Considering going over to an Ethernet connection with the STT rather than USB as looks more solid to me. It is a positive connection. Have to redo all wiring as I now have a new Mach-1 mount . Does this approach play well with Maxim? Let us assume that computer running Maxim and the STT 8300M are both connected to the same GB switch at the side of the scope.
Jerry did you ever do this? I had shifted from usb to the Ethernet connection until I discovered that their was no connect to the FWG8 STT guider. STT8300 worked fine. Taking an exposure to calibrate or use MaximDL6 would crash the app with "not responding". Back to the USB and it worked fine just changed the connect from IP to USB. Ethernet is so much faster. Please let me know your experiences. Aloha Tom
No, I would have done it but the ethernet controller in the SBIG I believe runs at a slower rate than the USB so your downloads will take forever. I checked this out with SBIG in the forum here somewhere.
Yes but the difference in wire control distance is quite different which each technique 16feet vs 300yds without repeaters. It would appear that the SBIG driver can not handle the FW8G STT guider using IP. Anyone from SBIG want to jump in on this?
It should work over Ethernet without crashing. Let me try it here with some test equipment. In the meantime, do you have the latest SBIG drivers installed? What firmware versions do you have installed in the camera? If you are using MaxIm DL, can you tell me specifically which version you are using? Does it crash when you calibrate the FW8G? Can you zip and send your settings folder?
Good morning, ver 6.13 and yes when I take an exposure to select a star it hangs. The computer is on the other side of the island so the folder will come but it is an hour drive both ways. Here is what I have with a cell photo, SBIG universal, 192.168.2.110 reserved ip address, Ethernet, no swap chips, internal guide (tried both just in case), ext off. 08-04-16 univ driver (latest sbig drvr downloads including firmware). Windows10 All Ethernet devices are fixed IP and not dhcp. Aloha Tom
Tom...I have been running the same setup as you for the last 2 hours without problems. How long do you wait for the exposures? Ethernet takes significantly longer to download than USB. I found that with the main imaging camera, it can take approx. 1 minute and 20 seconds to download. The guide sensor in the FW8G takes approximately 20 seconds. One thing I did notice is that the status bar does not update when downloading. It will take the exposure and start downloading. Instead of displaying "Downloading", it actually still says "Exposing". Then when complete, it only flashes "Downloading" for a second before it is complete.
Tim, thank you. Your response is timely as I am going to the Observatory on the West side this evening. I do not remember the STT8300 requiring that length of time for a download so I will time that and wait the additional for the guider. I will check the response before I pontificate any more I truly appreciate the attention you have given to this and promise to be objective. If this hangs again what log files will you be interested in receiving. aloha Tom
Finally got some time. Well the good news is it worked for a little while then it crashed as before. What I did note is CCDOps (latest ver) worked flawlessly and was faster than a speeding bullet. It was a cloudless night so couldn't spend the time on research and went back to the USB cable which worked flawlessly. Internet and IP is what I want everything on and was very disappointed that it had it obvious flaws. I do appreciate your looking into it but would like to see it flawless. Tomorrow evening is observatory club night if the weather is not pristine I will go back to sleuthing the LAN. www.keasa.org Aloha Tom (two hours of M16)
We originally connected our STT-8300M on Ethernet. Our guider worked fine, but we weren't happy with the download speeds. We purchased this: http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/cat5/usb-2-0-ranger-2201/. It costs $315 but we're happier now. edit: We have only used it with CCDOPS. We've had problems with MaxDL but haven't tried it since going to the "USB over CAT5" hookup. Maybe we solved some of those problems also.
Thank you for your post. My problem is not hardware, rather software as the use of two different programs attest. My efforts were directed to when the observatory went to remote operation. I use no converters it is RJ45 right to the switch which is a 10/100/1000 and a cisco business router in Lan service only. I put this on the back burner because I am using a USB3 hub on the mt which is doing just gang busters 10 feet away with RS232 and other USB2. Grief will come later with futher automation. I am sure the good guys/gals will come of with a solution by then especially now that they also own the SBIG side of the house. I am just surprised that there is not more on my failures. Lotsa remotes out there. Aloha from the Garden Isle Tom
