Selecting the Right ZWO ASI Camera

[F. K.]

Hello.

This conversation is about my not being able to get a QHYII-L guide camera to function on Win11, and then I have reverted back to using my ASI120 in combination with the ASI 294 as the main imaging camera only to have other problems.

The problems with using two ASI cameras in the first place was inadvertently selecting the wrong ASI for guiding, causing havoc on the system's operation. But now that I have no choice, I am experiencing a lot of problems with the two ASI cameras being connected to the same system.

One problem is when producing a profile using the wizard. When I select ZWO ASI as the camera, PHD2's wizard wants to hook onto the 294 and I don't get a chance of selecting which ASI I am trying to build a profile around. The solution is to disconnect the 294 and connect the 120 to the main USB hub.

I do that, and build my dark library, and settle everything, then bring the 294 back online. When connecting equipment I make sure that I am selecting the 120 as the guide camera although I should not have to because I am choosing the profile associated with that camera, but it turns out selecting the profile does not change the available equipment in the connection interface.

After finally selecting the 120 as the guide camera and begin the actual calibration process (and then guiding) I get complaints that the dark library is not associated with the selected camera, or sometimes I get the same complaint that the calibration goes not match the configuration (or something like that).

I seem to remember that in Windows 10 all that I had to worry about was to make sure I choose the right ASI for guiding, and everything would go well from then on.

I don't know if it is Win11 or latest PHD2 or me, or a combination of the above. Hopefully someone can help me understand what is going on and what the best practice is when using two ZWO ASI cameras, one for guiding and one for imaging.

I have uploaded the log files; https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_8Sa4.zip

Thanks a lot.

Farzad

[wave...@talktalk.net]

Hello Fazad, the two ASI camers' issue is quite common, so there's a lot of help available from using the forum search box: https://groups.google.com/g/open-phd-guiding/search?q=Two%20ASI%20cameras%20problem

Cheers,

- Jack

[Brian Valente]

Hi Farzad

I answered your question on Facebook as well, and it's the same info

First i'll mention there are a large number of two-ZWO camera users, so your situation is not unique. We've all figured out how to make this work, i'm confident you will as well

Second, please be aware this is an issue with the ZWO drivers. I can't speak to any future development workarounds for this, Bruce and Andy are aware of this issue. 

First, use the ZWO ASI driver, not the ASCOM driver

As you've said, prior to the wizard setup, unplug/disable the main imaging camera, so the only camera that's connected is your guide camera

Go through the wizard setup steps as you've outlined 

Second, when you plug in your imaging camera, make sure to go back to your equipment connection dialog box and re-select the guide camera before connecting. That should be enough

Be aware that ZWO drivers are not your friend in this situation. If something in the future happens where your guide camera goes offline, it can and will switch over to the next available camera. For those of us managing it, if we see a "dark libraries don't match" error, or run into all sorts of guiding issues, we know we need to re-select the guide camera

Mostly it's been a non-issue for me for a long time, we've learned the process for setup, the signs of the wrong guide camera selected, and it's largely become more of an occasional nuisance than anything else

hope that helps

Brian

Then when 

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[F.K.]

Thanks, Brian. It seems I am doing the right things, and hopefully one of these days ZWO (and other cameras) will get their acts together.

A question I have had for a very long time: how does the camera list get populated within PHD2? It can't be by searching to see what is connected because there are a lot of cameras there that I have not even heard of.

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[Brian Valente]

I think you are referring to the available camera types?

those are a combination of built-in "native" drivers PHD2 supports, and ASCOM drivers that are installed into your system

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/CAMkXBb9TkR4_8Zescttp22KBcmD1Mq-jtTkttj7uNBvc81HhrA%40mail.gmail.com.

[F.K.]

Thanks a lot. This has been very useful. Clear skies.

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[Chris. S]

Hi,

Apologies for dropping in..

I am just starting out with Win 11 (not finding it easy)

You mentioned that you where having issues with your 294 & 120 regarding guiding? When you was using WIN 10.

