issues phd2 qhy5l-ii

[Fieldsy]

Bought it new last year .and have been told if I purchase another asi to use as guide and use my asi as imaging cam i may get issues with to similar cams .

[Fieldsy]

I bought it new last year .I did think about just buying a new cam asi mini but I was informed I may have issues with two similar cams as I use my asi178 for imaging (eventually that was the idea) .

[Adam J]

4 minutes ago, Fieldsy said:

I bought it new last year .I did think about just buying a new cam asi mini but I was informed I may have issues with two similar cams as I use my asi178 for imaging (eventually that was the idea) .

I think that was me and to be clear I have only ever heard of one incidence of someone changing the gain on their guide camera in PHD and having the gain altered on their imaging camera. So it may be something or nothing and actually should work. My warning to you was more that it is worth exhasting all options before getting a different camera as there is rarely a "plug and play" solution is astro imaging. 

To be honest a color camera is not the best choice for guiding anyway as the accuracy is diminished by the RGB matrix. 

The advantage of getting a ASI mono 120mm mini is that you could run the whole setup from ASI AIR in the future is you wanted.

See below from the PHD2 manual:

ASCOM Camera Properties

If you choose an ASCOM camera, you'll also be able to access the ASCOM setup dialog for that camera by clicking on the properties button immediately to the left of the 'Connect' button: 



Depending on the camera, this may provide access to properties that are not controlled by PHD2.

Multiple Cameras of the Same Type

If your computer is connected to multiple cameras from the same manufacturer, you'll usually need to specify which camera should be used by PHD2.  You can do that by clicking on the 'fork' button to the right of the camera drop-down list: 



Clicking this button will show a list of the available cameras and you can choose the one you want.  PHD2 will remember the choice and save it as part of your equipment profile, so you should only need to do this once.

So in effect what I am saying is that a 120mm mini should work. There is certainly prevision for it within PHD2. 

There is a similar solution to selecting the correct camera within APT. 

Adam 

[Fieldsy]

I am just past my tolerance with this qhy a quick restart as I made a cuppa and now nothing finds the qhy and windows dont know what it is . Last chance reloading all drivers for qhy if not I'm buying a new cam had enough of it.

[Adam J]

30 minutes ago, Fieldsy said:

I am just past my tolerance with this qhy a quick restart as I made a cuppa and now nothing finds the qhy and windows dont know what it is . Last chance reloading all drivers for qhy if not I'm buying a new cam had enough of it.

Is it appearing under USB devices in device manager? 

[Adam J]

32 minutes ago, Fieldsy said:

I am just past my tolerance with this qhy a quick restart as I made a cuppa and now nothing finds the qhy and windows dont know what it is . Last chance reloading all drivers for qhy if not I'm buying a new cam had enough of it.

Also make sure its not a different driver for the color in comparison to a mono or something daft like that. 

[Fieldsy]

14 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Also make sure its not a different driver for the color in comparison to a mono or something daft like that. 

There doesn't seem to be a difference .

Liking the look off the asi mini .

Also the qhy mini scope looks nice but I think I'm done with qhy for life lol

[bottletopburly]

I’ve used qhy 5l for a few years never been impressed by their drivers tbh , definitely getting a zwo next time , I use the miniguide scope and that’s great little bit of kit I would recommend that.

[Adam J]

10 minutes ago, Fieldsy said:

There doesn't seem to be a difference .

Liking the look off the asi mini .

Also the qhy mini scope looks nice but I think I'm done with qhy for life lol

I understand, but cant 100% agree with you having used a QHY5L-II mono for PHD2 guiding for 3-4 years with no issues. 

I use this for guiding:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orion-Telescope-Complete-Accessories-Aluminium/dp/B004SFUO9U/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YO0P7MWGNUZ9&keywords=orion+guide+scope&qid=1553779221&s=gateway&sprefix=orion+guide+%2Caps%2C237&sr=8-1

and have felt no need to change it since I started imaging. Just set focus with the para-focal ring and you never need to change it. Very simple but it works. I mount it where you currently have your ST80 as you need some weight at the back of the 130PDS to get balance. 

Adam

 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Adam J

[Fieldsy]

14 minutes ago, Adam J said:

I understand, but cant 100% agree with you having used a QHY5L-II mono for PHD2 guiding for 3-4 years with no issues. 

I use this for guiding:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orion-Telescope-Complete-Accessories-Aluminium/dp/B004SFUO9U/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YO0P7MWGNUZ9&keywords=orion+guide+scope&qid=1553779221&s=gateway&sprefix=orion+guide+%2Caps%2C237&sr=8-1

and have felt no need to change it since I started imaging. Just set focus with the para-focal ring and you never need to change it. Very simple but it works. I mount it where you currently have your ST80 as you need some weight at the back of the 130PDS to get balance. 

Adam

 

Have changed dove bar since then to widen the brackets a little.i know it's another cam bought but this one just seem problematic. Bernard modern astro has said he can check it for me but doubts it has a issue as it works on other platforms ( sharpcap EZplaetary)

But when windows started not finding cam that was it for me I think.ckear skies tonight 23.00 -04.00 happy days maybe.

