Whats causing my lag

[RichardHurst]

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this and solved it. I'm using an i7 Macbook Air, 1.7ghz with 8GM Ram and running Windows 10 through Bootcamp. I have decided to try and control my mount via EQMOD and have set everything up, including Stellarium with Stellarium scope. I am using APT and did a blind plate solve and then the objects list to slew to my target. The issue I am having though is it seems to completely slow down my MacBook, The button presses i'm making take 5-6 seconds to actually happen and then the mount starts to move, there is so much lag/delay. It gets worse if I then try and run PHD2 as that cannot then even lock onto a star because of the delay. Something is causing it. Don't think it can be the Macbook bing to slow with 8GB ram and being an i7. I always thought that these basic programmes didn't use a lot of memory anyway.

[Shimrod]

1 hour ago, RichardHurst said:

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this and solved it. I'm using an i7 Macbook Air, 1.7ghz with 8GM Ram and running Windows 10 through Bootcamp. I have decided to try and control my mount via EQMOD and have set everything up, including Stellarium with Stellarium scope. I am using APT and did a blind plate solve and then the objects list to slew to my target. The issue I am having though is it seems to completely slow down my MacBook, The button presses i'm making take 5-6 seconds to actually happen and then the mount starts to move, there is so much lag/delay. It gets worse if I then try and run PHD2 as that cannot then even lock onto a star because of the delay. Something is causing it. Don't think it can be the Macbook bing to slow with 8GB ram and being an i7. I always thought that these basic programmes didn't use a lot of memory anyway.

I don't have direct knowledge of Macbook Airs, but based on the spec you have given above you are running a mobile version of the i7 - 2 cores and 4 threads designed for optimal battery life rather than performance. I have a similar processor in my windows laptop and while great for day-to-day use, it is not particularly powerful. If you are running programs in a emulated version of windows, then I could well imagine performance will suffer.

[MarkAR]

Have a try with Kstars/Ekos, runs natively on Mac and supports PHD2.

Bootcamp/Windows is almost certainly the cause of lag.

[RichardHurst]

It’s really weird though because I’ve tested it indoors plugged straight into the wall and everything works fine, no lag at all. Get outside and it starts. All I can think is maybe it’s a power issue. Inside it’s straight in the wall. Outside it’s into an extension lead which then goes into the shed and basically plugs into another extension lead which then runs into the house. I’m just wondering if that’s causing any issues 

[Tenor Viol]

umm mains power is mains power. You would only get attenuation if it was a significant length of cable. Is there wi-fi involved in this process? I've never run a Windows emulator or VM on my Mac but I would agree it's going to place a lot of demand on system resources.  

[RichardHurst]

10 hours ago, Tenor Viol said:

umm mains power is mains power. You would only get attenuation if it was a significant length of cable. Is there wi-fi involved in this process? I've never run a Windows emulator or VM on my Mac but I would agree it's going to place a lot of demand on system resources.  

The two extension leads would equate in total to around 20 metres I suppose, Its all I can think it is because it all runs smoothly when the mount is plugged in directly to the mains supply. The laptop is on battery power and works fine when indoors 

[Tenor Viol]

1 hour ago, RichardHurst said:

The two extension leads would equate in total to around 20 metres I suppose, Its all I can think it is because it all runs smoothly when the mount is plugged in directly to the mains supply. The laptop is on battery power and works fine when indoors 

I agree 20m should not be an issue. Perhaps you have some poor connections in the leads which is leading to power problems? Also, are you dependent on wi-fi?

[RichardHurst]

I tested again last night with just plugging into one extension lead and again all worked fine, so its one of two things, either the other extension lead or maybe the way I had it set up the Lynx Astro cable running from my laptop to the mount was slightly coiled and close the the sockets on the extension lead, maybe this was causing some interference to the Lynx Astro cable controlling the mount, next clear night I will keep them apart and see if that solves the issue. Got to love this hobby!!. Lol

[Tenor Viol]

I design computer systems for a living. Problems have a habit of appearing out of nowhere.

[Davey-T]

I have an old MBP 2.5GHz i5 4GB running Win7 pro in a Bootcamp partition and it runs all astro' stuff fine on battery.

Maybe try Win 7 genuine copies are cheap enough.

Dave

PS : Using El Capitan V 10.11.6

Edited July 14, 2020 by Davey-T