PHD Guiding - GPUSB Failed?

iceman (Mike) · #1 04-11-2007, 07:42 PM

Hi guys

I opened PHD Guiding, clicked Camera, no probs, set the mount to GPUSB and clicked the telescope icon, and got the message "GPUSB Failed".

Is there an order or sequence I need to plug things in and turn things on for it to recognise that i'm connected to the mount?

Also, what else do I need to know after I eventually do successfully connect?

iceman (Mike) · #2 04-11-2007, 07:44 PM

oh btw, the LED is RED at the moment.

iceman (Mike) · #3 04-11-2007, 07:49 PM

Nevermind, I downloaded and installed GPUSBCheck, and it said it couldn't connect to it.

I simply unplugged the USB and plugged it back in again, and could connect. Now GPUSBCheck works, and PHD Guiding recognises it too.

All good

So, what else do I need to know about PHD Guiding?

seeker372011 (Narayan) · #4 04-11-2007, 07:57 PM

most important-after you have selected the guide star you have to click stop and then click start guiding

but you may well have discovered this yourself already...took me a long time before I learnt this thanks to a tip here on IIS

[1ponders] (Paul) · #5 04-11-2007, 08:37 PM

Yeah that is a tricky one. It had me stuffed for a while. I obviously don't have a PhD

[1ponders] (Paul) · #6 04-11-2007, 08:38 PM

Oh and once you start guiding the star will have yellow cross hairs coming out from it and the star will move way off line. Don't Panic!!!! It is calibrating and once your green cross hairs come on it is guiding and you can start to take those fantastic images we are waiting on.

Lee · #7 04-11-2007, 08:41 PM

I know it is easy to use and free.... but a couple of pages of manual from Craig Stark would have went a long way!

leon · #8 04-11-2007, 08:57 PM

Mike, just click on help, and the Impatience Instructions appear, click on that, and follow the list.

Leon

iceman (Mike) · #9 04-11-2007, 09:19 PM

It's so easy! Auto-Guiding is working brilliantly.

Can't wait for the clouds to disappear! Thanks for your help!

leon · #10 04-11-2007, 09:33 PM

Yep Mike, it is, If I can do it anyone can..

Leon

[1ponders] (Paul) · #11 04-11-2007, 09:51 PM

Ahhh, but it takes all the fun and frustration out of it.

I mean where's the challenge if you don't have bang your head agains your mount trying to get the laptop and the mount to talk to each other. Wheres the challenge if you dont have to struggle with different exposure time and aggressiveness and Q and K Factors and backlash and all the other little fun things you do to get an autoguider to work properly.

Seriously Mike you don't know what you are missing if you take this easy way out.

h0ughy (David) · #12 04-11-2007, 09:52 PM

yep it is idiot proof Eh Mike - even I can getthe hang of it. BTW must remember to turn it off before you slew to another object - I forgot a few times

iceman (Mike) · #13 04-11-2007, 09:54 PM

heh yes houghy, been there already with clouds covering it. At least it beeps at you!

Sky is clear now (almost), taking some GUIDED exposures of ngc253! 2 minutes, round stars. Any more than that and the exposure goes almost white at ISO1600

iceman (Mike) · #14 04-11-2007, 09:57 PM

Damn, just did 3x 120s exposures @ ISO1600 and realised they were still in jpeg format

Switched to RAW now, doing 3 minutes at ISO800.

[1ponders] (Paul) · #15 04-11-2007, 09:58 PM

Do yourself a favour and drop it back to ISO800 and go for longer exposures. You will find it much easier in the long run than trying to beat the noise from the ISO1600. It gets really hard to process out at that ISO unless you have lots and lots of images to stack.

To get you best images my suggestion would be ISO400 to 800, get plenty of exposure time (up until white out

) and take lots of them. Try 20 or 30/ 2min exposures at ISO 800 and see how you go

[1ponders] (Paul) · #16 04-11-2007, 09:59 PM

Rule 1. Check your format

What are you using to focus with Mike? DSLR Focus?

h0ughy (David) · #17 04-11-2007, 10:06 PM

with out a cooled camera like mine Mike at 1600 you wont have a hope - too much noise, also background sky glow. Fantastic mate at least you are imaging.

iceman (Mike) · #18 04-11-2007, 10:10 PM

I'm doing 3 minutes @ ISO800 now and the glow is managable.

I'm using Images Plus Camera Control for focus and acquisition, Paul.

I'm using 1.0s exposure on the guide camera - in this FOV there's nothing bright!

[1ponders] (Paul) · #19 04-11-2007, 10:15 PM

Using DSLR Focuse I set all my camera settings from inside the program, I haven't used ImagesPlus so I wasn't sure what setting you could make from inside the program. Looks like you can set your RAW from there as well as the exposure times and delays.

iceman (Mike) · #20 04-11-2007, 10:18 PM

yeh, everything Paul. I don't touch the camera now.

Actually, the only thing you can't do is set things like Mirror Lockup etc in the custom functions.