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Help with PHD 2


astro mick

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Hi.

For some reason PHD 2  has stopped working.

It will connect to the mount ok, but it wont calibrate.It shows the steps in N/E/S/W but its not moving the mount.

Also sometimes instead of calibrating it jumps straight to guiding, which of course it doesnt.

Dont know whats happened, but co-incidently it has happened since trying out SGP.

I have since lost settings in PHD, so uncertain of what i should imput.

Any help gratefully appreciated.

Mick.

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Hi Mick,

I downloaded to try out the latest of the greatest _______________ a while back and suffered a lot of PHD2 troubles.  The whatchacallit X.9 jacked around my PHD2.

Then I downloaded in great hopes the latest of the greatest Stellarium 15.1, in a separate folder..., to have a look at it. But it wiped out my Stellarium 15.0 that I had working fine. I recovered from that snafu. I went back to 15.0 and I'm stick-stick-sticken to it.

Something that has seemed to become a bit routine here is if my PHD2 begins acting up, I reset my mount to it's factory settings in the hand control. Then things seem to straighten up and fly right. Celestron AVX mount. You didn't mention your mount, but this is what seems to fix mine.

PHD2 wise, I don't seem to have much, or no, trouble at all with it. But if doing a reset on your mount does not help, or if you don't wish to try that, how about removing PHD2 and reinstalling it? Maybe something has corrupted your ASCOM drivers (SGP, square electron, or a spider fart), and a clean new install can get you back in business.

I can't give you a silver bullet beyond that. I can give you a couple of links that got me finally cooking with PHD2. Make sure you get the correct OS for your computer(s) (PHD was certainly not "Push Here Dummy" simple for me!) But now, it's my main squeeze.

PHD2 Basics 1

PHD2 Basics 2

PHD2 Drift tool  I never have used the drift tool, haven't needed to.

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Thanks guys,appreciate the time and effort it took to post.

Have looked at the threads, and hopefully there will something there that helps.

I have reloaded the software, but still the same.

Now wondering if its a hardware fault.

I,ll check cables and such forth.

Mick.

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Hi Mick,

i had a lot issues with PHD2  2,3 years ago.

I sometimes blamed it for problems that were  in ASCOM  or in my Laptop 's port allocations.

As a start point i always ran the Guiding Assistant routine,and the results from there would be helpful in troubleshooting.

if you are needing to setup the parameters again,Guiding Assistant will help narrow your decision making.

The loading of your mount and camera routine when starting PHD2 is important.you have to have a Connect to all success .Are you getting this stage  to connect to both mount & camera?

Hope you get a solve

Dave

 

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Hi Dave.

Thanks for that.

I have now got it working.

I downloaded the drivers again,and apart from naming the guide scope and Focal length, i left eveything else as default.

Also with SGP i was having mount and PC faults, sometimes the mount stopped tracking, and the computer was hanging.

Went back to my existing software and EQMOD, and all behaved as normal. ???????????

Mick.

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1 hour ago, astro mick said:

Hi Dave.

Thanks for that.

I have now got it working.

I downloaded the drivers again,and apart from naming the guide scope and Focal length, i left eveything else as default.

Also with SGP i was having mount and PC faults, sometimes the mount stopped tracking, and the computer was hanging.

Went back to my existing software and EQMOD, and all behaved as normal. ???????????

Mick.

It is my opinion that often software is written on one platform, but misbehaves on others. I have seen that more often with Apple/Microsoft. In other words, one size does NOT fit all. :wink: As evidenced in downloads and what platforms they are aimed at. (I PC myself. I also have enjoyed building many of my own computers.)

As I have bumbled my way along, I try different programs, do damage control, and often wind up back at what has been working for me. I'm kind of Spartan (You could say Boring) and want slim, no frills software and Icon's. At this point I have NexRemote (Celestron virtual hand control), Stellarium 15.0 (Because the latest version puts me off with the gingerbread in it), and PHD2. I don't know how they manage to interface and absolutely control my mount, but they do and do it very well.

