PHD not guiding

[batema]

Help. I have solved my transformer problem but when I click on a guide star using my DMK 21 a green box comes up and then click on PHD to start calibration and the star does not move at all and after about 50 calibrations I get a message saying star did not move enough in RA calibration failed. Can anyone offer advice. Beautiful night and after last night failure I an desperate to get some imaging done. It has bee slow to bring up the axis lately but eventually it does but not tonight. Have done restart, loaded again and I am lost.

Mark

[Astroman]

Not sure what it might be but here is a screen shot from my PHD, it may offer some idea...? It works well on my setup and I am using a philips 900NC and a finderguider though...

Or it could be something completely different. :D

EDIT: This is under the Brain...

[h0ughy]

Mark check the obvious first - the usb bit may be plugged in but did you plug in the st4 guide cable - i have done that a few times - easy to forget.

the other thing is you might have to force the calibration?

[batema]

Thanks guys. I am still at a loss as i have done all mentioned and still have no idea why this thing that has worked without fail for the last 5 years has decided to do it. I will go back to a toucam 900 and see if the thing will work to try to eliminate the camera but the stars just do not move and no axis appear. The last few times the callibration was going and it took about 30 seconds for the axis to appear which was unusual but still worked. NO IDEA.

Mark

[naskies]

Have you double checked that (1) the mount is connected in PHD, (2) the setting in the Mount menu is correct, and (3) the guide cable is plugged in - firmly and to both ends? If you're using a serial -> USB adapter, it might be worth checking that the COM port numbers are correct in Control Panel. Otherwise, shut down the computer, power down everything, physically unplug and re-plug the cables, and try it all again?

[h0ughy]

might be a loose connection on the guider cable - unplug and place back in?

the other thing is are you pointing it due south? - sometimes it wont work and it become a task to get it to guide - in my limited experience

edit slow in responding

[redbeard]

I second the due South as I have had that happen as the stars don't 'move' as fast/much..somn like that. Slew westish as a test, if that is the issue, and you'll get more movement, then slew back after calibration.

Also check you are actually on a star and not a (hot?) pixel.

Cheers

[alocky]

Also - a mistake I have made when messing about is not to have the camera looping when you select the guide star.
Cheers,
Andrew

[scagman]

One way to test if the cam/mount are talking is to use the manual move arrow keys under the tools menu.

Cheers

[batema]

Thankyou all. I will try tonight but first is ti use me spare cable from the shoestring gpusb to the mount as i roll my current on up and have been doing so for years and it could be that the twisting in the cable has made a connection problem. Thanks for all the advice.