PHD2 woes!

[Pharian (Christopher)]

Hullo chaps and chappettes,

I'm having problems getting PHD2 to work. Hoping you guys can help!

I've got an older model ProStar PS-LPGUIDE-C which I bought second hand off the forums here (the old one, not the PS-LPGUIDE-C2).

I've finally got it to work to some degree, but it keeps timing out all the time. I've set the timeout period to 15s but still timeouts all the time. I'm only trying to take 1 or 2 second shots in PHD2.

Note that I haven't tried it under the stars yet, I'm just trying to get it going first.

First I was doing a dark library and if I only did a few images at a time, say 1s to 2s with 3 images for each, then it would work. If I try to do more at once then it will time out. I did eventually build a dark library and bad pixel map though (seems to have a fair few bad pixels unfortunately).

I've then been trying to get it to loop, centred on a hot pixel with the lens cover on. It constantly times out though.

Any suggestions?

Here's a screenshot of the error and screen etc

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4zqv0ojoig...2018.12.01.png

[Pharian (Christopher)]

All good (I hope). I think it is a transfer rate issue. I turned down the resolution and frame rate and now it will build a dark library without timing out. Fingers crossed!

[LostInSp_ce]

I hope this is working for you now but if not it could be this. When I first started using PHD I got this error as well until one day I figured out what I was doing wrong. I was trying to use PHD while I had another program connected to the guide camera running in the background. So I had a situation where the camera would be trying to guide and capture simultaneously. Now to the experienced ones this may be a no brainer but when you're new to all of this and learning it for the first time you'd be surprised at some of the silly things you do. Like trying to take subs with the lens cap still on (A friend of a friend of a friend did that one, not me I swear). So maybe check that you're not running the guide camera in another program at the same time.

[poppasmurf (Shane)]

Hi Chris, I had this a couple of times with my LP, I eventually set the timeout period to 30 sec and all seems good.

Shane

[Pharian (Christopher)]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. I think it might be working now, but won't know till I get a chance to give it a go in action. At the moment I am still bashing my head against polar alignment though, and DEW! OMG Dew is my nemesis.

[poppasmurf (Shane)]

Hi Chris, my earlier post regarding timeout set to 30 sec is incorrect, it is actually set to 50 sec. I still get an occasional message about no image in the period but am confident I am getting images and ignore the message and all continues happily.

Shane