Resolved New Problem w/ ST10 - AO8 & FW10

For the better part of 8-9 years, I have been running an ST10 w/ An AO-8 unit. I haven't have hardly any pr0blems. The AO-8 would typically run at 7 to 8 hz.

This fall I decided to add an FW10 into the mix. I attached the 12c cord from the FW10 to the camera, then the 12c cord from the AO8 to the FW10. Knowing that the filters would effect the guiding, I set the AO8 to 1hz & took images through the RGB. Last night I was going to shoot some Lum, so I set the filter wheel to an open hole. To my surprise, it was taking roughly 10 seconds for the AO8 to cycle through for a single adjustment.

Thinking that how the 12c cords are arranged makes a difference, I changed the way they are connected. I Got the same 10 second results. So Then I just eliminated the filter wheel for now (unplugged it) . The 12c cord form the AO8 into the camera ( same setup as I have been using for years). In MaximDL camera setup, I returned to the old setup ( removed the FW). I'm still getting a slow response from the AO8.
I was getting the sames results using either Maxim 4.6 or 5.08 or 6.2.

What kind of test can I run before I tear everything apart & send it in for repairs?

Thanks, Carl.

 

Okay, I removed the camera from the OTA. One can not install the I2C cable into the RS232 port on the Filter wheel, they are both female plugs. I arranged the I2C cables as: The Filter Wheel plugs into the camera & The AO8 plugs into the Filter wheel.
With the camera assembly on the bench , I verified that the filter wheel responds to commands. The AO8 responds to the Exercise commands. It is mostly cloudy tonight so I might get a chance to star test it.

FWIW: I tried arranging the I2C cables the opposite way, & everything still worked.

Carl.

 

Making some headway, Don't know where that will lead? Some Basics, Maxim 6.2 ST10 CFW10 AO-8. As from the post before, The AO8 responds to the Exercise commands.
So my testing tonight was, Camera 1, Focus mode, bin 3x3, full frame downloads in roughly 3 seconds. That's basically where it had always ran, so that tells me the is nothing unusual with the USB port.
I setup to guide with the AO8 & it is ruining super slow. Here is a 30 sec film clip. http://hawkeye-observatory.com/CN/SBIG/Slow_AO-8.mp4
I then try a normal focus mode using camera2, Then I get this error. hawkeye-observatory.com/CN/SBIG/Error-1.jpg
I shut down Maxim & restart it configuring the camera w/o the AO8. I retry the a normal focus mode using camera2 & it runs fine.
So I guess where do I go from here?

Carl.

 

A: Ver 6.20
B: I could not zip up the file tree, So I just zipped all the files in one.
C: Will try. I use Bin 3x3 So I can guide on a 13-14th mag star
D:Time stamp turned on
E: I downloaded the drivers 2-3 weeks ago when I bought Ver 6.20
F: The USB is on it's own port w/o any hubs
G: Windows 7 Pro x64
H: I have Teamviewer v15. I just checked & it tells me that I need a commercial license??? I have only used this for my Observatory.

 

"c) Try changing Binning to 1x1 for the guider (Camera 2). Am curious why you have it 3x3?"

When I setup the camera w/o the AO, I can run it in focus mode using camera 2 ( in any bin mode ) with out any issues
As soon as I setup the camera w/AO, and run in focus mode using camera 2, in single shot mode, I'm getting two images: an autoguider image plus a CCD image #x. Both are sized at 657 x 495, But I get no error.
When I go to continuous mode, That's when I get the camera error and the imaging stops.
I still get two images, but now the one marked autoguider image is from camera 1 2184 x 1472: and second one marked CCD image is from camera 2 657 x 495.

Carl.

