ZWO ASI120 mm guide camera has failed.

[PKay (Peter)]

I am at my wits end.

Last night as I was trying to set polar align using PHD, the camera stopped working.

PHD gives a message after the timeout period of 15s: 'camera failed to respond...'

What I have checked so far:

I connected the camera directly to the Laptop USB 3 port with a short and different lead.
No Change.

I reinstalled the ZWO Windows driver.
No change

I temporarily connected the main imaging camera to PHD.
It worked.
That rules out a lot of things like PHD software, Windows driver, Firewall, Anti virus.

I checked the port in Device Manager.
All fine there.

I connected the ASI 120 Guide to my old Windows 7 laptop.
It works!
That rules out the camera being faulty (I think).


I have nothing left to try.

[morls (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by PKay

I connected the camera directly to the Laptop USB 3 port with a short and different lead.
No Change.

I reinstalled the ZWO Windows driver.
No change

When you say "no change" while camera directly connected, does that mean it works, or that it doesn't?

Originally Posted by PKay

I temporarily connected the main imaging camera to PHD.
It worked.
That rules out a lot of things like PHD software, Windows driver, Firewall, Anti virus.

Is the main imaging camera also a ZWO? Could it be an issue between ZWO drivers and PHD?

[PKay (Peter)]

Hi Stephen

Thanks for taking an interest.
No change means it still will not work.

I have spent all day on this and I think I have worked it out...maybe.

I have contacted ZWO and awaiting a reply.

The ASI120MM is about 3 years old.
Other research said that a firmware upgrade was required.

For that to happen, I had to use the old Win7 lap top running the old driver.
I did manage to upgrade the firmware, however no change (it still did not work).


Quick Recap:
I have ruled out cables.
I have ruled out the 4 port USB hub on the EQ8.
Win10 Device manager says all is fine. It can see the camera.
PHD can see and connect to the camera, however the camera won't return any image.
ASCOM can connect to the camera and has the correct driver from ZWO

Connecting to Sharpcap revealed a few clues. It could see the camera, but dropped all the images, so yes it also had an issue as well.


So, in the mean time, I have to go back to the Win7 laptop where it all works just fine.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Peter,
Frustrating!


We both know it should work under Win 10....
Have you tried using it in a usb2 port on the computer?
I use FireCapture with my ASI 174/ ASI 1600 cameras (on a Win 10 laptop) with no issues. Try it and see if it shows up any other issue.

[PKay (Peter)]

Hi Ken.

Thanks for entering.

Yes I did try the USB 2 port, and no joy.

I think that this is a ZWO backward compatibility problem, and only they can fix it.

This issue might hit us all (ZWO camera users) one day...

[g__day (Matthew)]

I would firstly suspect the powered hub! I had similar issues with 3 ZWO camera on a M-beat powered hub. I eventually swapped over the M-Beat to two high end 5 port powered USB 3.1 hub to power any USB3 ZWO camera and it is much better.

When you plug the camera directly into your PC with the supplied cable - and it s detected - can you download any image? If so that points to the USB hub...

[Imme (Jon)]

Originally Posted by g__day

I would firstly suspect the powered hub! I had similar issues with 3 ZWO camera on a M-beat powered hub. I eventually swapped over the M-Beat to two high end 5 port powered USB 3.1 hub to power any USB3 ZWO camera and it is much better.

When you plug the camera directly into your PC with the supplied cable - and it s detected - can you download any image? If so that points to the USB hub...

I did away with Hubs completely after one too many issues......even using name branded ones that were powered!

High quality USB cables back to the computer on everything for me and I've never had another issue

[PKay (Peter)]

Hi Jon, Matthew

Thanks for input.

The hub has been ruled out.

Direct connection still does not work.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Peter,


Win10 Device manager says all is fine. It can see the camera.
and then you say,

I connected the ASI 120 Guide to my old Windows 7 laptop.
It works!


I'm wondering if it's something to do with the way Win10 locates the drivers.. I can't remember the work around (maybe install as Administrator?)

[Startrek (Martin)]

Peter
If your guide camera is a ZWOASI071MM USB2 Camera chuck it in the bin !!!
Buy a ZWOASI120MM-S USB3 Camera
I had endless trouble with that camera when I first tried to guide 3 years ago time outs , drop outs , work then wouldn’t work
Googled Cloudy nights and found out there’s an inherit driver problem and you need a patch of some kind to use it for PHD2
Bought the ZWOASI120MM-S USB3 and no issues at all
I use a 5m USB2 cable between laptops USB3 port and cameras USB3 port
Oh and I’ve run in Windows 10 from the start
Martin

[Pepper (Steve)]

Have you got the latest version of PhD?

[PKay (Peter)]

ZWO have responded.
Not to me directly, it turns out I am not alone.

And this is a warning to all if your ZWO camera is a few years old.

They may NOT work after upgrading to WIN10, and wait for it...

there is NO FIX.

Here is the reply from ZWO:

'I think it's compitable problem if your win7 laptop runs good
sometimes, some usb3.0 host may have such compitable problem
this is not a problem of software but hardware

but our usb3.0 cameras should have no such problem'.

In another words 'buy a new camera'.

To say that I am pissed off is an under statement.

[xelasnave]

Do not let it upset you Peter as the great thing is you know it was not you. This sort of thing happens bite your lip and move on.
Alex

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Peter,
Just for clarity....
I assume this refers to USB2 cameras and not the current USB3 cameras???

[PKay (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Peter,
Just for clarity....
I assume this refers to USB2 cameras and not the current USB3 cameras???

Correct.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Peter
Sorry about the news on the old camera but I knew it was the case ( refer my post )
It sucks but once your guiding and capturing lots of targets , you quickly forget about the issue
Cheers
Martin