zwo 120mm connects but fails to respond in linux mint

[takashie...@gmail.com]

On the same netbook computer, Kstars,  the Indi library and Skychart are also installed. I can control my scope using Linux Mint.
When I start the looping process in PHD2 the camera does not complete even a single exposure and I get a message saying time is out and I can increase the amount of time before a time-out.  I do not understand why the camera does not respond even though it is clearly connected.
I am baffled especially because I have had successful guiding sessions with the same computer (atom based netbook) with the cinnamon version of Linux Mint installed.  Since the Cinnamon desktop is a bit slow I installed Mate on it and had the same problem.  When I had the problem with the Mate version of Linux Mint I blamed it on Mate and reinstalled the Cinnamon version of Linux Mint on the same computer with the same result.  The ASI driver versions and the PHD2 versions in these three instances are exactly the same, that is, the latest versions.
There is nothing wrong with the camera.  In fact I have a laptop with the Cinnamon Mint installed on which PHD2 works just fine with the same ZWO camera.  I would like to use the netbook in the field because it is less power hungry.
I downloaded all the software from the official repositories and PPAs.
If anyone has any information that might lead to a solution let me know.Thanks. 

[Andy Galasso]

takashiesperanza,

Did I understand correctly that you had the camera working at one point under Cinnamon, then you installed Mate and it did not work, then you installed Cinnamon again and it no longer worked?   If that is correct and we can say that the software was identical, you might want to confirm that the USB cable is ok (try a different USB cable), and try some different USB ports on the PC, and try bypassing any USB hub if you are using one.

You could also try seeing if the camera works if you bypass INDI and use the native access mode in PHD2: select "ZWO ASI Camera" in PHD2 (not INDI Camera).

Another experiment would be to try running another capture app either via INDI or native mode.

Andy

[takashie...@gmail.com]

Dear Andy,

You are right about my going back and forth between Cinnamon and Mate.
There is no problem hardware wise with the camera or the cable because the camera works fine on my Cinnamon laptop. I am having problems using PHD2 on my smaller netbook.
I don't know how to switch to a native mode from an indi mode.  The camera settings button next to the " brain button" is grayed out and inaccessible.  It's the same with the Cinnamon laptop that works fine.

Takashi

2018年4月23日月曜日 3時21分55秒 UTC+9 Andy Galasso:

[takashie...@gmail.com]

Dear Andy and myself,

I tried several configurations on my netbook computer. Now I know what you mean by the difference between the indi-camera and the native zwo camera. None of the configurations I tried worked. On the other Cinnamon laptop both the indi camera configuration and the native zwo camera configuration work. 
In the meantime the newest asi driver arrived. Unfortunately this doesn't work either on my netbook.

Takashi

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Takashi,

Sorry you are having so much trouble with it.  Since you have determined that the software and camera work on the other laptop, it would seem like we have must conclude that there is some problem specific to the netbook.

I think you should contact ZWO support for assistance, they should be able to help.

For what it is worth, I tested an ASI120MC-S on Mint 18.3 Sylvia / Xfce / Linux 4.15.0-15 / PHD2-2.6.4dev10 and the camera worked as expected with both INDI and native mode.  I also have an ASI120MM running in native mode on Raspbian 9 working as an all-sky camera the has been solidly reliable. Although this does not necessarily help you, it indicates that the camera can work reliably under Linux and Mint in particular. Hopefully ZWO can help you find the problem.

Andy

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Takashi.  I think you referred to your problem system as a ‘netbook’ computer.  These astro-cameras often place high demand on the USB subsystem in terms of both bandpass and power.  And the USB system is a common place for manufacturers to cut corners when they’re trying to minimize cost.  And USB-3 ports often don’t work well with USB-2 cameras despite the claimed backward compatibility.  So you might need to take a close look at the capabilities of your host computer.

 

Good luck,

Bruce

 

---

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open PHD Guiding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to open-phd-guidi...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[steve]

El 23/04/2018 a las 22:55, bw_msgboard escribió:

  And USB-3 ports often don’t work well with USB-2 cameras despite the claimed backward compatibility.

Hi
For the 120mm to work with a usb3 port, the firmware needs to be flashed.
HTH and clear skies,
Steve

[Takashi WAKUI]

Hi all--

I asked ZWO for help and got the flashing tool from them and not by
clicking on the link that Steve provided because my issue involved
using a USB2 camera on a USB2 port.
I tried flashing with the 120mm file and nothing happened. Then I
found the following page:

http://indilib.org/forum/ccds-dslrs/1728-ccd-faq.html

This time I used the "120mm compatible" file and that solved the
problem miraculously.
I wish ZWO had told me about using the compatible file but I suppose
they are busy.

Thanks all for your help.

Takashi

[Andy Galasso]

Takashi,

Thank you for the update. I'm glad to hear you got it working.

I updated the PHD2 Camera Support wiki page with the information about the firmware.

Andy

[takashie...@gmail.com]

Hi all

I was wrong about ZWO not telling me about flashing with the compatible firmware. Yang, their tech support person, clearly stated "compatible" in his email.  I just did not understand what "compatible" meant in that context.
Later I tried the 120mm camera flashed with the "compatible" firmware on various machines installed with windows xp and linux mint. On two linux mint netbooks the the new camera worked, but on other two laptops installed with linux mint it did not work.  The 120mm compatible camera does not work on one windows xp netbook but works on another. Yang told me to flash the camera back to the original mode when you use it on windows machines.

In any case ZWO has been very helpful and friendly.

Takashi


2018年5月6日日曜日 19時38分37秒 UTC+9 Takashi WAKUI: