimes put a camera IR filter in front of the guide scope if it's very bright outside.

Louise

Louise

[DaveS]

OK, back online.

So far, no hub. The one I was using was an Advent 4 port powered job from Curry's.

On one side I have the mount and the Trius. Mount on its own port, showing up as COM3 as it's been for the last few times. The game pad is plugged into the Trius

On the other I have the QHY and the filter wheel, so no bandwidth problems, and the wheel has its own power. QHY set to gain of 75% and 2 sec exposure (May be too short, but we'll see).

Everything powered from the mains via its own power supply, and showing up in Devices and Printers. I think the longest USB lead (To the wheel) is 2 1/2 m, all the others are 1 1/2.

Found a guide star with SNR of 10 .5, set calibration step to 2000, calibrated OK.

I'm now trying my first NB imaging, 4min subs of NGC 7000 in Ha. Fingers crossed.

[DaveS]

Didn't see much with a 4 min sub so now I'm exposing with a 10 min sub, Ha 2x2 binning.

QHY set to 3 sec exposure and 75% gain. the first trial shows nice round stars and a dark background. Hooray for NB.

I *think* I'm on NGC 7000 but I'm not sure. Next job will be to make a greater effort to align the mount.

[DaveS]

Well, I was successfully taking 10 min subs when the clouds have come over. Argh!

Still I think things are working out. Fingers crossed. I may be able to post something tomorrow but it's likely to be a single sub.

[Davey-T]

Congratulations   

Dave