HELP - PHD2 consistently quickly loses guide camera connection

[Bob M]

THE PROBLEM:

PHD2 will initially connect to my LodestarX2 monochrome guide camera, but it will not continue looping or do anything else for more than a few seconds before it loses the camera connection. This is my first attempt at using PHD2, and it has never worked.  

POSSIBLY HELPFUL DETAILS:

I am using V2.6.9 of PHD2. I have a permanent setup in a private observatory using Windows 10 on a relatively new Acer laptop with an Intel i7 CPU. I am trying to use ST4 guiding (not pulse guiding) with an Atlas EQ-G mount.   

WHAT I HAVE TRIED THAT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL:

     I was running only the guide camera with PHD2. No other hardware or software was active. Mount was always pointed near Polaris because I was attempting to use the PHD2 Polar Drift Align Tool. Mount was approximately polar aligned and turned on for tracking. After previous unsuccessful attempts, here's what I did on June 10 to create the attached log.

     NOTE -- Scroll about half way through my log data (attached below) to 21:12 to see the nighttime activity.

(1) Changed all cables.

(2) Tried different USB ports on the laptop.

(3) Tried different PHD2 profiles for the guide camera.

(4) Tried with and without the ST-4 cable from guide camera to the mount connected. Tried with and without the "on-camera" mount connected in PHD2 "Connect Equipment" box. 

(5) Eliminated the USB extender (from pier to laptop) by connecting guide camera directly to the laptop USB port.

(6) Tried a different LodestarX2 driver (ASCOM version). The original driver from Starlight Xpress would only loop about once before losing the camera connection. The ASCOM driver would loop for longer, but then fail when doing anything else (like running Polar Drift Align Tool or calibration for guiding). These two drivers gave different error messages, but neither one worked. The ASCOM driver expected pulse guiding (not my ST4 guiding), but I thought (?) the Polar Drift Align Tool should work without a mount connection or any calibration.

(7) Tried a different guide camera (another LodestarX2) but saw the same result. 

Let me know if you need additional details to figure this out. 

Your help is greatly appreciated !!

Bob M -- Katy, TX

[Brian Valente]

Hi Bob

just a shot in the dark, but in my experience subframes do not work with lodestar X2. you might try disabling that?

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Brian Valente

portfolio brianvalentephotography.com 

[Bruce Waddington]

Hi Bob.  Looking at the things you’ve tried, what I see missing is any consideration of the power delivery to the camera.  The LodeStar software is known for being very robust, and the cameras are very well made.  So I suspect your laptop/USB subsystem isn’t able to deliver the reliable power needed by the camera which can lead to the behavior you see.  You should try using a separately powered USB hub, that’s what I’ve always done.   You should also verify that you’re using high-quality USB cables, preferably some with 24awg power conductors.  Finally, you need to make sure that Windows 10 isn’t disabling the USB ports as part of a power conservation scheme – by default, it will do that.  Since the LodeStars are USB2, you may also want to try using a USB2 port.  The USB3 hardware is supposed to be backward compatible but it’s another variable worth eliminating.

 

Good luck,

Bruce

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[Bob M]

First, thanks to Brian and Bruce for your responses !

My original problem remains unsolved. Here's an update ...

ADDITIONAL THINGS I HAVE TRIED BASED ON RESPONSES + INTERNET SEARCHES

-- See my original posting for the many things I previously tried to identify this problem.

-- I confirmed that I an NOT using subframes.

-- I turned OFF the defaults in my laptop that allowed power saving for USB ports.

-- I increased Windows priority for PHD2 from normal to high.

-- I secured camera cable with velcro.

-- I confirmed high quality USB cables.

-- I can't try using USB 2 ports with the LodestarX2 because my laptops only have USB 3 ports.

-- I brought the LodestarX2 home from my observatory to test it connected alone to the laptop with a short USB cable. No other apps were running and nothing else was connected.

RESULT #1

After looping for between 1 and 10 minutes, PHD2 still consistently randomly loses the LodestarX2 guide camera connection with my Windows 10 laptop.

RESULT #2

Running PHD2 on my MacBook Pro laptop, the LodestarX2 runs normally for several hours without ever losing the connection.

CONCLUSION

As Bruce suggested, the problem appears to be with my new Windows laptop. 

LAPTOP DETAILS (in case there is a clue here?)

ACER-Nitro  AN515-54  laptop

Intel (R) Core (TM)  i7-9750H processor

Windows 10 Home edition  V20H2   (** Any reason to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro? **)

OS Build = 19042.985

SIMILAR PROBLEMS FROM OTHERS

(1) A 7/23/21 post on this forum titled "PHD2 does not work correctly with the guiding camera ... new acer notebook (Win 10)" indicated that the author has a PHD2 problem with his new ACER brand computer, like mine.

(2) A 5/19/18 post on a Cloudy Nights forum was titled "Camera Disconnecting from PHD2". After trying several things, the author eventually solved his problem: "I then went into the BIOS and disabled the CPU C-states and Intel SpeedStep, which seems to have done the trick!" I have no idea what that means. With internet help, I made a feeble attempt to access the BIOS settings of my Windows laptop but saw nothing that matched his description.

WHERE I MIGHT GO FROM HERE ??

(1) Borrow a different Windows 10 computer and try it with my observatory setup.

(2) Borrow a different guide camera (not another LodestarX2) and try it.

(3) Find someone who can access and change my BIOS settings as described above. I'm not comfortable doing that myself.

(3) Use my MacBook to try to begin learning PHD2 guiding. This is probably not a good long-term solution (even though I'm a dedicated Mac person) because I bought my new Windows laptop specifically to use Windows-only astro software.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS ARE APPRECIATED

Which of the 4 items above would you recommend trying?

Any other suggestions or comments?

Obviously I don't want to replace my brand new Windows laptop (spend more $$ and then risk the same problems) or only use my MacBook (and not be able to use Windows software). But it's looking like one of those options might be the only way forward.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide !

Bob M  (Katy, TX)

[Bruce Waddington]

Hi Bob.  What I don’t see in your list is any attention paid to delivering adequate power to the camera.  The LodeStars are extremely reliable and the software quality is very high but – like many guide cameras – they need to have the rated power delivered to them in order to work reliably.  Your Win10 laptop may not be doing that.  Have you tried using a powered hub to deliver power to the camera?  If you try a powered USB-2 hub, you can also eliminate any issue with USB3 compatibility.  I’ve used powered hubs for all the guide cameras I’ve used including the UltraStar, the “big brother” to the LodeStar 2.  Have you sought help from StarlightXPress?

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