New Windows 11 Laptop not working with EQMOD

[Steven Bellavia]

Hi,

I am trying to setup a new laptop (Windows 11) for image capture.

I spent about 2 hours last night trying to get PHD2 (2.6.13) to work with EQMOD and finally gave up and used my 4-year-old Windows 10 laptop.

I had all the EQMOD settings the same as before.

It would connect, but pulses would not move the mount.  Even when I used "manual" pulses, there was little or no motion, so I could not calibrate or do any guiding at all.

Any help is appreciated.

I have the guide and debug logs. The Guide log is attached which shows all the calibration attempts.

Thanks!

Steve

[Bruce Waddington]

Please follow the 'Getting Help' instructions and use the PHD2 Upload Logs feature to upload both your guide and debug log files to our server.

https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

Regards,

Bruce

[Steven Bellavia]

Link to uploaded files:

https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_h7xy.zip

Thanks again!

Steve

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[Bruce Waddington]

Hi Steve.  It's hard to see what's going wrong here.  EQMOD is reporting that the guide commands are being executed and the timing of the traffic is consistent with 300ms guide pulses.  But that doesn't tell us what's going on in the layers below EQMOD.  For example, there may be something wrong with the connection from the PC to the mount, either the cable itself or the driver.  PHD2 is able to read data from the mount so it isn't a complete failure.  I noticed that you had multiple errors with PHD2 losing contact with the guide camera, so that raises questions about the USB subsystem on the new laptop.  One thing that would be good to do is to disable the Windows power management functions for the USB ports - not all drivers can cope with that.  That is described in the Trouble-shooting section as part of the camera timeout discussion:

https://openphdguiding.org/man/Trouble_shooting.htm#Problems-_Camera_Timeouts

You should be doing your tests while connected to A/C power as well. You may also need to see if you can find an EQMOD log to see what is happening between it and the mount.  It would probably be easier to test all of this during the daytime and you can do that with the Mount Exerciser tool available here:

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Amy5FkXK3OuQgnKd1-7Er-5P3Iad?e=8CfBfJ

The guide pulses result in only tiny movements of mount so you can't typically see it moving.  If you read the documentation for the Mount Exerciser, you can use various options to check whether the mount is actually moving.  For example, you can send a long stream of large guide pulses in declination and watch what happens.

Good luck,

Bruce

[Steven Bellavia]

Thanks Bruce,

I have the feeling it might be this:

USB-2 cameras and cables plugged in to USB-3 ports

My old laptop had a USB2 port.  The new laptop does not.  The mount is strictly USB2, using the equivalent of a printer cable.

I was running from A/C power, and the mount was responding to slews, go-to's from various software (APT, Stellarium), plate-solve corrections, etc.

So far PHD2 is the current issue.

I will check the power settings next...

Thanks again, and if I solve it, I will let everyone know.

Steve

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[Bruce Waddington]

I suppose to be really careful, you should also double-check this setting in the EQMOD setup dialog:

If you run the Mount Exerciser tool, you can also enable the "COMS" log feature in EQMOD and see what's being sent to the mount.

Bruce

[Steven Bellavia]

I wonder if it is the Prolific USB-to-Serial driver that is outdated? I found one specifically for Windows 11.
I will try that later

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[bw_m...@earthlink.net]

You might first try updating the driver, there appears to be a Windows-11 certified one here:

 

https://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=225&pcid=41

 

This a good support reference and there’s also a section on the page that tells you how to check if your particular version of the device is compatible.

 

Good luck,

Bruce

 

From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com <open-phd...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Steven Bellavia
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 6:16 AM
To: open-phd...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] Re: New Windows 11 Laptop not working with EQMOD

 

I wonder if it is the Prolific USB-to-Serial driver that is outdated? I found one specifically for Windows 11.
I will try that later

 

 

On Wed, Jan 3, 2024 at 2:28 PM Bruce Waddington <bw_m...@earthlink.net> wrote:

I suppose to be really careful, you should also double-check this setting in the EQMOD setup dialog:

 

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[Steven Bellavia]

Thanks!

I downloaded that version (4.08, dated July 2022) but also found a 4.20, dated December 2023.

Not sure which one to use, or if they are even "the same"

https://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?pcid=41

I will try the 4.08 first.

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[Steven Bellavia]

Hi again,

I downloaded and installed the latest EQMOD and Prolific USB-to-Serial drivers

I also turned off all the power saving stuff on all the USB's

I ran Mount Exerciser (nice program!  Thank you!)

Still no movement with pulses, of any size.

:/

[Steven Bellavia]

Wait...  I think it IS moving now.

I am sending 1000 msec pulses every second at 0.9 sidereal in the North direction, and DEC is changing by 13.5 arc-seconds on each pulse.

I just switched to South, and the opposite seems true.

It will be clear (and really cold and windy) later, so I will then try this outside.

Maybe it is working now?  I will report back...

Steve

[Brian Valente]

Steve use the star cross test for verification

Brian 

Brian Valente

astronomy portfolio https://www.astrobin.com/users/bvalente/ 

nature portfolio brianvalentephotography.com 

other astronomy https://www.brianvalentephotography.com/astrophotography/ 

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[Steven Bellavia]

I forgot about the star cross test.

It is getting dark out.  I will know very soon...

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[Steven Bellavia]

Hi,

It works!

First I did a calibration, and that worked perfectly (despite the strong wind), and then I did a star-cross-test, and that too worked perfectly.

So for the sake of others, this is what I did:

1. Obtained the latest EQMOD ASCOM driver (v200w, dated May 12, 2021)

2. Obtained the latest Prolific USB-to-serial driver (v4.20, dated Dec 22, 2023)

This is a link for the Prolific driver:

https://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?pcid=41

And that might be all that was needed.

However I also:

1. removed any power-saving options from all USB ports, using Device Manager

2. changed the port for the main camera, guide camera, filter wheel and focuser (all on one cable)  from a "Thunderbolt" USB3-C to a "regular" USB3-A

(Note, I never changed the port for the mount, which is a separate USB2-A cable plugged into a USB3-A port on the laptop)

Using Bruce's Mount Exerciser gave me the confidence to go out in the wind and cold, as that showed things were finally working indoors.

Thanks Bruce and Brian for all your help!

Steve

[bw_m...@earthlink.net]

Glad you got it sorted out, Steven.  It was a curious situation, usually USB-serial connections either work or they don’t – so it’s good to have your results on record.  Plus, you now have a better sense of just how small guide corrections really are. 😊

 

Regards,

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