[Adam J]

12 minutes ago, Fieldsy said:

Have changed dove bar since then to widen the brackets a little.i know it's another cam bought but this one just seem problematic. Bernard modern astro has said he can check it for me but doubts it has a issue as it works on other platforms ( sharpcap EZplaetary)

But when windows started not finding cam that was it for me I think.ckear skies tonight 23.00 -04.00 happy days maybe.

Just go with gain 200 and try 10 second luminescence exposures. So long as your polar aliment is not too bad then with upto 30 second exposures you dont need guiding. Something like M3 should be up by that time and 10 second exposures will be fine. 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Adam J

[Fieldsy]

Was thinking if qhy plays up gonna polar align with phd2 and asi in 130pds then go to apt for image capturing .

[Adam J]

1 minute ago, Fieldsy said:

Was thinking if qhy plays up gonna polar align with phd2 and asi in 130pds then go to apt for image capturing .

Which method are you using, I drift align my scope....not sure the other options would work with the long focal length of the 130PDS. Get it close with the polar scope to begin with. 

[Fieldsy]

37 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Which method are you using, I drift align my scope....not sure the other options would work with the long focal length of the 130PDS. Get it close with the polar scope to begin with. 

Will put asi into st80 then move it over once done.

[Adam J]

13 minutes ago, Fieldsy said:

Will put asi into st80 then move it over once done.

As a tip I suggest you do your star alignment by centering the alignment star in the 130PDS image, that way the star alignment is correct for the 130PDS. If you find it hard to locate your target in the 130PDS you can place the camera in the ST80 and use it like a digital finder scope. Something like M3 will be very easy to see in only a short exposure. 

[bottletopburly]

DriverVer= 04/23/2015,1.0

phd2 -2.6.5 dev version 7

windows 10 running up to date updates 

 

 

[RolandKol]

P.S.

I just noticed TV like image if guide cam setup up via ASCOM driver and on 8bit, 

16bit puts image back to normal

[Fieldsy]

On 28/03/2019 at 15:03, Adam J said:

As a tip I suggest you do your star alignment by centering the alignment star in the 130PDS image, that way the star alignment is correct for the 130PDS. If you find it hard to locate your target in the 130PDS you can place the camera in the ST80 and use it like a digital finder scope. Something like M3 will be very easy to see in only a short exposure. 

Good news mate I've come to work with qhy and new zwo mini finder and my tiny note book and managed to get a image admittedly it's a Bush but it's a start ???????.

BUT  it didn't like any of the ascom drivers so I'm just using a qhy standard .its working though

Edited March 30, 2019 by Fieldsy

[Adam J]

2 hours ago, Fieldsy said:

Good news mate I've come to work with qhy and new zwo mini finder and my tiny note book and managed to get a image admittedly it's a Bush but it's a start ???????.

BUT  it didn't like any of the ascom drivers so I'm just using a qhy standard .its working though

How did you fix it? Hope we see some images from you soon.

Oh i see this is your work PC, so not the camera then, or not totally so.

Edited March 31, 2019 by Adam J

[Fieldsy]

1 minute ago, Adam J said:

How did you fix it? Hope we see some images from you soon.

I think I'm a long way of producing a decent image .✨?

[Adam J]

1 minute ago, Fieldsy said:

I think I'm a long way of producing a decent image .✨?

Decent or not, still interesting to see what you get.

Am sure it will be better than you think.

[GyCx]

Sorry to gatecrash the thread but I have these same issues with a QHY5l-ii mono and PHD2, the connection keeps timing out, its on its own USB cable and uses the Ascom QHY5L-ii driver after a disconnect. I can open sharpcap  connect to the camera and everything is fine.  The other behaviors i experience is if i connect it to my ZWO usb2 hub on the asi071mc pro it works ok if I connect to my altair hypercam usb2 hub it does not want to know. It can work for a couple of hours, sometimes more but often less.  it could be USB traffic management which would  explain the intermittent nature of the issue but I think the drivers are not that great. The problem is you cannot rely on it and have to constantly check if its still working. I use mine on a Highspec HP USB3 laptop I think it was more reliable on my old USB2 laptop.  What I find sometimes works for me is boot laptop, complete the sharpcap polar alignment procedure with the QHY5l-ii and then re-boot, open PHD2, connect mount and camera then open your image sequence software like NINA, APT etc this can sometimes give me a reliable connection for a while.  

[michael8554]

17 hours ago, GyCx said:

the connection keeps timing out,

Sounds like the Windows USB power settings, untick something like "Allow Windows to turn off to save power" in Device Manager.

Michael

[GyCx]

1 hour ago, michael8554 said:

Sounds like the Windows USB power settings, untick something like "Allow Windows to turn off to save power" in Device Manager.

Michael

Yes this has been done, last night it would not begin looping with timeout errors in PHD2 after 3 re-boots and changing USB ports a couple of times it finally started looping and then was fine for 3 hours of imaging. I dont get any issues with this camera using any other software its just phd2.  So i dont think its a cable or hardware issue i think its how PHD2 interacts with the camera driver on my new laptops USB infrastructure. It was much more reliable on my older laptop which was USB2 only and a different chipset.