Phd 1.8

[DeanoNZL]

Hi All,:hi:
Just noticed today that PHD v1.8 is out.
It now includes a visual graph of corrections being made.
Could be handy for nailing that elusive polar alignment!

Http://www.stark-labs.com

CS

[iceman]

Very cool, thanks adrian.

The "dark frame" feature in the previous version works very well.

[g__day]

But it keeps crashing for me when you do a long run with 500 display points!

[iceman]

blah 1.8 kept crashing on me tonight, too. I wasn't trying to do anything different than with 1.7.

Luckily I had 1.7 on my work laptop, because I couldn't find it anywhere to re-download it.

I'll wait for the patches to 1.8!

[dugnsuz]

pardon the ignorance, but what does the dark frame button actually do!?
sorry - thicko alert!!!!
Doug:lol:

[iceman]

Just as it says - it tells you to put the cap on, and it takes a "same length" exposure as your "lights", and subtracts it in software.

Really cleans up the display and makes it easier to see guide stars.

[g__day]

Yep the crash was due to 500 shots reached - buffer overrun I guess. Craig has sorted it and launched PHD 1.8.1 on the stark-labs website.

Also I've asked him to compare MaximDL guiding to PHD - because on its default calibrated settings MaximDL seems to be 2-3 times more accurate (smaller star trails) then PHD on the same gear and targets, plus it shows RA and DEC drift very clearly as being random, small and at what rate they cycle. Hopefully Craig might intuit what they do better than him and improve how the already good PHD operates!

[Geoff45]

He's also added the Orion Starshoot autoguider, so now we are not tied to Orion's slightly modified version of PHD 1.7.0 that came with the AG.

[Alchemy]

just downloaded 1.8.1 looking forward to trying it.

[Tamtarn]

Will be interested to know what you think of 1.8.1 Al

[g__day]

Well it worked - but we're up to 1.8.2 now! To fix a few Meade DSI dropped frames issues.

[gbeal]

Couldn't get mine to work tonight, and ended up going back to the good old inbuilt guide chip. Maybe I can't do without my SBIG after all.

[Astrod00d]

The last time I tried PHD was version 1.7.0. It worked fine. These days I use Guide Dog because it requires less processor time on my laptop and this improves battery life. PHD is such an easy thing to use though, and Craig just keeps on adding features!