Can i face another frustrating night guiding....

[paul mc c]

Hello all,i have come to my limit trying to get my mount to guide,i dont know what i am doing wrong as i cant seem to get any calibration on phd screen.

I seem to have every thing set up,ascom,eq mod ect but no guiding.I have wasted so much precious observing time on this i am very close to calling it a day as far as ap goes,but as the proverbial dog with a bone goes......i cant let this beat me.

[tooth_dr]

Hi Paul. I’d love to help you out if I could. I’m in Cookstown but could sort something out. 

[paul mc c]

You know,that would be great are you ever in Belfast?,you would be more than welcome to call.

[tooth_dr]

13 minutes ago, paul mc c said:

You know,that would be great are you ever in Belfast?,you would be more than welcome to call.

I’m in Belfast couple of times a month. PM me your number and I’ll get in touch 

[paul mc c]

PM sent mate.

[Tim]

It'll just be something simple that you have overlooked, or a setting that needs tweaking.

Sounds like you'll be sorted now

[alan potts]

Paul,

I know exactly how you feel, I have been trying to guide since the end of November and for one reason or another fail, I am thinking of just wrapping it in and be happy with the picture i take with 60 second subs, they please me and that is what matters.

Alan

[paul mc c]

I know mate,I was reading one of your posts on the same subject and it was as if I wrote it my self.

[tooth_dr]

No message yet @paul mc c

[paul mc c]

hopefully now 

[AngryDonkey]

Hi Paul,

Have you tried the PHD Google user group? Andy Galasso is usually super quick in replying and has provided me with loads of good info to get up and running.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/open-phd-guiding

 

[carastro]

I had a spell when I could not get PHD to calibrate.  I use PHD1 by the way, as these days it works well and I don't want to rock the boat.

I messaged Craig stark and he told me to up my calibration steps to around 1300 I seem to recall.  Had no problems since.

Just in case this is the problem with any of you guys above.

Carole 

[paul mc c]

2 minutes ago, carastro said:

I had a spell when I could not get PHD to calibrate.  I use PHD1 by the way, as these days it works well and I don't want to rock the boat.

I messaged Craig stark and he told me to up my calibration steps to around 1300 I seem to recall.  Had no problems since.

Just in case this is the problem with any of you guys above.

Carole 

Thanks, i will give this a go when it clears a bit.

[carastro]

It could be 1500 I just found an old screen shot of PHD settings.

Carole 

[paul mc c]

Think i have mine at 2500...

[carastro]

Doesn't sound like the solution to your problem then.  I am no expert on technical stuff, but if you could tell us your kit and exactly what you are doing and whether you are using PHD2 or PHD1 maybe some of the more technical people on here could help.  

I am sure it is only something simple that needs to be changed.

Is it a calibration failure, or does calibration not even start?

Is your camera and mount definitely connected in PHD and what method are you using to connect?

Carole 

[newbie alert]

I'm no means an expert but I learned the hard way,through my own mistakes.. maybe a couple of check points is all that' needed..Firstly make sure you have focus on the guidescope,I assumed as I could see what looked like stars that they was( I didnt have enough inward travel).soft focus is fine and sometimes prefererred..Enter the guidescope fl and camera pixel size,it's very important to be at least in the right ball park.. When calibrating calibrate as close to the meridian and Dec 0 as you can..look on stellarium  and choose a star with good S and R. Just before you calibrate bring up the handset in manual guide tab and take up the backlash out if the gears by pressing north on the on screen handset until the star moves..it will perform it' calibration steps ...after it' calibrated then bring up the guiding assistant  and run it in both RA and DEC axis for at least 5 mins,then apply the settings..

Assume you have watched this?

 

[paul mc c]

My kit is c9.25 c89ed neq6 pro,qhy5 on 50mm guide scope,PHD2.

Calibration does not start and both camera and mount are  connected.

Eqpro and ascom are also connected using eq direct cable.

[tooth_dr]

I find 1800ms calibration steps works with my 50mm guidescope.

 

When you say calibration doesn’t start, what do you mean?

[AngryDonkey]

Can you maybe elaborate on the steps you carry out? For example to calibrate and start guiding I will:

• Connect camera and mount
• (create bad pixel map if not present)
• Click the 'Begin Looping' button to start the acquisitions (set/check focus)
• Select a star
• Click the 'Start Guiding' button to start the calibration and guiding (if no calibration data is present - otherwise I Shift click the guiding button to force a new calibration)
• Mount PHD2 is now calibrating
• Mount is guiding

Is this what you do? If so where does it go wrong and do you see any error messages?

[paul mc c]

On the PHD screen at the bottom right the callibration sign is red and when i check calibration data it says nothing available.

[paul mc c]

Funny its hard to remember all that i do and see when i dont have it in front of me,i will check every thing and take notes the next clear sky i get.

[Jkulin]

When I switched from metaguide to PHD2 I was a little in awe after all the things I heard, I watched the following videos 2 or 3 times and set my settings similar to the author and it just worked whether it be with my QHY5-IIm or my Lodestar x2, I also use the guiding assistant and take action when it pops up with a prompt: -

 

HTH.

@newbie alert apologies, I didn't see that you had pasted the same video

[kens]

2 hours ago, paul mc c said:

On the PHD screen at the bottom right the callibration sign is red and when i check calibration data it says nothing available.

That means you have't calibrated yet. Start looping, select a star (or click Alt-S or Tools>Auto select star) then click the Start guiding button. PHD2 will start calibrating automatically.If you have any problems from then please attach your guide log for analysis. Its in Documents\PHD2

[paul mc c]

I actually got a bit of success tonight,yes Kens,i wasnt giving phd time to calibrate,feel so stupid now,i thought it was an instant action,but now know i was wrong ,i will give it another go it it clears a bit.