I have the same camera’s as you, maybe I had some issues long ago, but then I got into the following habit, rather than click auto, I would use the connect equipment button, then in the pop up for selecting camera, there is a button with a black and green arrow, I clicked on this and selected the 120, never had any problems.

I was hoping that when I get other problems sorted out, not related to the above, that when It came to guiding Win 11 would act the same Vis a Vis the Button that gives the choice of camera, are you saying that is not so???

Hope you get your issues sorted...

Regards

Chris S.

 

 

From: F.K.
Sent: 29 July 2022 19:04
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] Selecting the Right ZWO ASI Camera

 

Thanks a lot. This has been very useful. Clear skies.

 

On Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 10:52 AM Brian Valente <bval...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think you are referring to the available camera types?

 

those are a combination of built-in "native" drivers PHD2 supports, and ASCOM drivers that are installed into your system

 

 

 

On Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 10:48 AM F.K. <farzad.k...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, Brian. It seems I am doing the right things, and hopefully one of these days ZWO (and other cameras) will get their acts together

 

A question I have had for a very long time: how does the camera list get populated within PHD2? It can't be by searching to see what is connected because there are a lot of cameras there that I have not even heard of

 

 

 

On Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 10:41 AM Brian Valente <bval...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/CAMkXBb9RMTKZgbo%2BzLQz5d6WUhDXKgc-N9_Q6ffzuTcKjCbHXQ%40mail.gmail.com.

 

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[F.K.]

Chris, thanks for reaching out. Yes, initially the need to check which camera is selected sometimes escaped me as we have hundreds of things to keep track of. But once I learned that lesson I decided to just get a different camera brand and eliminate that one thing to remember. But then under Win11 the QHYIIL is not working right and I am having to go back to the two ZWO camera system, and aside from the olde conflict that I am now watching carefully there are other subtle issues that Brian has addressed, such as the wrong camera getting picked up during a profile-making. Along the way, during calibration I think PHD2 might be picking up the wrong camera again. So the best thing which I have to try until the QHY driver issues are resolved, is to keep the main camera disconnected while I do PHD2 stuff. Of course that is not very convenient because this could happen in the middle of imaging when the main camera is nice and cool.

Yes, the interfaces are the same under Win11 as they were under Win10.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/7DD6E243-14BE-4956-BD0E-84538B84AC7C%40hxcore.ol.

[marc whitsett]

I have been imaging for several years and have had this originally pop up with a 120 MC guide camera and my ASI 2600MCPro about 18 months ago. ZWO seems to have fixed it as I can now just plug both in and go.

However, I just got a 290MMMini and was hoping to piggyback off of my 2600 MC-Pro. Looks like that is not going to happen as no matter what I do since both cameras are seen simultaneously and it always grabs the 2600.

If anyone has a work-around LMK. I am wondering if ZWO is aware but is not correcting so we are forced into the ASI AirPlus.

Very frustrating as many of us have done a deep dive with ZWO but the driver issues remain. 

In the meanwhile no piggy-back, just direct into my PC for now unless someone has any thoughts.

[Brian Valente]

Hi Marc

>>>Looks like that is not going to happen as no matter what I do since both cameras are seen simultaneously and it always grabs the 2600.

what exactly are you doing when you say it always connects to the 2600 (I assume that's what you mean)? 

Is this during the new profile wizard or something else? what driver are you using to connect?

>>>However, I just got a 290MMMini and was hoping to piggyback off of my 2600 MC-Pro

I've been using this exact setup for quite some time without issue, so I know it's doable

Let us know specifically what's happening, we might be able to offer some suggestions for you

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[marc whitsett]

If I piggyback on top of the 2600, when I attempt to do a new camera wizard it always selects the 2600 pixel which is 3.76. So I then tell the wizard when prompted that the camera is not connected and I type in 2.9 pixels for the mono camera. However when I do that I end up with difficulty because after I set it up when I go to connect the 290 mm it tells me I have a bad pixel map!?

