QHY5 disconnect/Guidemaster overflow errors

[JohnH]

All,

My guiding system has become flakey...very annoying it is too...it will work for some time - either minutes or hours but at some point I get a warning "ding" from the laptop (runs xp sp2) - the same sound you get when you connect or disconnect a usb device. It seems as if the QHY5 has been reset somehow.

Guidemaster then freezes and eventually displays an overflow message (error 6).

I can re-start guidemaster and guiding picks up again.

I have treid all the usual suspects - cables, re-start laptop, the QHY5 is plugged into an externally powered hub, latest guidemaster version and drivers are in use...and cannot find anything in the forums...has anyone seen something like this?

[Terry B]

I have had a similar problem and it was the usb connector at the camera. I now have an elastic band around the camera with the cable under it. This stops any tension on the cable as the scope moves.

[JohnH]

Terry - thanks good tip - I will try that - the cables are bundled up with velcro but the nights when this was happening were very cold - so the cables would have gone stiff & could have transfered some load to the socket....I will try the laccy band trick.

[gbeal]

John,
while I don't use the QHY (Lodestar) I might suggest this.
In my case I have the guide cable and the USB cable together and streaming away from the camera. I then loop them both back over the camera, and have a cable tie on them, holding them tightly to the camera, but with a loose enough loop to allow the plugs to not stress. The down-side of this though is that if the cable(s) catch, they are tightly affixed to the camera, and Murphy's says it will break something other than the cheapest part.
Forget what I said, stick with the laccy-band, LOL.
Gary