Any way to salvage my QGuider?

[rogerg]

G'day all,

I didn't have a great night last night in some reaspects. I had problem with static charge the whole night. No matter what I touched I zapped. Every time I went to touch the telescope I made sure I earthed myself first and ended up having bare feed so I was always earthed. It was rediculouse. I don't know why last night was so prone to static.

Anyway, before I realised how bad the night was for it I zapped the Losmandy setup twice, via the 350D (when turning it on) and once on to the laptop. Sparks I could easily see in the night.

Now my QHY5/QGuider appears "dead". I can only presume it's relating to the static discharges on equipment.

What do I mean by "dead"? When I plug it in my Vista machine windows says that an unrecognised USB device has been plugged in which has a problem with it. On my XP machine it simply comes up with the "safely remove hardware" system tray icon for it, identified as "QHY5 Driver". On either machine when I use PHD to connect it PHD says it cannot connect via message "No Camera" followed by "Problem connecting to camera". CCDSoft can no longer connect to the camera either.

The QGuider does have it's red light on, and is alive enough that my XP machine did initially recognise it as a QHY5 for me to install it this morning (previously only had it installed on the Vista machine).

After the initial static charges last night which I think must have caused the problem it successfully guided once, for about 30 minutes, but then stopped responding and now I just can't get life from it.

Nothing else on my setup seems to have suffered damage from the static, which makes me wonder if it is related. Especially considering I didn't actually discharge on to the QHY5 or USB hub. But I can't think of any other reason why it's being unresponsive on two separate computers.

Ideas? :help:

Thanks,
Roger.

[gbeal]

Hi Roger,
try it on someone else's PC perhaps, anyone from IIS live close-by?
Uninstall, and reinstall the drivers perhaps?
Gary

[Lester]

Hope it can be fixed okay Roger. I get static electricity when wearing synthetic/polyester type clothes. Just wondering could this have been the cause of your static?

[rogerg]

Thanks Gary. On the XP machine I test it this morning it was the first time I'd ever installed the camera on that machine, so I think that rules out re-installing drivers etc. I believe I have the latest drivers from the appropriate website http://astrosoft.be/

I haven't tried re-installing on the vista machine, but not sure there's much point when the XP has failed. Worth it I suppose though, could save me $350 :)



I usually find the same Lester but last night I was wearing much the same clothes as the last 2 weeks of observing, so am a bit stumped as to why the difference. I noticed today the humidity is 20%, which is quite low (41 degree day today) so perhaps it's a case of very low humidity combined with my usual clothes.

I have decided the chair in my observatory must be part the culprit, being a synthetic office chair type. I think I will put a cotton towel over it so it doesn't contribute to the problem.

Thanks,
Roger.

[Gama]

Uninstall all the QHY drivers, even if you need to do it manually..
Then install these (If you havent already) http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=1806.msg10476#msg10 476 .
They will install on a 32 and 64 bit machine.
See how you go.

Failing this, the firmware may have been zapped, but it may be possible to reload the firmware.
Just depends where you got it from. Did you get it from me or elsewhere ?.


Theo.

[rogerg]

Will try this tomorrow night, thanks.



From you Theo.

I'll let you know how the new driver goes.

Thanks,
Roger.

[Gama]

See how you go, if no luck, let me know, and email me to arrange for its return, and i'll see what i can do.

Theo.