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IC 1848 (The Soul Nebula)

StuartT

By StuartT
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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StuartT

StuartT

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2 hours ago, carastro said:

Nice work Stuart

Carole 

thanks Carole. I had a nightmare trying to get my guide cam and imaging cam both connected (in PHD2 and NINA respectively). They are both ZWO and they endlessly clash. So after two hours of trying I gave up on guiding and relied on the mount alone. The longest subs I could manage were 90s before starting to see elongated stars. Not bad considering that, I thought.

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carastro

carastro

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Crumbs that sounds awful.  I have a similar problem with my dual rig, having 2 Atik cameras downloading to one laptop.  I can open 2 iterations of the software and can grab each camera, but the data just hangs when it tries to download it.  I gave up in the end and now use separate laptops for each camera. 

Carole  

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StuartT

StuartT

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15 minutes ago, carastro said:

Crumbs that sounds awful.  I have a similar problem with my dual rig, having 2 Atik cameras downloading to one laptop.  I can open 2 iterations of the software and can grab each camera, but the data just hangs when it tries to download it.  I gave up in the end and now use separate laptops for each camera. 

Carole  

gosh! So it's not just me then. I guess that's sort of reassuring. 😬

The strange thing is, Windows device manager sees both cameras perfectly fine. But somehow both NINA and PHD2 get terribly confused. I'm thinking I may have to ditch the guide cam (ASI174MM mini) and find one from a different manufacturer so the drivers aren't clashing. 🤷‍♂️

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  • 2 weeks later...
StuartT

StuartT

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Someone* helpfully suggested a reason I have been having all this trouble. My rig is connected to the laptop via a 15m USB cable. Apparently USB signals can't travel more than a few metres before getting messed up (🤦‍♂️)^2.

So he suggested I use a mini PC on the telescope and then wifi out to that.

* thanks @Stuart1971

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scotty38

scotty38

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17 minutes ago, StuartT said:

Someone* helpfully suggested a reason I have been having all this trouble. My rig is connected to the laptop via a 15m USB cable. Apparently USB signals can't travel more than a few metres before getting messed up (🤦‍♂️)^2.

So he suggested I use a mini PC on the telescope and then wifi out to that.

* thanks @Stuart1971

Glad you finally listened 🤣🤣🤣 🤣

 

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StuartT

StuartT

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2 hours ago, scotty38 said:

Glad you finally listened 🤣🤣🤣 🤣

 

thanks to @scotty38 too 😬

Now.. I have just been trying out a closer connection (as it's a sunny day so I can take the covers off). I connected the laptop 'direct' to the UPBv2 via a 1m cable. I did (eventually) manage to connect everything up. So it definitely seems to be an improvement. However, it took several attempts (and two laptop reboots) to get NINA to see any of the ZWO drivers.

So it's definitely not the whole story. 

Although NINA couldn't see my cameras, ASI Studio, SharpCap and Windows could all see them just fine and download images! So there clearly seems to be some kind of issue with NINA.

Maybe a mini-PC would be better? Maybe it wouldn't?

image.thumb.png.274acac8f7f6b292a34bbf719910a49a.png 

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scotty38

scotty38

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I can't fathom why you seem to be plagued with this issue. I realise I now have different cameras, ie QHY294m and ZWO 120mm but even when I had a ZWO 294mc I didn't get any of these issues either. Yes you have to use the "fork selector" in PHD2 but other than that all was fine and dandy. Choosing native drivers was fine too but from your screen shot you don't seem to have those listed either..

There are many folk using this type of setup in NINA so I'm not convinced it is a NINA issue but I can see why you would think that given your testing but will have a think on this one too

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StuartT

StuartT

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38 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Yes you have to use the "fork selector" in PHD2 but other than that all was fine and dandy. Choosing native drivers was fine too but from your screen shot you don't seem to have those listed either..

The problem with the fork selector in PHD2 is that it was showing either two 2600s or two 174s - so I could never tell which camera I was actually connecting to. I'd only find out when it would then tell me I didn't have a dark library (so it had obviously connected to the imaging camera instead). Occasionally PHD2 connects ok, but in general it doesn't. 

29 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Was yours one of the powered types?

Do you still have the USB and power going through the mount? I know you said other apps work but what happens if you bypass that just for the sake of testing?

No, it was not powered. It was just a long, heavy gauge USB cable

No, I have abandoned the mount hub, as it's apparently a problem.

I have spent SO much time trying to fix this problem. It's really been driving me crazy.

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scotty38

scotty38

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18 minutes ago, StuartT said:

The problem with the fork selector in PHD2 is that it was showing either two 2600s or two 174s - so I could never tell which camera I was actually connecting to. I'd only find out when it would then tell me I didn't have a dark library (so it had obviously connected to the imaging camera instead). Occasionally PHD2 connects ok, but in general it doesn't. 

No, it was not powered. It was just a long, heavy gauge USB cable

No, I have abandoned the mount hub, as it's apparently a problem.

I have spent SO much time trying to fix this problem. It's really been driving me crazy.

Ah yes, recall the "fork" issue you were seeing.

I think the on scope PC will be a good move, however I can't help thinking that's not your real issue but I'm lost as to what else it can be at the minute.

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StuartT

StuartT

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3 hours ago, wuthton said:

If you do go down the on mount PC route, get one with plenty of usb ports as USB hubs are nothing but trouble. I use a Zotac CI320 in the obsy and a Raspberry Pi on my portable setup.

 

3 hours ago, scotty38 said:

Ah yes, recall the "fork" issue you were seeing.

I think the on scope PC will be a good move, however I can't help thinking that's not your real issue but I'm lost as to what else it can be at the minute.

I've taken the plunge and ordered the Mele Quieter 3Q (Win11, 8GB RAM)

Fingers crossed!

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wuthton

wuthton

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You might want to upgrade to Win 11 Pro as you can then connect with Windows RDP which is far superior to the likes of Teamviewer as it works over your local network rather than bouncing around servers. You only need Pro on the remote PC.

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StuartT

StuartT

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18 hours ago, wuthton said:

You might want to upgrade to Win 11 Pro as you can then connect with Windows RDP which is far superior to the likes of Teamviewer as it works over your local network rather than bouncing around servers. You only need Pro on the remote PC.

Thanks. The Quieter 3Q already has Win11 Pro on it.

My laptop is Win10, but I hope it will work ok

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scotty38

scotty38

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I upgraded my Quieter 2 to Win11 and connect from Win10 machines via RDP and have had no issues whatsoever. I can also connect from a Linux machine with no bother either. Having said that I can also get on via an iPad and iPhone if I'm feeling particularly masochistic 🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...
StuartT

StuartT

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Overjoyed to report that my 'first light' with the new mini PC went like a dream! Everything connected up perfectly (and stayed connected up), sky was crystal clear and my guiding was the best I have ever had at 0.38" (about one third of my imaging scale!). I was in astro heaven basically. 😍

So I got over three hours on the Soul with the L Extreme and here it is (ready to add the Sii data to it with my new Askar filter)

 

Soul Nebula L Extreme in HOO GHS.jpg

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