Not enough movement in RA.

[Ant]

Had this issue two nights on the trot.

I'm using PHD to guide and everything has worked fine until last night (and now tonight).

I have two issues...

1) PHD keeps freezing on me.

2) I get an error message during calibration stating "Not enough Movement in RA". And then it fails.

I've uninstalled PHD and reinstalled it again - which hasn't really helped the freezing. Not really sure where else to go with it to be honest. The handset got cold both nights and I wonder if the handset slowing down due to the cold might affect PHD (just a thought).

I have a new HDD coming in a few days, so there will be a fresh install of EVERYTHING - that night also help.

Now the "Not enough movement in RA"... Never had that before! But I've done a little investigation and now that I have found a possible answer - it makes sense. The problem can be caused by too larger image scale. Now I've guided with the ED80 plenty of times before BUT I got a 0.5 FR for Xmas - I'v not been able to get the guiding to work since including the FR into the image train.

So next time out I'll remove the FR and see what happens.

I just thought that this might serve as a useful piece of information for anyone suffering in silence with the same problem.

Would the handset getting cold affect software on the laptop?

Cheers

Ant

[James]

Would the handset getting cold affect software on the laptop?

It hasn't bothered my laptop so far. I've had the handset down to about -5 C and the laptop was OK too although I deliberately ran a couple of extra apps to keep the laptop running warm. The handset was obviously suffering though with the screen displaying text really slowly.

Not sure about your PhD problems although your suggestion seems logical to me!

James

[Starflyer]

Hi Ant,

I had the "Not enough Movement in RA" message last night, it was the first time I used my new reducer / flattener too. I increased the Calibration Step (ms) setting from the default (750ms) to 1500ms and that seemed to sort it out. It says in the help somewhere that you may need to increase this setting for shorter focal length 'scopes, hope this sorts it out for you.

I had PHD freeze several times when I first got the QHY5, clearing out the camera drivers (completely) and re-installing sorted it out, could be a similar thing? The only problem I get with my handset in the cold is it slowing down, don't know if it could affect the lappy but I wouldn't have thought so.

Cheers,

Ian

[blinky]

Hi Ant,

I had the "Not enough Movement in RA" message last night, it was the first time I used my new reducer / flattener too. I increased the Calibration Step (ms) setting from the default (750ms) to 1500ms and that seemed to sort it out. It says in the help somewhere that you may need to increase this setting for shorter focal length 'scopes, hope this sorts it out for you.

I had PHD freeze several times when I first got the QHY5, clearing out the camera drivers (completely) and re-installing sorted it out, could be a similar thing? The only problem I get with my handset in the cold is it slowing down, don't know if it could affect the lappy but I wouldn't have thought so.

Cheers,

Ian

I use EQMod and had to do something similer to get PHD to work properly

[George]

As already said increase the calibration step to 1500ms, slowing the frame rate to 2s helps too especially with feint stars.

The freezing problem is cured by copying the latest CMOSDLL.DLL over the existing one in the phd directory.

Can be downloaded here

[Ant]

You know what? I love this place!

Thanks for the link George - downloaded and in place

Thanks to other for the setting change, I'm using an ED80 and thought that the FR would help in giving a better choice in guide stars by increasing the FOV and also enable me to guide at smaller intervals...

I'll change the settings and see what happens on the next clear night!

Ant

[Reggie]

I changed from using synscan to control the mount to EQMod over the weekend, Contrary to Georges advice, I *didn't* have to change the calibration step to get things working, I just had to adjust the pulseguide rate and a quick tweak of aggressiveness settings did the job for me. I'm sure the increasing calibration step will achieve a similar result though.

[Beyond_Vision]

I have had problems with the ST4 port connection on my mount resulting in the same error message. Make sure the plug is pushed home fully and use a stick on cable clamp to stop the cable from coming out when the RA axis is moving.

Regards

Kevin

[Whippy]

I've had this issue before too and I think it happens when you're trying to calibrate a guide star near the pole with a short focal length scope.

(I could have this horribly wrong but this is how I think of it) Using a kids roundabout as an analogy, if the roundabout is spinning and you hang off the side of it, you're going a lot faster than if you would be if you're standing in the middle. Same principle applies with stars near the pole, they move faster across the sky the further away they are. So increasing the calibration step when you're nearer the pole gives the star more time to move so PHD can do it's stuff. I've normally had to increase the step when I've been using the 66 (not with the 110 though with it's longer fl and smaller FOV) and imaging objects near the pole in constellations like Cepheus, Cassiopeia and the rest.

Like I say, I could have this horribly wrong but from experience, that's how I think it works. I'm now fully expecting for Ant to say he was trying to get a guide star in Perseus to blow this post out of the water .....

Tony..

[beamer3.6m]

On the roundabout analogy would you not spin slower on the outside but travel further, the opposite being true for the middle.

[daz]

Ant

Didn't think you had a QHY camera? If not, there is no need for the DLL file.

[Ant]

Ah thanks Daz (yes I had missed this), I was going to revisit once I had managed to test the settings changes...

No not got a QHY...

I had downloaded the file as suggested by George, but I also updated the software to version 1.10, which had a new version of that file anyway. So I hadn't used it yet.

Thanks again guys...

Ant