Altair GPCAM130c and ZWOASI1600mm Pro Not Working Together

[Kryff]

I have been running my current setup for almost a year and it has been stable and effective.

Setup

Skywatcher ED80 on HEQ5Pro mount on Pier in home observatory

Starwave 50mm guide scope with Altair GPCAM130c (running in mono)

Imaging camera ZWOASI1600mmPro cooled

ZWO filter wheel (7 x 36mm filters)

Hitech focus controller

Connectivity

The connection from the PC (in the house) is USB2 over an ethernet extender to the observatory where a USB2 hub distributes to the devices on the scope/mount.

Mount connection is via a HitechAstro USB EQ Direct cable

The cameras have separate USB cables from the hub

The ZWO filter wheel is connected from the ZWO cameras own inbuilt hub (USB3)

The focuser has a USB2 cable to the hub

Software

I run Stellarium as a visual guide and often use it to point the scope a target.

I guide with PHD2.

I use Sequence Generator Pro for image acquisition.

I use Hitech Focuser software.

The Problem

In the last couple of months, I have had issues with the cameras not performing correctly. I had not made any changes to the configuration or the drivers or software but found that occasionally an image from the ZWO would download and be totally black (annoying when doing 20/30 min exposures). I asked questions online and was advised to change from the ZWO Ascom Driver to the Native Ascom Driver. This appeared to fix the problem temporarily. (The Altair camera was already using native Ascom along with the Mount) Then the real problems started.

Generally – different bits of software seemed to be failing for no apparent reason.

After playing around with different settings and updating all drivers and software to the latest stable versions. The problem remained.

It now seems to me, to be a software issue, probably to do with the camera drivers.

It manifests itself in the following way…

I boot up the three software packages (Stellarium, PHD2 and SGP) and at his point I can use Stellarium to control the mount fine.

I point to a target and select a guide star in PHD2 and guiding commences (and will continue without a problem until I connect the equipment to SGP)

When I connect to SGP I usually take a few test images with the ZWO camera to focus the stars. I used to use the start button to run continuous 2 sec images while I used the Hitech focuser software to focus using a Bhatinov mask. This now does one or two images and the next image fails and just keeps ‘Downloading’ and If left for 40/50secs PHD2 shuts down the Altair camera with a timeout message. If I disconnect the ZWO camera in SGP – about 5 secs later PHD2 starts the Altair camera and this continues ok.

I can run SGP to capture images but somewhere between 20secs to 2 mins into an exposure the Altair camera shuts down with the time out message and I have to abort the SGP sequence as I have lost guiding.

There are also times when I have to restart PHD2 and SGP as both programs and EQMOD hang and have to be killed off using Task Manager.

I have tried changing the timeout in PHD2 – no effect

I have reverted all software to my last known working versions – no effect.

I have reinstalled all the latest versions and drivers but still the problem remains.

I have checked configs in all the software but cannot find anything to suggest I have changed anything.

Please bear in mine this was all working fine for almost a year before the problem occurred.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

and what happens when you put the pc in the obsy and run everything locally ?  i.e. don't use the USB extender etc...

[bottletopburly]

You seem to be running on usb2 , your zwo camera is usb3 try to run from your imaging pc to mount via usb3 using a 12v powered usb3 hub if you can , I run my imaging pc  from shed to mount via usb3  repeater cable to a usb 12v usb3 powered hub and view from my laptop in house via Anydesk  maybe the usb2 is a weak link  does your imaging pc have Usb3?.

Edited August 6, 2021 by bottletopburly

[Kryff]

The pc has usb3 but the Ethernet extender only has a usb2 hub and usb2 connector to the pc. This worked fine up until a few weeks ago. I can’t change the hub without spending around £250 on a new usb3 extender unit as it is part of that unit.

[Kryff]

Dr ju ju - my pc is a tower and really not moveable but the system has run for 12 months without any problems. Issues only started a few weeks ago. I have been using the enet extender for over 2 years with these cameras.  Originally scope on a portable tripod and for the last year on a pier in the observatory 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Kryff

[michael8554]

Have you had any Windows updates on the Tower PC ?

Check all the USB power settings in Device Manager.

Run the guidecam on its own with PHD2.

If it runs okay add other equipment until it fails.

Michael

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Honestly, I would still suspect the USB connectivity between the obsy & the PC, especially, as pointed out, if you have recently applied any w$ updates to ver. 20H2 (19042.1110), which have had some some hardware 'fixes'.... 

[Kryff]

I can’t easily lay another cable from the house to the obsy so would a usb3 powered hub at the scope via an Ethernet (cat6) cable to a non powered Ethernet to usb3 cable work ok?

Something like this… see pics 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Kryff

[Kryff]

michael8554

Tower pc is upto date with windows updates so there have been a few recently.

I have checked all the USB ports and they are all fine.

The guide cam runs fine on its own.  If I run the ZWO on its own it still dosent download all files.

If I have the guide cam running and add the ZWO then eventually the ZWO goes into permananty download and eventually the guide cam is shut down by PHD2. If I stop the ZWO download before the guide cam is shut down then the guide cam recovers after about 30 secs and continues ok.

Dr Ju Ju thinks its the USB2/3 via ethernet connection so I am investigating that as well.

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Kryff

[Kryff]

5 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

You seem to be running on usb2 , your zwo camera is usb3 try to run from your imaging pc to mount via usb3 using a 12v powered usb3 hub if you can , I run my imaging pc  from shed to mount via usb3  repeater cable to a usb 12v usb3 powered hub and view from my laptop in house via Anydesk  maybe the usb2 is a weak link  does your imaging pc have Usb3?.

Yes the imaging PC has USB3, however a new cable is not really an option as I would have to dig up half the garden to lay one but I could get new USB3 hub and ethernet extenders for the existing cat6 cable. I have inculded pics in the post. I'm just not sure if these will do the job.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Kryff