Orion Starshoot AutoGuider star did not move enough

[jjz (Joe)]

Hi All, I am trying to setup an Orion Star Shoot i bought used from a forum member, I keep getting the message "Star did not move enough" during the calibration.

I have tried PHD and PHD2, I have tried increasing the calibration step to 2000 even 2500 with no luck.

I am selecting a star not a dead pixel , if I move the telescope the star moves as well.

Could I have an issue with the ST4 cable? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

JJZ

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Hi Joe,

One possible reason for the star not moving enough could be calibrating PHD with the telescope aiming at the proximity of the South Celestial Pole.

[jjz (Joe)]

I read that, I am trying on a star pointing westward.

[jjz (Joe)]

Tested it with eqmod and it works, is the st4 rj12 cable just a normal cable? Might try a different cable.

[chuckywiz (Ben)]

theres a couple of things you can look at. depending on what scope/mount combination your using.. the pic attached is my settings and works for both my ed80 and my 10 inch reflector on my eq6. you need to hit the brain icon at the bottom to get to these settings.

i had similiar problems untill i changed these.

the other thing is to have the exposure for the autoguider set to something like 2 seconds so it gives the star a chance to move. if you have it on 0.5 the star may not move enough.

Ben

[pluto (Hugh)]

From memory you can manually move the mount through PHD. Try that - if it works then it's a settings issue - if it doesn't work then it's probably a connection issue.

The first time I tried guiding with PHD I had that same error and it turned out that I'd plugged everything in wrong in the dark and no commands were getting to the mount

If you have EQMOD communicating and controlling the mount then could set PHD to send its corrections to EQMOD instead of using an st4 cable and the guide port on the mount at all.

[jjz (Joe)]

Originally Posted by chuckywiz

theres a couple of things you can look at. depending on what scope/mount combination your using.. the pic attached is my settings and works for both my ed80 and my 10 inch reflector on my eq6. you need to hit the brain icon at the bottom to get to these settings.

i had similiar problems untill i changed these.

the other thing is to have the exposure for the autoguider set to something like 2 seconds so it gives the star a chance to move. if you have it on 0.5 the star may not move enough.

Ben

Thanks Ben will try this next chance I get.

Originally Posted by pluto

From memory you can manually move the mount through PHD. Try that - if it works then it's a settings issue - if it doesn't work then it's probably a connection issue.

The first time I tried guiding with PHD I had that same error and it turned out that I'd plugged everything in wrong in the dark and no commands were getting to the mount

If you have EQMOD communicating and controlling the mount then could set PHD to send its corrections to EQMOD instead of using an st4 cable and the guide port on the mount at all.

Manually moving the mount through PHD doesn't seem to do anything.

Cabling was correct, I even tried alternating and re connecting the st4 cable several times.

EQMOD worked well I was hoping to able to use the autoguiding without the need for acsom/eqmod/stellarium etc.... just makes thinks a lot easier and enjoyable for short sessions. I might be one of the few people who prefer using the Synscan controller.

thanks
JJZ

[killswitch (Edison)]

Originally Posted by jjz

Manually moving the mount through PHD doesn't seem to do anything.

Cabling was correct, I even tried alternating and re connecting the st4 cable several times.

EQMOD worked well I was hoping to able to use the autoguiding without the need for acsom/eqmod/stellarium etc.... just makes thinks a lot easier and enjoyable for short sessions. I might be one of the few people who prefer using the Synscan controller.

thanks
JJZ

The PHD manual control is for dithering purposes i believe, not for slewing.

In PHD, did you enter the FL for your guidescope (and not the Imaging scope)

I am one of the few who prefer having the synscan controller

[jjz (Joe)]

Thanks everyone, I tried the guiding with a new cable last night and it worked perfectly, must have just had a bad cable.

Now I have phd2 and st4 working, next I'll try to figure out why eqmod cannot run for more than 30mins without timing out and refusing to start again

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Another thing to be mindful of for people starting off is that you actually select a star and not a hot pixel - move the guide camera in and out to get focus. That's what I did when I first started guiding

[speach (Simon)]

Had the same problem. Now I run the guide with PHD and the camera with APT and the telescope with the hand controller. Found it was eqmod that was the trouble so I don't use it.