StarChaser 4

Paramount MX+
SBIG Aluma AC4040
SBIG AFW-10
SBIG StarChaser SC-4
SBIG AO-X
12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12400 2.50 GHz, 32GB RAM
Main, guider and mount are connected through independent, PCI-based, USB3 hubs (i.e. data transmission should not be a problem).

 

Then its clearly not a peripheral that is causing this, but the SC4 and/or Maxim DL

Last night, I calibrated, bin 1x1, guided bin 4x4, dropped the Max Move pixels to 9 as suggested by Doug, and took 10 x 5 minute images.....every single one showed star trails indicative of the random jumping of the guide star.

 

Colin....I think I have spotted the problem. I uninstalled the ASCOM x64 driver for the SC4....and now PHD2 does not even offer "DL Imaging Camera" as an option even though the 32bit ASCOM driver is still installed, which supports my earlier view that PHD2 could only 'see' the 64bit driver. So I reinstalled the 32bit driver and again it loads the information for the camera but then throws the unhandled exception.

 

Are you guys able to switch to standard autoguiding? If the problems stays or goes away that might confirm if it is the AO unit or not.

 

For the past year or so I have been using the SC4 as a standard guider through PHD2 with an AOX in train, but disconnected....but now with V7.14 and the latest 32bit ASCOM driver for the SC4, I cannot connect to it. Thinking that my AOX perhaps was defective, I went to Chile in Jan this year with a replacement, and its exactly the same.

Colin - really need to get the SC4 connected to PHD2 as I have nothing to guide with at present. Very happy for you to log in to my system if you think you know where the problem is.

 

Hi Colin. How close are you to releasing 7.2?

 

Should be any time now considering my upgrade subscription just ran out!

 

Absolutely. I miss my AO very much.

 

What progress Colin?

 

Hi Colin- anything new on this possible solution? Thank you.

 

Have you tried installing the new version a second time?

There was an update a while back that didn't work unless you tried installing it a second time....

 

v7.2
Still cannot calibrate in any other mode than bin 1x1. Same symptom as it was over a year ago.
Star jumping still seen and observed through dozens of 30 second exposures. Note that the star jump is always left/right or right/left.....this can be seen as small tails off every star in the image. Much worse when the guide star is binned 3x3.
New issue: I can connect to the mount under observatory control using the mount's ASCOM driver, but I can no longer calibrate the mount using ASCOM Direct. I can only now calibrate using Telescope. This is different.
Major issue: No matter how many configurations I have tried over the past 6 hours.....when the mount is bumped, it bumps in the wrong direction.

When the guider is binned 4x4, the SNR of the guide star is significantly less when the guider is binned 3x3.

Observation: The AO axes, after calibration, are reversed while 'Swap Axes' is unchecked. Whereas the drive axes, after calibration, are not reversed, but 'Swap Motor Axes' is enabled.

It is no longer clear what settings across multiple dialogues are necessary to get this to work, if it works at all. For example, what would you now set in Guider Motor Control for an L600 mount that does not need to meridian flip.

Example2 - Is it necessary to calibrate the mount under the guide tab in addition to calibrating the mount under the DLImaging AO Control dialogue.

and to think I have just spent $240USD to renew my subscription to get this version.

Just hopeless.

 

I am not going to waste time explaining the errors to you that I have repeatedly reported over the past 12 months or more. Soon enough, other users will tell you that you have fixed nothing in v7.2

 

So the new problem, where the mount is bumped in the wrong direction is possibly down to the rotator angle being mis-reported. During my tests, the rotator is not rotated but kept in position during calibration of the mount. However, I have now noticed that the reported angle from mount calibration is 180 degrees away from the actual rotator angle.

So I connected the rotator under Observatory, and have tried enabling 'reverse' or 'Add 180degs east of meridian' and tried enabling both. The reported angle after mount calibration under each of these scenarios remains 180degs away from actual. Hence, the mount bumps continue in the wrong direction.

I also noticed that under 'Observatory/Status' the rotator angle is listed as something entirely different. For example, the actual rotator angle is 47degs, the calibrated angle is reported as 227degs, and under 'Observatory/Status' the angle is reported as 313degs.

Disabling 'reverse' in the rotator set up in Observatory, corrects the angle to 47degs under 'Observatory/Status' but drive calibration still reports as 227. So I think there is a conflict here.

 

Colin....here are my Maxim DL7 settings.
I am going to get some video for you to again demonstrate the calibration issue.
Question: The 'Add 180 East of Meridian' check box under Observatory/Rotator - can you confirm this is actually doing what it is supposed to?