Setting up PHD2

[scotty38]

Hi all, I spent all night yesterday trying to get PHD2 guiding but to no avail although it had worked perfectly the night before....

Is there any way to fault find guiding issues during daytime rather than waiting for (wasting) the next clear night to do the same? Clearly logic tells me not but thought I'd ask just in case I'm missing some clever technique to get things done...

[Budgie1]

You can use the camera simulator instead of your guide camera for testing. Just change the camera in the connections window and connect to that and the mount.

Don't forget to change it back before you want to use it for imaging though!

[red dwalf]

are you sure your settings are still the same in the brain of PHD, biggest is the guide camera details and pixel size of guide camera 

[Adam1234]

What issues were you having?

[scotty38]

Thanks all, will look at the simulator good shout.

Yep settings exactly as the previous night no changes. One thing that was different was that at the end of the working session I noticed a NINA update which I applied. Thinking that may be the issue I tried APT but exactly the same.

PHD seemed to just loop around calibrating and stopped from what I recall but just never started guiding. Focus seemed ok, plate solving worked fine, everything was connected and so on. I restarted things, disconnected reconnected, rebooted and nothing changed, this is why I want to try some "daylight" fault finding to see if I can work out what was going wrong..

[smr]

You could try uninstalling and reinstalling PHD2.

I did the other day and guiding has been great, I created a new profile and let PHD2 determine the Mount speed, entered Camera, focal length, and calibrated on a star S-S/E and 20 or so deg of the Celestial Equator. Guiding has been really good since.

[alacant]

30 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

l but just never started guiding.

Hi

What did the log indicate as to what went wrong?

There are so many things which have to be in place for successful guiding that it''s usually best to start with a concrete idea of the issue. Otherwise we're left guessing forever!

Cheers

[scotty38]

14 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

What did the log indicate as to what went wrong?

There are so many things which have to be in place for successful guiding that it''s usually best to start with a concrete idea of the issue. Otherwise we're left guessing forever!

Cheers

Yep I realise that and as I mentioned all was well the night before. To be fair I was only looking for options on daylight fault finding so I could dig into it myself versus having someone fix it for me if that makes sense....

I had a look at the phd manual earlier and had not thought about the logs so they’re first on my list.

[kens]

Install PHD2LogViewer. https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-log-viewer/

And read up on how to analyze the logs: https://openphdguiding.org/tutorial-analyzing-phd2-guiding-results/

And study the troubleshooting guide: https://openphdguiding.org/manual/?section=Trouble_shooting.htm

If all else fails: https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

[scotty38]

Thanks will look at that lot but it’s working again now. Took a couple of hours of not really changing anything but after one particular close of apps I started phd on its own and it started guiding. I then started Nina and it carried on guiding picked a target, set a sequence, of course it stopped guiding while it slewed, and guiding started again..... I’d set it to the horsehead for an hour knowing I’d lose it behind a tree about halfway but left it to see what happened. Went back out after the hour to see the scope nicely parked and about 15 useable images....

No idea what’s going on......