problem with zwo asi 1600mm-c downloading

[ReZ]

Hey fellas

I have a 1600mm cooled version. I was spending Last couple of nights in field trying to do some AP, but the camera didn't work. Everything seems to be ok. I have temperature's info, the 120mm data comes in flawlessly, EFW works just fine. But when camera finishes the exposure it hangs on downloading. I reduced usb traffic, no luck. I switched programs, sharpcap, SGP, nebulosity and even maxim-dl. I switched cables, and again no luck.
I took my rig home, set up evertything and camera works just fine. Everything is ok. I took 40, 4 min frames, not a single problem.
Then I took it out last night, tried to capture, and again it fails to download and hangs on downloading.

It is getting really frustrating. Could you please help me out?
Regards, Rez

[Merlin66]

Rez,

Hmmm

Was there any difference in the power supply being used? Home v's field?

 

[Filroden]

I can suggest a few things to try:

• make sure you run both cameras on independent USB ports (not on the same through a hub)
• use the default download speed of 40 in the camera setting
• make sure you have the latest version of SGPro as it has latest ZWO SDK driver
• make sure your ZWO driver is also up to date

I never pinned down what caused the download freeze but a combination of the above worked for me.

[r3i]

I've been using SGP with my ASI1600MM for a few months now and up until last night it had performed really well, but last night I encountered a few occasions where SGP just hung saying it was downloading the image - wasn't able to pinpoint why.  I've been back out again tonight and everything is operating like clockwork again.  There are some posts on the SGP forum relating to this issue but I haven't as yet looked at them in detail.  

[MarsG76]

The first thing in this situation, I too, would suspect the power supply.. was power out in the field a battery/generator vs main back at home? it that's the case, than you portable power either doesn't have enough amps (which is very likley since the cooling peltiers used in cameras are VERY power hungry, drawing too much power and causing a big voltage drop... I bet that if you turned off cooling completely, everything would work fine.

If it's a generator, than make sure that the power coming from it is clean, nice 50Hz sine wave.... but I'm steering more toward a possible battery with not enough current.

[ReZ]

Thank you guys for your answers.

3 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

The first thing in this situation, I too, would suspect the power supply.. was power out in the field a battery/generator vs main back at home? it that's the case, than you portable power either doesn't have enough amps (which is very likley since the cooling peltiers used in cameras are VERY power hungry, drawing too much power and causing a big voltage drop... I bet that if you turned off cooling completely, everything would work fine.

If it's a generator, than make sure that the power coming from it is clean, nice 50Hz sine wave.... but I'm steering more toward a possible battery with not enough current.

I did suspect that too. i pulled everything out the other night, leaving only 1600 connected to the laptop and the laptop was running on battery. still nothing. Did the exact same thing at home and it was running smoothly.

P.S. i use two power source. Had a car dc-ac inverter and i now have a gasoline generator with an stabilizer. Tested clean 220v 50hz with a voltmeter.

 

Could it be temperature related??

[MarsG76]

3 minutes ago, ReZ said:

Thank you guys for your answers.

I did suspect that too. i pulled everything out the other night, leaving only 1600 connected to the laptop and the laptop was running on battery. still nothing. Did the exact same thing at home and it was running smoothly.

P.S. i use two power source. Had a car dc-ac inverter and i now have a gasoline generator with an stabilizer. Tested clean 220v 50hz with a voltmeter.

 

Could it be temperature related??

Yes, but did you use different power sources out in the field and than at home?

 

[ReZ]

Well i just connected the cooler, the room is 20°C it works perfectly. I coold it down to -10 and it hangs on downloading.

Any tips?

[ReZ]

1 hour ago, MarsG76 said:

Yes, but did you use different power sources out in the field and than at home?

 

Yes it was diffrent. But right now I'm using laptop on battery just like i did in the filed for the test (cooler off). So the power to zwo itself is the same.

[MarsG76]

6 hours ago, ReZ said:

Yes it was diffrent. But right now I'm using laptop on battery just like i did in the filed for the test (cooler off). So the power to zwo itself is the same.

I'm more than sure that your power supply is the problem here... 

Perhaps you don't realize how much current and power the cooling needs to operate...

You'll notice that when you turn on the cooling while on battery power, your out on the field problems will return.

[ReZ]

50 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

I'm more than sure that your power supply is the problem here... 

Perhaps you don't realize how much current and power the cooling needs to operate...

You'll notice that when you turn on the cooling while on battery power, your out on the field problems will return.

Thanks. What is your recommendation?

[thomasv]

Other people probably do not make the same basic mistake as me, but just in case: I had lots of hang problems after purchasing the camera, tried all sorts of things, re-installing drivers, trying older versions of drivers, etc. Finally, it turned out that my laptop has USB2 ports and using the original USB cable that came with the camera, which I guess is a USB3 cable (with the extra bit on the camera side plug) was causing the problem. Swapping the USB cable for a standard old style USB2 cable sorted it completely. 

 

[Adam J]

Measure the battery voltage before and after the camera cool down, if it is significantly different the problem is the battery.  Also are you using any different cables in the field? 

[ReZ]

Guys i have contacted ZWO and they said it is some sort of hardwire failure. I have sent it to them and i currently am waiting for their side of the story.

Thank you all for your time and nice replies.