Problems with PHD 2 guiding.

[alan potts]

Right I have done nothing to the mount and I was trying to use the drift align, it would not do a thing right which ever way I moved the controls for Az and Alt it just got worse saying align error over 100' which it will not have been. I gave up and did a visual alignment. The mount is AZ EQ 6.

Then the scope would not guide at all it was fighting directional movement on all directions on Dec and RA giving the message it couldn't move far enough or something like Dec and RA were off the scale of 4"movement when it is rarely even 1" on either and more often hovers around the centreline .

Tried restart and checked balance but no change, it just would not guide and looking at the graph looked like an earthquake had happened. It was fine last night. Connections seemed to be OK, I tried all of them but nothing made any difference.

Any pointers as to what to try?

[michael8554]

Hello again

IIRC this is a permanent setup?

Perhaps you've changed cameras or scopes ?

PHD2 Drift Align can be a PITA to decide which way to move the mount.

I would start with the PHD2 Static Polar Alignment (SPA) tool, which is visually unambiguous in which way to move the mount.

If you can see Polaris

Then fine tune with Drift Align, by then you can ignore the PHD2 circle display and just use the horizontal graph.

Drift until the Dec line has settled in which direction it's drifting (North or South) then move mount Az accordingly - West if it's drifting South .

Same for when pointing East or West for the Alt adjustment.

Rest of your problems - did you get a good Calibration, and the guiding was like you said ?

Or wouldn't it Calibrate?

Michael

[alan potts]

3 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Hello again

IIRC this is a permanent setup?

Perhaps you've changed cameras or scopes ?

PHD2 Drift Align can be a PITA to decide which way to move the mount.

I would start with the PHD2 Static Polar Alignment (SPA) tool, which is visually unambiguous in which way to move the mount.

If you can see Polaris

Then fine tune with Drift Align, by then you can ignore the PHD2 circle display and just use the horizontal graph.

Drift until the Dec line has settled in which direction it's drifting (North or South) then move mount Az accordingly - West if it's drifting South .

Same for when pointing East or West for the Alt adjustment.

Rest of your problems - did you get a good Calibration, and the guiding was like you said ?

Or wouldn't it Calibrate?

Michael

It is a permanent setup Michael and it has guide well many times now, just went crazy last night. Calibration was fine night after night, I don't redo it, but maybe should try this.

Alan

[MarsG76]

Increase the calibration step time, perhaps you had a reset to default... if that is not the case, than make sure that the mount operates properly when you're using the hand controller at sideral speed.... if it does than make sure that the mount didn't reset to factory defaults... My CGEM has a feature called "Calibration", if yours does also than run it and check you backlash settings....

[alan potts]

2 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Increase the calibration step time, perhaps you had a reset to default... if that is not the case, than make sure that the mount operates properly when you're using the hand controller at sideral speed.... if it does than make sure that the mount didn't reset to factory defaults... My CGEM has a feature called "Calibration", if yours does also than run it and check you backlash settings....

Yes the mount operated correctly without guiding as far as I could see as I shot 3 x 20sec exposures to see where M17 was in the frame. It was when guiding was engage the problems started. The guide scope was clearly indicating a movement but the scope mount wasn't doing what it was told, could be a connection I think, will try again tonight.

Alan

 

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, alan potts said:

Yes the mount operated correctly without guiding as far as I could see as I shot 3 x 20sec exposures to see where M17 was in the frame. It was when guiding was engage the problems started. The guide scope was clearly indicating a movement but the scope mount wasn't doing what it was told, could be a connection I think, will try again tonight.

Alan

 

Oh hang on... check your autoguide cable... perhaps one pin came loose and so the mount isn't getting a guide pulse.

[alan potts]

24 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Oh hang on... check your autoguide cable... perhaps one pin came loose and so the mount isn't getting a guide pulse.

I am using Eqmod so the cable goes direct to the laptop, but I am fairly sure its going to be a connection, though I couldn't find it last night, give them all a clean I think.

Thanks for the help.

Alan

[david_taurus83]

Make sure all the all the mounting points are still nipped up tight and theres no loose play between guide scope and main scope. Also worth clearing your calibration and starting a new one.

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

Make sure all the all the mounting points are still nipped up tight and theres no loose play between guide scope and main scope. Also worth clearing your calibration and starting a new one.

+1 good idea... clear every setting on the mount and start again.

[alan potts]

Well I tried everything people suggested and it appears I am back to square one with guiding.

Cleared calibration and tried a re-cal, failed because the star did not move enough.  This is a connection problem I feel, like before with the ST4 leads being faulty.

I am running EQmod as you all helped me to get this working and it has been very good, the telescope slews around and there appear to be no problems between EQmod and scope.

However the PHD2 is giving corrections but the mount is not following them as far as I see.  I unplugged the camera and re connected that, the pictures come through on PHD2 with stars and you can even star guiding, then after 10 seconds the lines head off the map, clearly no corrections are taking place. The mount tracks on it well enough for visual say, so seems that's OK.

Now lost 2 nights, can anyone give me an idea of where to start? Need to start eliminating things from the list, it appears the camera works and this just sends pictures as ST4 is not connected.

[newbie alert]

I've had it where the dec trend just carries on cliimbing until the software loses the guide star.. changed laptop and all was fine.

I blame Windows..  

[david_taurus83]

If you tap the spanner in the EQMod box, what does it display for your Ra and Dec guiding rates?

[alan potts]

Dave,

Yes there is a box that I put some setting in a while back but I calibrated after that first time, the problem now is I can't re-calibrate, that seems to be a whole deal more serious, sounds like a cable or connector has had it. I don't understand why, it was fine a couple of nights back.

I am going to check if PHD will guide manually again to see if signal is getting to the mount, I don't believe it is. as to why I have no idea.

Before I got this Star did no move enough message it was faulty cables using ST4, I am wondering if the EQmod cable has a problem after all it is the only connection. The cable from the guide scope now only carries the picture signal to the laptop, it does'nt play a roll in the guide does it?

One of the problems of living out here, no dealer with any stock of anything, this is all decent fairly new stuff.

Alan.

[alan potts]

7 hours ago, newbie alert said:

I've had it where the dec trend just carries on cliimbing until the software loses the guide star.. changed laptop and all was fine.

I blame Windows..  

It is doing that when I tried to guide align, however the laptop is fine I use windows 7

[alan potts]

Just to let anyone that chipped in with words of help the problem has been sorted. And yes it was to do with cables!!!

Being the self appointed problem with cables king, it had to be. I had a drink with my IT guru mate Venci, after a full run down of what we had tried, he said Unplug everything,all plugs to power of any sort, computer, transformer, camera the lot. Then take a piece of wire and an connect both pins to earth for 10-20 seconds on the plugs of each cable.

Did it, plugged it all back in and it worked perfectly, and I thought he had been on the bottle.

Alan.

[michael8554]

Wow, that's different! 

Did Venci give any explanation of what he had done? 

Michael 

[alan potts]

15 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Wow, that's different! 

Did Venci give any explanation of what he had done? 

Michael 

I will let you know, can't say I believed him when he told me what to do, the guy really is a guru, famous in these parts for getting things to work when all else fails