Using New ASI Camera and Latest ASI Drivers with PHD2 2.6.5

[Pat darmody]

Hello,

Sorry to bother everyone with what are probably basic questions.  Just trying to get the correct info before I go out with my new ASI290MC camera.

I have been running PHD2 for a number of years now, and it worked very well with my older ASI120MM-S camera.  I was previously using

• PHD2 version 2.3.1n
• Windows WDM style driver for the ASI120MM-S camera
  
• ASCOM Telescope Chooser for the Mount connection.  I would just pick the ASI ST4 mount

To use the new  ASI290MC cam at all, I had to install ZWO's new suite of drivers, which also uninstalled my old ASI120MM-S drivers.

I have now installed the new version of PHD2, 2.6.5 , as well as ZWO's latest native driver set for its cameras.  ZWO support confirmed that the Windows "WDM webcam driver" approach is no longer supported.  They recommend using either

• ZWO native camera drivers with the "On Camera" mount option.
  

or

• ZWO ASCOM camera drivers with the "ASI ST4 Telescope Driver ASCOM"  mount option.

Just using the fisheye lens with the cameras, I confirmed that PHD2 successfully recognizes the native drivers for the cameras.

My question is:  does anyone have experience or an opinion about which approach is best?

FYI, I bought the new ASI290MC in order to get back to a one shot color cam for planets and to also use the ASI290MC with AstroLive USB for video astronomy, with the ASI120MM-S providing autoguiding via PHD2 at the same time. I really want to get my kids, and others, more engaged with video astronomy.

For DSO imaging, I also want to continue to use my Canon T2i with the ASI120MM-S for guiding. (Does not make sense to me to use a color cam for guiding.)

Thanks and clear skies!

Pat

http://www.astrobin.com/users/pdarmody/

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Pat,

The recommended connection method would be to use the ZWO Native Camera driver ("ZWO ASI Camera") in PHD2.

For the mount you should install the Celestron Unified ASCOM Mount driver (I'm assuming you're connecting to your AVX mount, right?) and use that in PHD2. You can remove the ST4 guide cable -- that is not needed. (And we especially advise against using the ASI ST4 Telescope Driver ASCOM"  mount option.)

There's lots more info in the PHD2 Help (http://openphdguiding.org/documentation/), chck out the Equipment Connection section.

Andy

[Andy Galasso]

P.S. After you install the Celestron ASCOM driver (if you don't have it installed already), you should connect the mount and the camera to the PC and run the New Equipment Profile Wizard in PHD2 to setup an equipment profile.  Click Connect Equipment > Manage Profiles > New using Wizard...

That will get you setup with good default settings so that you can calibrate and guide once you have some clear skies.   When you are setup for imaging, run the Guiding Assistant (menu Tools > Guiding Assistant) to further refine your settings.

Andy