PHD2 (Currant version: 2.6.2) has been amazingly reliable for me now that I have it 'tweaked' in for my mount and all. But like all things, when mixing up so many things like we do in Astronomy, it's easy to go awry. I was able to make leaps and bounds by following along with some Youtube videos. And I use PHD2's Screen with the 'Bullseye' view as my eyepiece when doing my alignments and All Star Polar Alignment. I almost have my guide scope and Main Optical Tubes zeroed with each other. So what's centered in one is very nearly centered in the other. Not that it matters much for guiding, but I strive for accuracy. Even if the target is thousands of light years away, or might not even exist anymore.

Helping you with your observations and problems actually helps any of us who stop by to see what's up, and read of the fixes shared in the thread. I know it helps me, so if I find myself bamboozled I might think back and say, "Right, Mick got out of this by reloading his ASCOM drivers...

And away we go... Finally a clear night coming around here. Going to get things working. We've had one of the wettest winters in a long, long time. And here about a month of doing without, I'm itching to have a look at the stars again. I say we need the rain so we'll have a good Brush Fire season.... Without it, we don't have enough fuel for big fire.

I hope clear skies are coming for you, too. Glad you have your PHD2 figured out and working again. I'm off to the mount with my telescope. Cheers! :hello2:

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Hi Mick,

Glad you got it sorted.

Have you downloaded PHD2 version 2.6.2.Major improvement especially with handling Backlash.

Craig Stark and his collaborators have nailed it. (to think this is actually a free software package).

PHD has become my most stable software in my astrophotography software train.

i'm moving over to a CMOS dedicated OSC in February,excited about the prospect,but also hoping all software will behave with the new addition,especially Astortilla.

Peace and  happy imaging

Dave

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On 14/01/2017 at 23:55, SonnyE said:

It is my opinion that often software is written on one platform, but misbehaves on others. I have seen that more often with Apple/Microsoft. In other words, one size does NOT fit all. :wink: As evidenced in downloads and what platforms they are aimed at. (I PC myself. I also have enjoyed building many of my own computers.)

As I have bumbled my way along, I try different programs, do damage control, and often wind up back at what has been working for me. I'm kind of Spartan (You could say Boring) and want slim, no frills software and Icon's. At this point I have NexRemote (Celestron virtual hand control), Stellarium 15.0 (Because the latest version puts me off with the gingerbread in it), and PHD2. I don't know how they manage to interface and absolutely control my mount, but they do and do it very well.

PHD2 (Currant version: 2.6.2) has been amazingly reliable for me now that I have it 'tweaked' in for my mount and all. But like all things, when mixing up so many things like we do in Astronomy, it's easy to go awry. I was able to make leaps and bounds by following along with some Youtube videos. And I use PHD2's Screen with the 'Bullseye' view as my eyepiece when doing my alignments and All Star Polar Alignment. I almost have my guide scope and Main Optical Tubes zeroed with each other. So what's centered in one is very nearly centered in the other. Not that it matters much for guiding, but I strive for accuracy. Even if the target is thousands of light years away, or might not even exist anymore.

Helping you with your observations and problems actually helps any of us who stop by to see what's up, and read of the fixes shared in the thread. I know it helps me, so if I find myself bamboozled I might think back and say, "Right, Mick got out of this by reloading his ASCOM drivers...

And away we go... Finally a clear night coming around here. Going to get things working. We've had one of the wettest winters in a long, long time. And here about a month of doing without, I'm itching to have a look at the stars again. I say we need the rain so we'll have a good Brush Fire season.... Without it, we don't have enough fuel for big fire.

I hope clear skies are coming for you, too. Glad you have your PHD2 figured out and working again. I'm off to the mount with my telescope. Cheers! :hello2:

So true.

I always try and start with these threads first,there is a lot lot good info,and usually someone can point you in the right direction.

Thanks for a great write up.

Mick.

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22 hours ago, jhbsky said:

Hi Mick,

Glad you got it sorted.

Have you downloaded PHD2 version 2.6.2.Major improvement especially with handling Backlash.

Craig Stark and his collaborators have nailed it. (to think this is actually a free software package).

PHD has become my most stable software in my astrophotography software train.

i'm moving over to a CMOS dedicated OSC in February,excited about the prospect,but also hoping all software will behave with the new addition,especially Astortilla.

Peace and  happy imaging

Dave

Yes Dave.

This is the software that i downloaded,and when working is a great piece of software.

Good luck with your new cameras,i think these will become the target of choice, in the near future.

 

Thanks all again.

Mick.

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