Guide Camera Times Out when Image Downloads from Main Camera

[Andyb90]

Hi everyone,

I was setup last night with my qhy5iii 174 camera connected in PHD2 for guiding and my asi1600 connected in SGPro for imaging. I started my sequence and SGPro started PHD2 guiding as normal. My first frame was captured and started to download. Shortly after this point I heard the 'windows disconnect' sound and after that PHD2 reported that the guide camera had timed out as no response was received. I closed PHD2 down and re-started 3 times, getting the same issue each time. After that I gave up and resorted to unguided imaging.

I have the qhy5iii connected to the asi1600 hub and a 3m usb 3.0 cable running from the 1600 to my laptop usb 3.0 port.

Would be grateful for any advice on how to resolve this issue as I'm a bit stumped by it.

Andy.

[Allinthehead]

There's a setting in the driver to reduce usb traffic. You could try reducing that. There's also an option in sgpro to pause guiding while an image downloads.

Are you using the usb that came with the camera as i have found that the black ones supplied are useless but the grey and also the blue short ones work very well.

[Andyb90]

5 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

There's a setting in the driver to reduce usb traffic. You could try reducing that. There's also an option in sgpro to pause guiding while an image downloads.

Are you using the usb that came with the camera as i have found that the black ones supplied are useless but the grey and also the blue short ones work very well.

I had a play with the usb traffic setting on both cameras and reduced it down, but unfortunately it didn't resolve the issue. The sgpro option sounds good, will try it.

I'm using a Startech 3m USB cable. I think I'm going to try a shorter cable to see if it makes a difference.

Andy.

[kirkster501]

On 5/7/2018 at 19:30, Andyb90 said:

I had a play with the usb traffic setting on both cameras and reduced it down, but unfortunately it didn't resolve the issue. The sgpro option sounds good, will try it.

I'm using a Startech 3m USB cable. I think I'm going to try a shorter cable to see if it makes a difference.

Andy.

I doubt using a shorter cable will make any difference but no harm trying it if you have one to hand.

The SGP Pro option is a good idea.  However, be advised that it takes PHD more time to recover the guiding when it restarts.

Not sure I completely understand how these are connected to your laptop?  Separate USB interfaces?  I would highly advise that in high bandwidth interfaces like cameras you connect back directly to the PC to minimise the use of a USB hub.  Others will argue differently but I can 100% categorically say that things work much better with a clean connection back to the PC directly in high bandwidth devices.  

[Andyb90]

5 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

Not sure I completely understand how these are connected to your laptop?  Separate USB interfaces?  I would highly advise that in high bandwidth interfaces like cameras you connect back directly to the PC to minimise the use of a USB hub.  Others will argue differently but I can 100% categorically say that things work much better with a clean connection back to the PC directly in high bandwidth devices.  

At the moment both the asi1600 and the guide camera are connected through 1 USB 3.0 cable. My current laptop only has 2 usb ports so I've ended up using splitters and hubs. But I'm now thinking of changing my laptop to one with more USB ports and a better spec.

My initial plan was to try and reduce my usb cables to a minimum, but if these types of issues occur it becomes a bit pointless, so will likely get the laptop with more ports.

Andy.