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Thinking of saying goodbye to apt and hello sgp


Wirral man

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19 minutes ago, Wirral man said:

After some frustrating night out and wasted time I feel the need to ditch apt is good as it is I have issues with it mainly point craft and camera freezing issues feel a change is on the cards 

Have you spoken to @Yoddha about your issues , the Apt forum is usually quicker to get a response , there may be a simple fix Ivo is usually very good at helping and resolving issues 

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I cant get the plate solve to work on blind I have reinstalled the programmes and catalogues several times now have them the correct read path plus my camera keeps freezing wont allow me to alter the expo times I get set up and am spending valuable time trying to get these to work......also think my gears on my heq5 need serviced as phd2 keeps failing after a hour don't know why this is maybe backlash or worn worm gears

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How do you mean PHD keeps failing? I can't help with your camera disconnections as that could indeed be a bug with APT. But it could also be related to your USB hub, hence my earlier question. It sounds like the issues I had when starting out. I tried long USB leads which didn't work. I then tried a small USB hub and a repeater cable to my laptop and this was better but hit and miss. PHD and APT would sometimes work harmoniously and other times they would freeze and disconnect for no apparent reason. My fix was to buy a Startech USB to Ethernet hub and everything was solved. Everything loads up at lightning speed now and I've had no dropouts since. I've had a look and SGP is free on trial for 45 days so it's worth downloading and installing and testing everything during the day, camera control, plate solving etc. If it all works where APT struggled, then hopefully problem solved. If your still having issues then you know it's something to do with your hardware.

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8 hours ago, Wirral man said:

I cant get the plate solve to work on blind I have reinstalled the programmes and catalogues several times now have them the correct read path plus my camera keeps freezing wont allow me to alter the expo times I get set up and am spending valuable time trying to get these to work......also think my gears on my heq5 need serviced as phd2 keeps failing after a hour don't know why this is maybe backlash or worn worm gears

Have you checked you have the correct focal length values for your setup in apt as if you haven’t it will not solve , also you need the correct sensor size values in  pointcraft in order to download the correct catalogues

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Well finally got point craft to work I have had it set up correctly from the start, and today after trying everything it suddenly dawned on me that I just a fitted the 0.85x focal reducer on my rig  but I never got a chance to use before I had my operation now months later I used it the other night so using the images I have had the focal length set as 600mm but now change it to 510mm and checked the catalogues it installed some more and now all working perfectly!!! 

As for the camera well it's more than likely USB hub after looking into them properly I realise I need a active powered one. 

So will give apt another run soon depending on the hope of clear sky's!!

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12 hours ago, Wirral man said:

camera keeps freezing wont allow me to alter the expo times

Hi. Something simple... Camera set to 'M' and 'BULB' before you connect to APT? Physically, that is on the camea itself.

It's had me several times before;)

HTH

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I hope you get your issues sorted. I use APT and on the rare occasion there is an issue it’s entirely my fault ie wrong focal length entered etc.

The first issues I’ve had in a long time started recently when I began using a ZWO camera.

 

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3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I hope you get your issues sorted. I use APT and on the rare occasion there is an issue it’s entirely my fault ie wrong focal length entered etc.

The first issues I’ve had in a long time started recently when I began using a ZWO camera.

 

That's me stuffed then I use 2 of them lol

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1 hour ago, Atreta said:

Another thing to check is if the mount is indeed tracking, are you using it with eqmod? You need to press a button to make it track, maybe that's the source of the problem with phd2. 

Yep you could be right forgot to do that the other I think I need to construct a written work flow down once I get it working 100%

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On 02/09/2018 at 07:26, david_taurus83 said:

How do you mean PHD keeps failing? I can't help with your camera disconnections as that could indeed be a bug with APT. But it could also be related to your USB hub, hence my earlier question. It sounds like the issues I had when starting out. I tried long USB leads which didn't work. I then tried a small USB hub and a repeater cable to my laptop and this was better but hit and miss. PHD and APT would sometimes work harmoniously and other times they would freeze and disconnect for no apparent reason. My fix was to buy a Startech USB to Ethernet hub and everything was solved. Everything loads up at lightning speed now and I've had no dropouts since. I've had a look and SGP is free on trial for 45 days so it's worth downloading and installing and testing everything during the day, camera control, plate solving etc. If it all works where APT struggled, then hopefully problem solved. If your still having issues then you know it's something to do with your hardware.

I've never had any success with a USB hubs, tried lots form ridiculously expensive to dirt cheap. I now run separate USB leads from the equipment to the computer! I find this the best way and the cheapest.    

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As a software developer I have an interest in trying many different capture softwares, just for the hell of it. ? I feel like APT is definitely the easiest and most stable one I have tried yet. It lacks a few features, but generally it is quite stable, and the software I would recommend to people starting with computer control.

It does sound like you need an active USB hub. I use a 10 port (too many ports I know) IcyBox hub, as it is powered by 12v so no fiddling with stepdown converters or the like.

 

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1 hour ago, jjosefsen said:

As a software developer I have an interest in trying many different capture softwares, just for the hell of it. ? I feel like APT is definitely the easiest and most stable one I have tried yet. It lacks a few features, but generally it is quite stable, and the software I would recommend to people starting with computer control.

It does sound like you need an active USB hub. I use a 10 port (too many ports I know) IcyBox hub, as it is powered by 12v so no fiddling with stepdown converters or the like.

 

Ivo aka @Yoddha is pro active in developing APT and has been for many years, from small acorns grow mighty  oak’s ?

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A quick update on this subject I started last night had a few hours and this time I made some simple changes,

I didn't use any hubs just direct to the PC, also ditched stellarium and used cdc instead and most importantly I created a written work flow from start to finish and this time everything worked flawlessly...

The only one remaining issue well not a issue but I need to understand the gain and offset on this camera after spending years with a DSLR I really cant get my head around these cmos/ccd setups! Guess I'm just going to have to keep experimenting just wish there is a given setup for lrgb and narrowband 

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On 03/09/2018 at 09:29, jjosefsen said:

As a software developer I have an interest in trying many different capture softwares, just for the hell of it. ? I feel like APT is definitely the easiest and most stable one I have tried yet. It lacks a few features, but generally it is quite stable, and the software I would recommend to people starting with computer control.

It does sound like you need an active USB hub. I use a 10 port (too many ports I know) IcyBox hub, as it is powered by 12v so no fiddling with stepdown converters or the like.

 

Agreed. APT is an excellent piece of software which will do almost anything that an imager needs, short of full automation.

@Wirral man I highly recommend sticking with APT until you can consistently carry out all night imaging sessions with no issues other than those that randomly happen to  anyone. 

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