Resolved Difficulty reliably connecting AC4040 to MaxIM DL Pro

I'm having a hard time getting my AC4040 to reliably connect to MaxIm DL Pro for imaging.

I have been able to connect and image with my AC4040 "on the bench" with its current USB set-up and then occasionally on the telescope to take some "first-light" images on the sky, but often, disconnecting and power-cycling the AC4040 a few times before it finally successfully connects to MaxIm DL is required.

The camera is plugged into a power supply and plugged into the computer USB via a Startech 10m USB3.0 cable connected to the USB cable included with the camera. After applying power, I open MaxIm DL (tried with both V 6.50 and V 7.12) and attempt to connect the camera using the Camera Control window.

Typically, once setting the camera type to DL Imaging and hitting Advanced options, the camera does not show up in the devices list. (Typically, this also causes the program to stall or end up as "Not Responding," as if trying to find the AC4040 is killing the program.). If the camera DOES show up in the list, what typically happens next is an error when selecting OK in this window, or an error when choosing "Connect" in the Camera Control window.

(Of course, as I'm typing this to recreate my issues during the daytime after a weeks+ of being unable to connect to the camera on clear nights, I have connected and successfully taken a photo! This isn't a problem solved, though, as a disconnect and reconnect after this failed to connect to the camera.)

My issue is that the camera is often not able to be found by the computer, runs into MaxIM DL errors if found which cause MaxIm DL to quit, and that MaxIm DL seems to hang, ends up Not Responding, or otherwise struggles and is very slow when trying to connect to the camera.

Are there any tips? Any software updates I should try? I've attached a variety of screenshots from MaxIM DL to this post showing errors / issues encountered.



Also, sheesh, sorry - if the images are unable to be read because I've attached them as thumbnails, I'll happily re-upload. Happy to provide any information that is useful.

 

Thanks, Colin! I appreciate the reply.

Indeed, the USB 3.0 cable claims it can handle up to 20m length (two of the 10m cables), and it did work for me for a bit without any issues "on the bench," before putting it on the telescope. There IS the ability to plug the long USB cable into power from the wall, though my understanding was that is to provide power to whatever device it is plugged into, not to assist in communications.

Between the camera and the computer, I have the USB 3.0 cord that is included by SBIG in the box plus this one 10m cable, nothing else (no other hubs, extenders, etc.) This 10m cable is plugged directly into a port on the back of the computer, yes.

Thanks for the link to more tips, as well. I have printed off the pages to check into. Heck, I'll give a try in just picking a different USB port on the computer, too, if I have one (will be up at the Observatory later tonight).

 

Hi Tiffany

FWIW I currently use one of the shorter StarTech USB3.2 active extenders (3m) between my pier-side PC and a Pegasus Astro UPBv2 USB port switch and power distributor mounted on the OTA, which works well with the current PC, which has USB3.2 ports, but it was very unreliable when used with my previous pier-side PC which had USB3.0 ports.

I initially had the same intermittent problems as you with a StarTech USB3.2 7-port industrial powered hub mounted on the OTA.

StarTech support engineers spent a couple of days using remote access to my PC, trying different USB drivers and modifications to their own firmware to try and find a solution to the connectivity issues with the 7-port industrial hub but were unable to find a solution and decided that the PC motherboard USB 3.0 hardware was somehow incompatible with USB3.2 and unfortunately the motherboard was no longer supported by the manufacturer and there were no later drivers to try than the ones supplied with the PC when it was purchased.

StarTech did their best to help and took back the 7-port hub with a full refund and even sent me FOC the 3m single channel USB3.2 Active Extender cable to try with the old PC, which also didn't work, and that I'm currently still using with the new pier-side PC and Pegasus Astro UPBv2 box with no issues.

With the old PC with USB3.0 ports and the StarTech USB3.2 active Extender, even with power supplied to the active repeater end, I had lots of issues maintaining a connection or initiating a connection to a QHY268M camera and sometimes the camera would lock-up or not be detected at all when powered up, so very similar to the issues that you are reporting.

One other issue with the StarTech USB3.2 Active Extenders is that StarTech don't quote an environmental operating temperature range, even the techs I was in contact with couldn't tell me, however StarTech use the same chip sets in their regular hubs and for this they do quote an operating temperature range of 0c to 50c, or 0c to 70c, depending on the model, so if your Active Extender head is out in the open and the temperature falls below 0c that may also cause intermittent problems.

