Resolved STXL 16200 and STXL FW8G

Doug

I am returning to an issue that I first posted when I was in the US before Christmas as now I am back in Australia I have had plenty of time to carefully get the guider focussed on my system. As a reminder, the camera is attached to an F3.8 system, but when you consider the 0.7x reducer in FW, that brings it down to f2.66.

I did manage to get to a certain point in focussing the guider, but please take a look at the attached FITS.

I still think there maybe an issue with the guider (I am on my third HDMI cable). But, a 1 second exposure can saturate the guider even when it is unbinned. I am not sure, but I think this is what I am seeing - take a look at the histogram. There isnt a regular looking histogram there and the stars appear to be completely saturated, and the background clipped.

request advise.

thanks
Martin

 

Hi Tim
Bias frame attached. Does not look right.

thanks

 

Just to clarify, the camera is set up in Maxim DL the same way as it is in SkyX. I have 'External Remote' selected. Attached is a bias frame taken with Maxim DL.
It is identical - no image data.
The fact there is no image data would suggest that something is defective.

Tell me what else I need to do.
thanks
Martin

 

YesDoug. I have two of these FWs and there is excessive play where they connect. I am also on my third HDMI cable as a process of elimination. But I will check the connection.

Let me remind you that is a new FW8G and I never really got it to work consistently for the brief time I used it in the US before I relocated back to Australia. So damage on the connector is unlikely, and if that were to happen by merely unplugging or plugging in the cable then it needs to be looked at from a design aspect.

Martin.

 

Tim/Doug

an adjustment on the offset value, via CCDOPS, has fixed the problem. I now have image data on the guider.

thanks
Martin

 

Martin,

How did you update the offset value in CCDOPS? I seem to have the same problem... If there isn't a ton of light coming into the autoguider, i.e., daylight, I just get black images with a couple of hot pixels. I suspect it's an offset issue. When my CFW-8G is hooked up to my (older) STXL-6303 everything works great. When I hook it up to the brand new STXL-16200 I just get a black image with nothing but a couple hot pixels. Once the light level gets over a certain threshold everything looks fine, i.e., daylight images.

 

Along the top there are several menu's, File, Edit, Camera, Utility, etc. Under the Edit Menu, choose Preferences. A "CCDOps Preferences" box will pop up. Under the red X (that would close the dialog box) in the upper right hand corner, there is a small gray square. Click that. Another box titled "Command Line Options" will pop up. At the very bottom, choose "Show Advanced Menu" and click "OK". The Advanced Menu will now be at the end of all those menus I mentioned above. This will give you access to the offset menu.

 

Excellent! I'll give that a try. Thanks so much, Martin.

 

Thanks for the help, Martin, programming the offset resolved my issue.

- Jared

 

I've been having the same problem with my guider off axis guider and my STXL 16200 described above. In CCDOPS my guider offset was set to 255. The default value for the guider was "0" so I set it to the default. However, I can't see how to set it to any other arbitrary value since the offset window is greyed out. Is there a way to set it to an arbitrary value. Maybe "0" will work fine.

 

Hello

did you get this resolved? sorry for my late answer.

 

Shortly after I made this post, the main imaging camera developed an unrelated shutter problem that seems to be a hardware/electronic issue, so it went off to Bill Lynch last week. I hope to get it back shortly. Because of that, I haven't had a chance to check the guide camera since I changed the offset from "255" to "0". Any comments on that would be appreciated. As I mentioned, I couldn't see a way to set any arbitrary value. It was either the current "255" or the default "0."

 

The offset that is described above to the guide imager using CCDOPS.