So I gave up and I finally just have it directly connected to a USB port on my PC but it means an extra cable to snag.

I'm currently imaging with it so I can't troubleshoot right now ...my RMS error is 0.5, so I love the camera! I would just like to be able to piggyback. 

Lmk any other procedural thoughts. Appreciate it.

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[marc whitsett]

ZWO drivers.

[marc whitsett]

well, i ended the 1st session to slew to another target. PHD2 would not engage, essentially crashed. restarted the pc, told it to connect to the 290, it then said that i needed a dark library due to a pixel change [i had set up with the correct pixel=2.9 and had a dark library previously ]...so it did not remember the camera, and continued to act like it was brand new. am using zwo drivers, heq6 mount.

thoughts?

marc

[Bruce Waddington]

Be sure you’re running the latest PHD2 2.6.11dev4 release.  There have been several changes to the ZWO-supplied software since 2.6.11.

 

Bruce

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[F.K.]

Yeah, that dark library issue really is annoying and a waste of valuable dark sky time.

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[Ray]

Hi Marc,

I had the same trouble with my 071mc and 130mc.  I got the latest driver from ZWO and a box pops up that lets you choose the ones you want.

Ray

 

 

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[Brian Valente]

Hi Marc

The issues you are experiencing are all within the ZWO drivers. It's kind of a pain, but it's fairly straightforward

1. As Bruce said, make sure you are on the absolute latest dev release and your ZWO camera driver and ascom driver (two separate installs) are both up to date. This will minimize issues

2. when you use the new profile wizard, you will need to unplug your imaging camera and plug in only your guide camera. Once you get through the wizard with everything set up properly (including your darks and/or bad pixel map) you can reconnect the cameras. Double-check when you re-launch PHD the correct camera is selected from within the PHD equipment connection dialog box

3. related to the above, Many people use the native ZWO camera driver in PHD for guiding, and the ASCOM driver for imaging. It helps to keep camera selection issues to a minimum

4. Any time you see a warning along the lines of "i needed a dark library due to a pixel change " that means PHD is connected to the wrong camera. Go back into the equipment selection and re-select the 290mm guide camera. (If you're curious why this happens, it's because sometimes the camera becomes unavailable, so ZWO's driver moves to the next camera to connect. Don't ask me to explain why that is a good idea, because I can't). If the 290mm is not available you may need to unplug/re-plug the 290mm usb cable to get it to be recognized

If there is a new zwo driver that gives you the option of choosing a camera on connect for the new profile wizard, that would be a nice addition. i haven't yet experienced that

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[Brian Valente]

>>>Yeah, that dark library issue really is annoying and a waste of valuable dark sky time.

repeating myself, but if you have 2 ZWO cameras and you have already built a dark library for your guide camera, this warning means PHD is connected to the wrong ZWO camera. Stop and check your connections to make sure it's connecting to the guide camera

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[marc whitsett]

Brian, Thanks. 

The issue has been that I am using my 2600 as a piggyback, so my guide camera is plugged into it. hence when i start my session they are both plugged in, requisite. hence even though i direct phd2 to connect to the 290 mono camera, it still reads it as the 2600 and tells me that i don't have a dark library due to a change in the pixel size [even though i direct it to my mono imaging camera it still detects the 2600]. 

I have the latest phd2 version. i recently downloaded the most recent zwo ASI imaging package about 2 weeks ago. 

HOWEVER<............ I was unaware of the ZWO driver upgrade release 1/12/23 vs 3.21....soooooooooooooo....I have downloaded it and will give it a try once I am done imaging tonight. not sure it will make a difference.

in the meanwhile i am running both cameras separate with 2 long cables [no piggy back]...  i will get back later.

thanks again

marc

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[marc whitsett]

Update: Note to self: ALWAYS check to see if your drivers are up to date.

Updated ZWO drivers and...now I can piggy-back and it recognizes each camera separately.

Thank you all.