[ericwbenson (Eric)]

Hi,
Equipment problems as usual for me...does anyone here reliably use, or has experiences with, an SX Lodestar guider plugged into the built-in 2 port USB hub of the FLI Proline camera?

I am having random problems such that when I power up the equipment remotely (via 12V IP switch from 700 km away), the computer reports the camera(s)+hub as an "Unknown device" under the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" branch in the Device Manager. A "Generic USB Hub" device will sometimes flash on/off a few times in the device list, but eventually it ends up as an "Unknown device".

The Lodestar is of course powered by the USB connection so I can't power cycle it independently at this time.

The Proline can be power cycled by itself, and it is plugged into a 4 port powered USB hub (made by Carnetix, very reliable over the last 4 years), which can also be power cycled. The hub connects directly into the back of a FIT-PC2 computer.

I have had someone fix this once for me (we don't really know how, just a lot of USB unplugging and driver reinstall), but I would like to get to the bottom of the problem. I think my next step is unplug the SX from the Proline and connect it straight to the Carnetix hub (actually how it was before when I had an Apogee camera), but this means an extra cable to be dragged by the rotator and when I power cycle the SX I lose the connection to the focuser, which is also plugged into the Carnetix hub, always a trade off.

Thanks for any advice,
EB