APT Dither and PHD2

[syberand]

Hi,
I am about to loose my mind. I have no idea if what I'm doing is correct or just wrong.

To sum up:
I'm trying to set up dithering.

The longer story:
I have a Skywatcher 150PDS with a Synscan. I'm using my Canon M50 on my SW and to aid tracking I have bought a ZWO 120 Mini.
On my laptop I'm running APT and PHD2. My laptop is connected to my DSLR which I control with APT and guidecam is connected to the laptop and to the mount with ST4.

I have gotten autoguiding to work after a cold cold night. After that I thought, lets look at Dithering. In APT to go in to "Guide" and set it up as I have been able to understand from misc guides. And I can see in APT that it connects to PHD2.

When I start my sequence and it starts dithering, I can see in PHD2 it goes to pause and never seems to recover from it and APT just continues on "Dither".

What am I missing?
 

[TerryMcK]

What mount are you using? What cable do you use to connect it to the computer?

[syberand]

Ah, I knew I was missing something. I'm using a SW EQ5 Pro synscan. Does the mount also need to be connected to the computer?

[Budgie1]

If you're using the ST4 cable from the guide camera to the mount then the mount doesn't need to be connected to the laptop. PHD2 should be set to On Camera for the mount setting.

When you first start using Dithering, try the default settings in ATP & PHD2 first. They normally work okay to get you started.

Don't have the dither set too high.

• PHD2 > Advanced Settings (the brain button) > Global tab > bottom of the page check "Random" and a Scale of 1.0
• ATP > Gear tab > Guide button > I have: Auto Dither ON, Dither Distance 3, Dither Stability 0.70, Dither Settle Time 20, Dither Timeout 90, Dither on # images 1

My settings are for an EQ5 Pro mount with SW Evostar 100ED and a Canon EOS 1300D.

[si717]

7 hours ago, syberand said:

Ah, I knew I was missing something. I'm using a SW EQ5 Pro synscan. Does the mount also need to be connected to the computer?

i have the same mount i use a  4 port usb hub ,i connect my hand controller into it from the usb port on the hand controller if yours has this you need to download the hand control software from skywatcher,i also connect my guidecam direct into the usb hub and dslr into usb hub then from the usb hub i have one wire extention cable  from the usb hub  direct to one port on the laptop ,you do not need to connect st4 cable at all you just need the skywatcher hand control software and ascom platform drivers  hope that gives a general idea in apt then all you have to do is connect dslr connect mount then open up phd2 when connecting to guide hope this helps fairly simple once its setup good luck

[bottletopburly]

Make sure server mode enabled  Tools > enable server  in phd2 

[syberand]

10 hours ago, si717 said:

i have the same mount i use a  4 port usb hub ,i connect my hand controller into it from the usb port on the hand controller if yours has this you need to download the hand control software from skywatcher,i also connect my guidecam direct into the usb hub and dslr into usb hub then from the usb hub i have one wire extention cable  from the usb hub  direct to one port on the laptop ,you do not need to connect st4 cable at all you just need the skywatcher hand control software and ascom platform drivers  hope that gives a general idea in apt then all you have to do is connect dslr connect mount then open up phd2 when connecting to guide hope this helps fairly simple once its setup good luck

I haven't tried with the hand control software. To connect to the mount, I assume you are going through the handcontroller or do you have a special cable?

[si717]

14 minutes ago, syberand said:

I haven't tried with the hand control software. To connect to the mount, I assume you are going through the handcontroller or do you have a special cable?

yes the cable is like a printer cable if you look at the bottom of your hand control there should be like a socket for USB Printer Cable High Speed 2.0 A to B Lead search ebay very cheap and ive found setting up that route ideal once all connected and drivers are in place

[syberand]

I figured out the problem. I had the port number wrong. 4400, not the default 4300