I have a suggestion for SBIG. I recently purchased the ST-i mono for guiding off-axis after my 10 year old STL11000 guide chip died (imaging chip works fine). Following directions, I installed the camera and while the Device manager (Windows 10) showed the SBIG camera, it would not be recognized by the software (CCDOps or Sky X). I saw the post about this problem and yesterday acquired a powered USB hub and plugged the ST-i into it and everything worked. Apparently, computer USB ports may not have the power to run the camera. I think that this should be spelled out in the documentation as there will be more Windows 10 in use over the next few years and better to let people know that they may need the power boost to make it work the first time. Without finding the previous post, I would have had to bother the SBIG support people or the Bisque people. It is always better to prevent problems than to deal with it after it crops up. By the way, the camera works just great as a guider.
Andrew - am curious where did you hear this? (Is there a link somewhere?) The STi says it requires 500mA - and that is a standard level of current for USB ports.
Hi Colin, The post was originally from Dan Drew on I think April 11th. Doug replied that a powered hub might provide the current needed. It may be that the ST-i needs close to the full specified output of the port. If the port is slightly underpowered, perhaps that may be just enough to cause a problem. The post also referred to Windows 10. For some reason there was no problem with Windows 7. I had the latest 64 bit drivers from the SBIG website too. As long as the problem is solved I am a very happy camper. For reference, I am using a Dell Inspiron i5 desktop with loads of RAM and hard disk space, latest updates on Windows 10 and daily build 9334 on the Sky X. (I did not install the latest as they called it a beta version and perhaps to wait a while to see what bugs appeared.) I use the camera plug-in and all is now working well. Thanks for the reply, Andrew
You really shouldn't need a powered hub; some computer USB ports apparently aren't fully compliant with the USB standard, and do not supply enough power. In this case the simple solution is to use a powered hub.
It is so easy to blame the ST-i for the problem when it is an underpowered USB port. The more information we have out there to avoid problems the better it is for "incompetents" like me.