HTH

William.

 

All, thanks so much - this is really helping to point me in a helpful direction. I'm going to have to contact the folks at StarTech. The note about these devices failing in cold temperatures really matches what I've noticed - more and more problems as the season got colder and more problems at nighttime rather than in the day.

My PC also has an older motherboard... Likely I'm encountering a similar issue about the incompatibility with certain USB3.

I'll reach out to StarTech and have a closer look at all of this tomorrow. Thank you.

 

As an alternative, I employ a CalDigit TB4 Element Hub at the telescope, to a Corning TB3 10m Optical Cable (both Amazon available). This then requires Thunderbolt (3 or 4) at the computer, which is the case for the observatory PC (Dell Latitude X17). The optical cable actually connects to the laptop via another CalDigit Thunderbolt hub (TS4), which also routes via more standard USB-A and C cables to the various other observatory devices. The has the benefit of only using a single cable to the Dell, which provides all serial connections (as well as ethernet), and extraordinarily enough powers the laptop too. At the telescope. the TB3 then serves the AC4040, but also the focuser/rotator, heaters, guider, etc. Thunderbolt has sufficient bandwidth that this doesn't tax it at all. For now at least, my AZ/NM border 4500' location summer and winter temperatures have not been a problem, and I would categorize this approach as solid.

 

Hi all - thanks for the info, comments, and suggestions. Today, I...

(1) talk to a StarTech support individual and confirmed that, indeed, the 10m extended USB cord should be plugged-in, and confirmed the temperature range for operation is 0-40 C.
(2) plugged the extended 10m USB cord into power in the Observatory (tricky! But, managed to not need to entirely undo the wiring through the telescope mount, a success)
(3) went through the Power Management options for all USB devices prevent disconnects (thanks Colin!), and all other items in this forum thread

The camera is reliably connecting to my computer for the time being! Issue solved - the USB connection was not good in the set-up I had, but is working much more reliably now.

I'll still have to eventually contend with the cold temperatures, as winter in Nova Scotia absolutely brings us <0 C winter nights and today, as I test the camera, is a balmy 2C so I'm not quite below the operating temperature range... I appreciate the details about other potential communications and power set-ups: it gives me some thinking to do for the future.

In the meantime, if anyone has suggestions for a temperature-hardy ~10-meter or longer extension for USB communications directly, I'm all ears. Otherwise, right now I will have to see how the current communications set-up goes for the AC4040 through the holidays.

Thanks, all.

 

This is why I ended up putting a mini PC on top of my telescope, it solved sooooooooo many problems like this.

 

As the StarTech Active Extender is mostly idle when connected to a camera that is only downloading one image every few minutes you could try wrapping a few turns of bubble-wrap around the active head, the internal electronics in the head will generate a little heat under light duty loading and the bubble-wrap will help keep the active head a few degrees above freezing.

Remember to remove the bubble-wrap when the spring temperatures start to rise and do check that the active head isn’t getting too warm if you do decide to try wrapping with bubble-wrap in the winter.

For the steel-cased StarTech industrial USB hubs, we have wrapped those in the past with a dew heater strap, powered by the same multi-output dew controllers that we use on the telescope optics, to keep the hub above freezing, but I’m not sure that the plastic-cased Active Extender heads would be sufficiently shielded to not suffer interference from the pulses of a PWM dew controller, we have never tried one to see…

William.

 

This is brilliant, and I would try this, buuuuut,

Last night (first clear night), at about 5C, I could not get the camera to connect to the computer via USB despite the "warm" temperatures and despite actually having the active extender plugged in (my bad on that one originally).

So, after some testing with different cords and a different computer, I had to give up on the USB 3.0 extender entirely (and give up on the USB 3 interface). I currently am running successfully with the AC4040 USB plugged into a powered StarTech USB hub, which is connected to a USB ranger to connect to the computer via a cat5 cord over the long distance to a computer (at USB 2, rather than USB 3 speeds). This worked immediately, quickly, efficiently during clear skies last night.

I am more certain the problem is solved on my end - the issue seems to NOT be with the AC4040 itself, and I appreciate all of the quick and useful advice.