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Old 27-07-2014, 11:22 PM
glend (Glen)
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PHD2 Guiding Drops Outs?

I am having some problems with PHD2 dropping out of guiding and don't really know why it happens. I was imaging M4 tonight and using Antares as a guide star (so it's a nice fat target). Guidescope is focused well and the stars are nice and round. PHD is calibrated, and when guiding the graph looks good to me, then without warning it just stops. It doesn't do it all the time. For example, I was shooting a string of 20 * 2 minute exposures (yeah I know not that long but I am working my way up). It guided fine for five subs and then it dropped out in the middle of the sixth (not that it matters to much because I saw it and started it again). It guided fine from there but dropped out twice more before the run was finished. I'd like to find out why as I would like it to work unattended.

Equipment is: NEQ6Pro mount, ZWO ASI130MM camera (with ST4 port) as the guide camera, image camera is a Canon 450D, scope is a GSO 8" Imaging Newt; guidescope is an Orion Mini 50mm.

PHD2's new release now handles ZWO cameras and it drives off the camera port just fine. I am thinking there might be something in the pHD2 settings or advanced setting that I need to tweak.

ANy ideas?
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Old 27-07-2014, 11:36 PM
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Eden (Brett)
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Hi Glen,

PHD shouldn't just stop guiding without telling you why. What error/warning messages did you get? If you have the problem again next session, can you please take a screenshot of the PHD graph etc and post that as the extra information goes a long way in determining what the problem is.

Antares is not a good choice for a guiding star. You will get better results with small guiding stars so long as they are not too dim.
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Old 28-07-2014, 06:21 AM
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alpal
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Always have the guide graph running so you see what's going on.
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Old 28-07-2014, 07:04 AM
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Shiraz (Ray)
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as Eden says, try another dimmer star. From the manual: " If you pick a star that is too bright, a message box will tell you the star is "saturated", and you should either use a different star or decrease the exposure duration."
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Old 28-07-2014, 09:05 AM
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Rod771 (Rod)
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Hi Glen

Ive had PHD2 stop spontaneously while guiding with the status bar message (at the bottom) displaying "paused". No idea why given I hadn't paused it myself and after recycling the exposures it wouldn't start guiding again. I just closed and re opened the program and it worked fine.

Could be a bug perhaps?
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Old 28-07-2014, 10:01 AM
glend (Glen)
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Thanks folks, I don't recall seeing any message at all and I was sitting there watching it. No star lost, star mass sort of message, nothing and it wasn't too close to the edge. The cross just diappeared. I just selected the star again and clicked the PHD symbol and it started guiding again.
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Old 28-07-2014, 08:47 PM
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alpal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glend View Post
Thanks folks, I don't recall seeing any message at all and I was sitting there watching it. No star lost, star mass sort of message, nothing and it wasn't too close to the edge. The cross just diappeared. I just selected the star again and clicked the PHD symbol and it started guiding again.

You'll get better guiding if you modify as I did here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/247194...in/photostream

& here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/247194...in/photostream
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Old 28-06-2016, 10:06 PM
juliangeorgesha
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I have same problem

I have the same problem (i.e. PHD2 stops guiding without any error message after about 10 mins. It's as if I had pushed the stop button but I haven't.

If I select a star and push the green button it starts guiding again, for another 10 or so minutes. The calibration and guiding charts look fine).

Any solutions or suggestions?
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Old 28-06-2016, 10:22 PM
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billdan (Bill)
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My guess, its a USB glich or a mini-dropout and needs to be reset. More chance of that happening if it is going through a USB hub.

My QHY-12 used to occasionally drop out when it went through the hub, the Lodestar never dropped out however.

Bill
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Old 28-06-2016, 11:10 PM
glend (Glen)
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Gee this is an old thread, i had forgot all about it.
I gave up on PHD2 back in 2014 when i last wrote in this thread. Switched to Metaguide then and have had no problems since.
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