Connecting a ZWO ASI2600MM Air

[ERIC MCELROY]

Hi,

New to the group and just trying to set up a rig using a mini PC running windows 11 Pro and NINA.

The problem I have is that I'm trying to connect my ZWO ASI2600MM Air in Phd2 for guiding. I have downloaded all the drivers on the ZWO website and they installed fine.

When running NINA I can see the cameras under ASCOM Alpaca drivers and both the main imaging sensor and the guiding sensor can be selected and will image.

The problem I have encountered is that the Phd2 software does not recognise the ascom alpaca driver under the ZWO camera selection.

My question is can I connect the ZWO ASI2600MM Air into the Phd2 software, and if so how and what settings I should use?

Pretty new to this as always used the ASIAir as a management platform.

Thanks in advance.

Eric

[Bruce Waddington]

The ASI2600MM series cameras aren't suitable as guide cameras, the sensors have something like a 26M-pixel array and are intended for imaging.  You need to use a guide camera, something with a smaller sensor that will generate much less traffic..  ZWO makes lots of those kinds of cameras.

Bruce

[ERIC MCELROY]

Hi,

The ASI2600MMAir is a duo camera with a guide sensor within the main imaging train. So it's the smaller 120 sensor which I am trying to connect to. Sorry for the confusion.

[Brian Valente]

Eric

>>>The problem I have encountered is that the Phd2 software does not recognise the ascom alpaca driver under the ZWO camera selection.

Are you trying to make the cameras available via NINA's alpaca? Why not just connect the 120 camera directly in PHD

[ERIC MCELROY]

Hi,

That's what I am trying to do. But Phd2 does not recognise the ASI2600Air guide sensor. I'm obviously missing something. I can configure Phd2 to recognise other ZWO guide cameras and have it currently using a ASI662, but would like to use the on-axis guide facility which the ASI2600Air guide sensor would facilitate.

I can see both sensors in N.I.N.A with the ZWO Alpaca driver, but the Phd2 software doesn't seem to find them. I think I have to find an appropriate driver within Phd2 but either I'm looking in the wrong place or additional configuration is required.

Just scratching my head.

Eric

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com <open-phd...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Brian Valente <bval...@gmail.com>
Sent: 21 November 2025 18:01
To: Open PHD Guiding <open-phd...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] Re: Connecting a ZWO ASI2600MM Air

 

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[Bruce Waddington]

PHD2 doesn't yet support Alpaca devices natively, it supports ASCOM devices.  So you need to use one of the ASCOM mechanisms to do a one-time creation of an ASCOM interface for your camera.  Prior to ASCOM platform 7, I think users were using  ASCOM remote.  On ASCOM 7, I believe there is a way to create the interface on-the-fly through the ASCOM chooser, but I don't know the details.  Alternatively, you could just install the ASCOM driver for the camera if one is available.  

Bruce

[ERIC MCELROY]

Thanks Bruce,

I will give that a go. I cannot find a ASCOM driver for my ASI2600Air native on the ZWO downloads so will try and set one up on-the-fly as you suggest.

Thanks for the update and food for thought.

Eric

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com <open-phd...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Bruce Waddington <bw_m...@earthlink.net>
Sent: 21 November 2025 20:49

To: Open PHD Guiding <open-phd...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] Re: Connecting a ZWO ASI2600MM Air

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/c0f3f3bc-6a6b-4cee-8053-ec82039e7a09n%40googlegroups.com.

[Brian Valente]

Eric i'm not sure why you don't just connect the 120 camera directly in PHD (vai ASI Camera Ascom or ZWO direct connect), i'm not sure what advantage having a nina-connected alpaca guide camera gives you?

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Brian 

Brian Valente

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

[ERIC MCELROY]

Connection issues resolved and now working as expected. The issue was nothing related to PHD2. But the issue was within the ASCOM set-up as I had not enabled the Alpaca discovery facility. Both Brian and Bruce helped to resolve the issue after some dialogue.

Can only recommend this forum.

Eric