PHD2 guide log

[knobby]

Hi, been guiding my AZ GTi but not sure what the log tells me ? Do you think the corrections are too aggressive as it nearly always overshoots ? Or is that to be expected.

Altair gpcam mono and Skywatcher finder guider.

Thanks for looking

 

[Thalestris24]

Hiya

It says 'exposure = 200ms' but you probably want it to be 2-3 secs. Most of your error seems to be in DEC which may be backlash related? What aggressiveness settings were you using? How was calibration? The latest PHD2 has an updated Guiding Assistant which might be useful to run next time.

Edit: Oh I see your DEC aggressiveness was set to 100% - try 50-70% instead. Increase hysteresis to 30% - should smooth things out a bit too.

Louise

[knobby]

Didn't notice that ! I thought it was on 2 seconds ... The gpcam seems to do what it wants in PHD2 though, seems to be in auto . I'll run the guiding assistant next time out, I was just so excited to see it working I went for 3 minutes and stars looked good so started imaging.

[Thalestris24]

2 minutes ago, knobby said:

Didn't notice that ! I thought it was on 2 seconds ... The gpcam seems to do what it wants in PHD2 though, seems to be in auto . I'll run the guiding assistant next time out, I was just so excited to see it working I went for 3 minutes and stars looked good so started imaging.

Download v2.6.6 first:  https://openphdguiding.org/downloads/

[alan potts]

Well you did better than me I couldn't even get it to calibrate but I feel this was largely due to thin cloud, If I don't crack it this time with the things I have I am giving up.

 

[knobby]

4 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Download v2.6.6 first:  https://openphdguiding.org/downloads/

Cheers, will do

3 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Well you did better than me I couldn't even get it to calibrate but I feel this was largely due to thin cloud, If I don't crack it this time with the things I have I am giving up.

 

Don't give up, it feels so good when it works ? until it stops working for no apparent reason .

I couldn't get mine to calibrate but ran the guiding assistant a few times and uses its suggestions.

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, alan potts said:

Well you did better than me I couldn't even get it to calibrate but I feel this was largely due to thin cloud, If I don't crack it this time with the things I have I am giving up.

 

Failure to calibrate is likely to be due to either wrong settings in the calibration step calculator, imbalance causing excessive drift in one or both axes, too much dec backlash, or poor PA

Louise

[knobby]

I think you need to host a live webcam chat one night and we can all discuss /  suggest settings ?

[michael8554]

Minimum Move on both axis is 0.43, so no corrections are being applied until the mount has moved about 2arcsecs on the graph, so needs lowering.

Correct the exposure as Louise as pointed out, and apply the MinMo suggested by the Guiding Assistant .

Good luck

Michael 

[alan potts]

This is what gets me about all these sofeware programs, easy to use out the box they say. Well sorry not for me. I am using decent stuff, a SW ED 50mm guidescope and zwo 290mini . It may well be all about polar alignment, I have taken time to adjust both axes as best I can so there is no play, which there isn't, but I do wonder how good alignment is. I was super careful with 3 star alignment using the camera to set it up and then re-adjusted after the setup using Polar Align in the programs, it said it was 30mins out in both give or take. I really wonder how good this mount is as it has done what I consider odd things for a couple of years and it has nothing to do with power.

I agree with Knobby we need a set of setting I think as I don't understand what to put, I don't even know what half the word mean. I would have thought 2019, it should set itself up, people walked on the moon in 1969.

Anayway thanks for the help all of you have given and offered but things are close to going in the bin.

Alan

[alan potts]

9 hours ago, knobby said:

Cheers, will do

Don't give up, it feels so good when it works ? until it stops working for no apparent reason .

I couldn't get mine to calibrate but ran the guiding assistant a few times and uses its suggestions.

Cheer's Knobby, I feel like giving up, 2 years I have been at this on and off, faulty and wrong cables, duff new cameras and many many of my faults. My biggest issue is I don't understand the basics and I have read the instruction many times, I need to be shown things and here I have nobody to help.

Actually the new camera that had a problem was close, half of it worked so I did get somewhere, then it stopped calibration, time and time again, then I sent it back. This new one the 290mini is first time out of the box, 10 months old.

Alan 

[Thalestris24]

Alan - There are videos on youtube explaining how you use eqmd and phd2, if that's any help?

eg

 

There are lots of others  PHD2 is well documented:

https://openphdguiding.org/manual/?section=Trouble_shooting.htm

 

Louise

[michael8554]

Hi Alan

Yes, it's a real pain when the instructions are too difficult to understand.

I've got a good handle on PHD2 after years of using it, but I've looked at some of the bespoke Image Processing packages and they might as well be written in double-Bulgarian !

But to help, not frustrate:

A 1, 2, or 3 Star Alignment does not improve or worsen your PA (it merely tells your mount where the stars are located tonight), UNLESS you've altered the mount's Alt or Az with the screws. Your PA won't have altered if you've only used the handset in the Alignment.    

PHD2 Static Polar Alignment and the Polar Drift Alignment routines get you close, but you should then check with the classic PHD2 Drift Alignment, you don't need to be any better than about 5arcmins.

And sorry to say, PHD2 does work straight out of the box if your mount has good backlash and Periodic Error, and you've correctly entered your equipment details, but if your mount is like most there's an amount of fine tuning that comes with experience and yes, understanding the help files.

You could run the Guiding Assistant for 20 mins, accept the recommendations, then gude for 20 mins at the same position without altering anything else, and then post the Guide and Debug logs to the PHD 2 developers - instructions in the Help dropdown menu. They will respond on the Open PHD Guiding site within 24 hours.

Michael