 

Further bench testing this afternoon, Current I2C plug configuration is AO8 plugged into the ST10 & CFW10 plugged into the AO8
Ver 6.20, I get the same results as posted in post #6
Ver 4.60 and Ver 5.06: The camera w/ AO8 seemed to run fine. I was not getting the error massage as I was getting in Ver 6.20.
It is cloudy now & for the next couple of days, so I can not star test it (ver 4.60 & 5.08) to see if the AO8 has the same problems as posted in post #3.
But there seems to be something in Ver 6.20 that doesn't like my setup.

 

Just a thought.

In MaxIm DL v6, Camera Control, there is the option to set "Access camera and filter wheel from separate threads" (CPU usage optimisation).

By default this is disabled but this should be switched on for most cameras and fw's.

If I knew where that was option was stored in the settings file I would look to see if you had that enabled but I don't so below is a picture for you to verify:

Sorry to waste your time if you have already checked this.

William.

 

NO NO William, your not wasting my time & thanks for your input. I looked & found those boxes were not checked. I did check those boxes, but unfortunately, It didn't make a difference.

 

Thats a shame Carl, I was hoping that might be the answer.

The only AO I ever used was a SX unit, many years ago, and not in MaxIm DL so not at all familiar with the setup for SBIG AO.

The only obvious thing, looking at your video, is that you have a track time of 10 seconds set, that gives an update frequency of 0.1 Hz for the AO, and means, (I think), that the AO will only update once every ten seconds.

Ignoring the errors and other issues with image size etc, is this the original problem that you were trying to solve?

I assume that if you shorten the track time to 1 sec that would give an update frequency of 1 Hz and an update of the AO every second, a track time of 0.5 sec would update the AO 2 times a second etc.
Never having used an AO with MaxIm thats just a wild guess though, and probably wrong, I would need to have a read of the manual to confirm. Colin or Doug would be better qualified to answer that one.

Other than that I can’t really suggest anything else, hope this post is not a distraction!

William.

 

William, the tracking time was set at 10. That is 10 time per second (10hz).
"Other than that I can’t really suggest anything else, hope this post is not a distraction!"
No distraction. Any discussion / input is good. Right now, it looks like a software issue, but will know for sure the next time I'm able to star test it.

 

Thank you Colin.

 

So This afternoon, I dug out my old XP Home x32 computer. This has Maxin 4.60. It has old drivers (photo below). I plugged in the camera, Setup the AO8 & it ran fine.
hawkeye-observatory.com/CN/SBIG/20191210_174450.mp4 Here is a link to a quick mp4 of the screen.

A quick history of what has happen this last month or so. I was going to buy a STL camera,filter wheel, & AO8 of off Astromart. I asked on here about if Ver 4.60 would run the camera. I was informed to upgrade to the latest ver 6.20 ( at the time), which
I did. I updated the drivers. In the mean time, the camera deal on Astromart fell through. I have always had the CFW10 but have never used it. I decided to incorporate the filter wheel into my setup. I took images through the filters first & knowing that guiding behind the filters was going to at a slower rate, I slowed down the AO8 hz. When I went to image without filters (for lum), That's when I noticed the the slow AO8 action.
I believe today's test tells me that It is definitely a software / Driver problem. So is there a way to replace the newer drivers (downloaded a couple of week ago) with the older drivers that are on my XP computer?

 

I must have a hardware problem as last night it was malfunctioning on my old XP computer. So I need to know the address to send the camera assembly in for repairs. Thank you.

 

Hi,

I may be misunderstanding this comment but it seems that you are saying that tracking time directly sets the frequency of the AO. Track time controls the guider's exposure duration while tracking, which inversely affects update frequency. So setting it to 10 doesn't mean you are tracking at 10 hz, rather you're tracking with 10-second exposures and tracking at 0.1 hz.

 

Brian, the tracking time fore the AO-8 is adjustments per second. So if I have it set at 10, That would be running at 10hz ( in the prefect world)
The "Rate" number at the bottom of the window shows the actual rate it is tracking. With my computer setup, tracking rate set at 10hz, I get between 6.5 to 8 hz.

Carl.