Guider nightmare

[astro mick]

Hi.

I am using a starshoot auto-guider,which has been fine until to-night.

Located guide star,auto-guider started calibration,but it did,nt seem right.Normaly it calibrates up and down and side to side of the guide star,usually 10-15 mins,then starts guiding.

Tonight the cross hair seemed to wander further away,and not really return to the guide star.Then after about 5mins it jumps to the guide star and say,s guiding.

Then gradually the star starts to wnder of until the guider looses it.

Also at times i noticed like a venetian blind effect across the guider image.

I have changed no settings,so i am wondering if its a guider problem,a USB problem,or its a problem with the EQ6

[dmahon]

Sounds like the guider is not talking to the mount - is the cable plugged in right?

[ollypenrice]

Yes, I would begin by changing all cables. The venetian blind thing only happens to me when either the supply to the camera or the USB is faulty. I don't find USB cables have long lives, around a year.

You say it takes 10 to 15 minutes to calibrate?? That's terrible! In Astro Art it takes two minutes at most and doesn't need redoing once done assuming you are in a similar part of the sky on successive nights.

Olly

[astro mick]

Hi Guys.

Thanks for the replys.

Yes i agree 10/15 mins is awful,but thats how long it takes.Once calibrated it usually does a good job.

I have changed one of the USB leads,and reloaded the software,to see if that makes any difference.

But of course its cloudy to-night,so i cant try it out.

It does make me think that all these rare clear nights wasted because of,equipment problems,often wants to make me go back to visual.

One of the biggest headaches is poor software,that doe,nt install properly,you can often spend all night sorting problems.

Sorry about the moan.

mick.