@zbadger wrote:
Equipment:
NCSF club Celestron CGM Pro mount
Orion Starshooter guide camera
ZWO 1600MM camera with LRGB filters
Software Background:
Windows 10 (not updated for a month or more as I have turned off automatic updates so they would not attempt to update while out imaging)
SGP version 2.6.0.25
Ascom Profile Explorer version 6.2.0.0
Ascom Diagnostic Properties (have not “Run compatibility troubleshooter”)
ASICAP V1.4
Celestron mount owned by the club (I have no idea if it needs an update or can be updated)
Issues:
- SGP (for the second time in 2 months - like my last New Moon session in November) told me that it would not connect to the telescope mount - “unable to connect to Celestron driver”. The camera did connect.
A member from another club had mentioned last month that I change the power settings on the USB ports and I did disabled all of them. But that evidently did not fix the problem.
After 4 hours of trying through multiple reboots and new SGP attempts to connect all equipment, SGP and the mount finally connected and then surprisingly with every reboot thereafter (because of the other problems mentioned below) SGP subsequently always connected. But after all of those reboots, I still do not understand what prevented SGP and the Celestron mount/driver from connecting over hours of many attempts and then what allowed them to ultimately connect Friday night and last month.
After all equipment finally connected, I then went to Frame & Focus and everything was tack sharp Friday night. However, Frame & Focus just kept showing a scrolling “downloading” but never showed me an image. Then that somehow finally corrected itself during one of my ultimate reboots of SGP. Again, I have no idea why it was not working and then ultimately did.
Each time SGP plate solved successfully but when it came time to PhD, the guide camera power light kept shutting off and I recall getting an E22 error message and an E6 error message. There was also one other error message but I don’t remember that number. Numerous times I would unplug and plug back in the end of the USB attachment to the camera. Again, I have no idea why after connecting all equipment successfully the guide camera would power down. I do not believe there is any software for the guide camera that could be causing that problem - correct? Then after trying again and again I was finally able to get PhD to start guiding.
SGP finally started taking an image and went through an entire 3 minutes session but when it came to downloading, it again scrolled the downloading message just like it did with Frame & Focus while never actually downloading the picture nor showing me the completed image. After about the 4th reboot just for this issue, SGP actually started to acquire and save images. But then it was 11 p.m. so I lost a good 5 to 6 hours of Imaging and particularly over the darkest part of the sky.
I put in a 12 hour night which for only 4 hours of data. This problem of connectivity has happened twice now in the last 2 outings. Totally disgusted!
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