I finally received my second IDAS light suppression filter so I could try my new camera on my FLT110. All worked great for an hour until my guide camera played havoc.
First there were multiple PC crashes - instant death - not even a Blue Screen of Death moment that I could catch (seen that before). It all came back to the Meade DSI II Pro Mono camera not liking either a 5 metre direct cable nor a 1 metre Meade cable (and I know they use the rare high current USB 2 cables) into an 33 feet (weird length) active extension cable.
When I directly plugged the DSI into my normal PC using only the Meade cable all ran fine. Plug this cable into a (fairly long) active extension cable and there are at least two errors detected at the Windows Device Manager level - both the Hub (error 43) and the DSI driver (device won't start - code 10).
So it appears I need to find a 5 metre cable the Meade camera likes.
I thinking I could run a cable to a powered hub ($53 buys me a 13 port, 5Volt, 4Amp (wow) USB2 device) that I could extend to the PC with a normal extender cable. Does this sound like the most reliable way to connect the Meade to the PC? In essence I need about 4 metres of cable to reach the PC from the OTA and I think my challenge is the Meade device wants a lot of current - more than a normal USB2 cable into a USB2 port will deliver. So if I use the supplied 1 metre Meade USB2 cable straight into high powered hub is that the most likely option to get more reliability from my guide camera?
I run my DSI Pro II from a powered hub, I use a DC-DC converter to give me 5V (keeps everything on one PSU) @ up to 1.5A. I have no problems, and had none with the DSI running off same hub with standard switchmode adaptor, and also prior when using a long USB cable back to computer (5m).... ???
Looks ok - I truly don't know enough about USB hubs to give an educated appraisal though! I just grabbed mine from Dick Smith... I only rewired it to the power converter as I thought I had some weird ground loop issues recently...
Problem seems solved (fingers crossed). Cable the USB to this new powered Hub velcro taped to the head of my pier - Windows detected it fine. Plugged in the DSI II and Windows detected it and installed the drivers. Ran PHD - no issues connecting to the camera this morning.
Now to leave it on and see if its stable for a day!
Cheers all,
Matt
PS
The results - stable for around 6 hours then the hub itself dissappeared and became device unknown (correspondingly the Meade DSI dissappeared, ad USB key I had on the hub went wonky, PHD crashed and took Windows with it in a BSOD.
Turns out the 5m extension cable from the PC to the HUB the store provided isn't reliable - the 1 metre cable that came with the unit itself works every time (testing it on two different PCs). So tomorrow I will try a 5 metre active extension cable into the hub via the cable that always works and see if that is stable for any prolonged period.
I only rewired it to the power converter as I thought I had some weird ground loop issues recently...
