Atik EFW3 and PegasAstro Ultimate Powerbox v2

[ejdavis]

Hello,
I have a remote telescope set up in Spain.  It has an Atik EFW3  7 position filter wheel. I use Seqeunce Generator Pro to control the set up.
I was advised by the owner of the remote site that he uses a Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox v2 which considerably simplified the cabling. So, I decided buy one also.
It was installed a few days ago.
 However we have been having significant problems with the filter wheel. Before the Powerbox was installed, the filter wheel had performed flawlessly for over a year.
The problems are:- 
The filter wheel, on start up, often does not move when commanded to do so in SGP. It sometimes says "Moving" in SGP but then stays at the Luminance filter which is in Position 1 on the filter wheel. If I close both SGP and disconnect the Powerbox and start again, it then sometimes (but not always) starts to accept instructions to move correctly for filters 1 to 5.
However, even when it is moving the filters correctly, filters 6 and 7 are inaccessible. It acts like they are not there at all.
The site owner has checked the cables and they are properly installed.
Can you please offer  any advice on how to proceed? I do like the Powerbox concept and hope I can continue to use it.

Thanks for looking.

Eric

[Kinch]

Hi Eric. I use an PowerBox - V1  with absolutely no problems (SGP & EFW3). I note that the PowerBox V2 has USB3 outlets as well as USB2 - whereas mine only has USB2. I wonder if the problem is related to using a USB3 port (or perhaps a substandard USB3 cable in such port). EFW3 is USB2 as you know and theoretically USB3 is supposed to be backward compatible......but just maybe........not for the filter wheel?  Just throwing that out as a possibility!

Edited August 31, 2020 by Kinch

[MarkAR]

That does sound like some sort of connection issue. Is the filter wheel connected to the Pegasus or to the camera ?

In the meantime I would be tempted to try it with KStars/Ekos and see if the same problem persists.

[ejdavis]

Hi Thanks for your replies,

We changed all the cables to a top brand (Lindy) and reinstalled all the drivers and after adjusting some settings in SGP it seems to be behaving correctly and recognising all the filters.

So, I am not sure which adjustment mad the difference but hopefully the problem is over.

[MarkAR]

Well done. Glad it's all working now.