Where Not Guiding Again, HELP

leon · #1 09-11-2009, 05:34 PM

Hi Guys/Gals, well, the bugger just dose not want to guide.

As in the last post, PHD spat the dummy, and for the last two imaging sessions just went off track after the first exposure.

To make a long story short the Mount, a G11 is perfect, it has been serviced and all is well.

When fitted with all the scopes and gear it is balanced to a penny weight.

It will go to anywhere i tell Gemini to go to and is spot on.

I find a star, power up PHD and calibrate, It dose and then after 30 seconds it is all over.

I have been doing this same stuff for years, but now it wont play with me.

Anyway, the fact that I have a permanent set-up in my Observatory got me thinking.

We, and others have had a sever drought, about 10 years worth, and it struck me, because of this the ground has dried to a crisp.

I just wonder if, because of this that maybe my pier has moved slightly, and is way off the SCP like it used to be.

Do you guys and girls reckon I should do an other, Drift Alignment.

Thanks In Advance.

Leon

En1gma (Robert) · #2 09-11-2009, 05:37 PM

Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing all the software again?

Start from scratch?

Rob.

multiweb (Marc) · #3 09-11-2009, 05:38 PM

You should try unguided exposures to start with and diagnose the problem. Polar alignment will help if you have a permanent setup. Are you getting much drift in DEC?

gbeal · #4 09-11-2009, 06:32 PM

Don't think the "not quite right polar alignment" is the problem Leon. I agree with Marc, try a 5 minute shot, tracking no guiding, and see how badly trailed it is. If it is at all.
Like has been mentioned maybe un-install, then re-install PHD.
Maybe, if you have it, try something like K# as well, it guides. If anyone you know has a guide camera, and laptop, try them on you scope/mount combo.
Gary

Hagar (Doug) · #5 09-11-2009, 06:32 PM

Leon, Sorry to hear about your troubles. There was a version of PHD which caused a lot of problems, I got caught with this one a while back and with an uninstall and reinstall of the latest version my troubles were over.
Polar alignment is worth a look but I have found PHD would work with A & E figures out around 200 - 200. It struggled a bit but still worked. What sort of A & E figures are you getting with a 2 or 3 star alignment?

The only other thing worth checking is that all the PHD setting are set to default settings.

Sorry I can't help more.

Bassnut (Fred) · #6 09-11-2009, 07:08 PM

Since you have it balanced to a penny weight, backlash will show very quickly. During the calibration, do the + and - calibration exposures for x and y end up back in the same place? (if they dont, the amount they dont is the backlash you have). I understand backlash is calibrated during calibration with PHD, but if not, backlash can make guiding go nuts.

Biasing RA balance slightly, and dec polar align out by a tiny bit can avoid this.

DavidU (Dave) · #7 09-11-2009, 07:17 PM

Mate, you are having a rough bloody trot with that.

pmrid (Peter) · #8 09-11-2009, 07:31 PM

G'day Leon. The drought could well affect the soil around the pier. This is more likely if you are in heavy clay soil (called 'highly reactive soil') and/or the pier is not set deep enough into the ground. BUT having said that, the amount of shift is unlikely to be so great that it would outstrip PHD's ability to track. Also, if it was so severe, it would be affecting your gotos as well. And since they seem to be spot on, I think you can put that aside for the moment. Obviously you will want to throw a spirit level across the pier just to check it but I'd be looking elsewhere.
Peter

leon · #9 09-11-2009, 09:30 PM

Hi Guys, it is getting to the stage of frustration, so i have gone through the whole process again.

I have checked all of the mount and it's workings, and it is just fine, any smoother and it would be down right rude.

I will sample the suggestion put forward of giving it a run with out guiding for 5 Mins and see the results, and then do the same with PHD on.

Will get back to you all soon, many thanks for your help.

Leon

Octane (Humayun) · #10 09-11-2009, 09:57 PM

Uninstall, download a fresh copy of PHD, and reinstall. See how that goes.

Regards,
Humayun

Gama · #11 09-11-2009, 10:08 PM

I had an instance when it just started to go bonkers. I found it to be the calibration time. It was too short, and so corrections were to harsh, and it went back and forth finding aligning the star. Increased calibration, and now its fine. I had to adjust it to around 400ms from memory.
It may just be overcorrecting every time..
Worth a poke in the dark..

Theo.

mithrandir (Andrew) · #12 09-11-2009, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octane

Uninstall, download a fresh copy of PHD, and reinstall. See how that goes.

Regards,
Humayun

If you uninstall you probably need to run something like CCleaner to ensure all the registry entries are gone.

Theo's comments about increasing the max calibration values is a good idea too.

Another suggestion on the PHD list is to slightly defocus the alignment star, so you reduce the chance you are chasing the seeing.

leon · #13 09-11-2009, 10:36 PM

Andrew and others many thanks for your suggestions, but Andrew I do not like this CC cleaner stuff mate, I tried it once on my Desktop and nearly lost the lot.

But I do like your suggestion of increasing the calibration values, I usually run it at 1.5, and that is it, have been doing this from day one.

Thanks.

Leon

mithrandir (Andrew) · #14 10-11-2009, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

Andrew and others many thanks for your suggestions, but Andrew I do not like this CC cleaner stuff mate, I tried it once on my Desktop and nearly lost the lot.

You could always use regedit to remove any PHD entries, but that could be more dangerous. There are keys under HKCU\Software\StarkLabs\PHD and HKCU\Software\StarkLabs\PHDGuiding which uninstall might not remove.

If you have it, Nebulosity has entries under HKCU\Software\StarkLabs as well so don't get too ruthless.

allan gould · #15 10-11-2009, 09:31 AM

Try Guidemaster. I had a lot of problems with PhD and switched to Guidemaster and have not looked back.

White Rabbit · #16 10-11-2009, 01:34 PM

I know this may sound a bit drastic but.. when I first started trying to guide I had a hell of time getting it to work. I though it was me not understanding something. What solved the problem for me was I reformated the pc and the mount controller. After that it worked a treat. Uninstalling the program will only unistall the program if you reinstall it again it will still load up your old settings as the .ini file will still be on your pc. you need to track down all the files that PHD unpacks when it installs and delet those as well.

I'm no expert on the subject thas for sure, but this has been my experience.

my 2c

JohnG (John) · #17 10-11-2009, 01:56 PM

Hi Leon

Just a thought, is your Gemini in Photo or All Speeds Mode.........

Cheers

leon · #18 10-11-2009, 08:55 PM

Gid,Day John, yea mate it is in photo, but it dose not wantr to play with me.

Leon