Meade DSI II Guider on extender cable woes

[g__day]

I finally received my second IDAS light suppression filter so I could try my new camera on my FLT110. All worked great for an hour until my guide camera played havoc.

First there were multiple PC crashes - instant death - not even a Blue Screen of Death moment that I could catch (seen that before). It all came back to the Meade DSI II Pro Mono camera not liking either a 5 metre direct cable nor a 1 metre Meade cable (and I know they use the rare high current USB 2 cables) into an 33 feet (weird length) active extension cable.

When I directly plugged the DSI into my normal PC using only the Meade cable all ran fine. Plug this cable into a (fairly long) active extension cable and there are at least two errors detected at the Windows Device Manager level - both the Hub (error 43) and the DSI driver (device won't start - code 10).

So it appears I need to find a 5 metre cable the Meade camera likes.

I thinking I could run a cable to a powered hub ($53 buys me a 13 port, 5Volt, 4Amp (wow) USB2 device) that I could extend to the PC with a normal extender cable. Does this sound like the most reliable way to connect the Meade to the PC? In essence I need about 4 metres of cable to reach the PC from the OTA and I think my challenge is the Meade device wants a lot of current - more than a normal USB2 cable into a USB2 port will deliver. So if I use the supplied 1 metre Meade USB2 cable straight into high powered hub is that the most likely option to get more reliability from my guide camera?

[Lee]

I run my DSI Pro II from a powered hub, I use a DC-DC converter to give me 5V (keeps everything on one PSU) @ up to 1.5A. I have no problems, and had none with the DSI running off same hub with standard switchmode adaptor, and also prior when using a long USB cable back to computer (5m).... ???

[g__day]

Thanks Lee - does this model of powered Hub seem okay to you (else what would you recommend)?

http://www.ht.com.au/part/Z1317-Comsol-13-Port-USB-2.0-Desktop-Hub-with-AC-adapter/detail.hts

[Lee]

Looks ok - I truly don't know enough about USB hubs to give an educated appraisal though! I just grabbed mine from Dick Smith... :) I only rewired it to the power converter as I thought I had some weird ground loop issues recently...

[g__day]

Problem seems solved (fingers crossed). Cable the USB to this new powered Hub velcro taped to the head of my pier - Windows detected it fine. Plugged in the DSI II and Windows detected it and installed the drivers. Ran PHD - no issues connecting to the camera this morning.

Now to leave it on and see if its stable for a day!

Cheers all,

Matt

PS

The results - stable for around 6 hours then the hub itself dissappeared and became device unknown (correspondingly the Meade DSI dissappeared, ad USB key I had on the hub went wonky, PHD crashed and took Windows with it in a BSOD.

Turns out the 5m extension cable from the PC to the HUB the store provided isn't reliable - the 1 metre cable that came with the unit itself works every time (testing it on two different PCs). So tomorrow I will try a 5 metre active extension cable into the hub via the cable that always works and see if that is stable for any prolonged period.

Very, very trying to get this unit stable.

[g__day]

Bought a new active extension cable - didn't do the job - so I swapped USB ports - voila! Hope it continues to work now!

PS

12 Hours on and all good and stable - now just wish clouds would go away!

PPS

36 hours and still going strong!