RE: [open-phd-guiding] ZWO ASI120MM Mini - Lost connection and no frames
bw_msgboard
https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/
Timeouts are almost always caused by hardware problems, so upgrading all the software may not have been the best move. The trouble-shooting section of the manual talks about how to isolate these sort of problems (see below). If your system was working fine and then suddenly was not, the most likely candidate is a damaged USB cable. If you're using a cable supplied with the camera, it is probably a very cheap cable with tiny conductors that are prone to breaking. You will also need to be sure you have adequate power delivered to the camera and that Windows 10 (if that's what you're using) isn't fiddling around with the USB ports you're trying to use. You should be able to do most of this testing during the daytime and can hopefully find the problem quickly.
Regards,
Bruce
In some cases, you may experience problems where guider images are not downloaded or displayed. In extreme cases, this may even cause PHD2 or other camera-related applications to be non-responsive (i.e. to "hang"). This is almost always due to hardware, camera driver, or connectivity issues, with one of the most common culprits being a faulty USB cable or device. It is highly unlikely to be caused by an application like PHD2.
To help detect and work around these kinds of problems, PHD2 uses a camera timeout mechanism. This timeout value is set on the Disconnect nonresponsive camera after (seconds) parameter on the Camera tab on Advanced Settings, and has a default value of 15 seconds. This means that PHD2 will wait up to 15 seconds after the completion of the exposure to receive the image from the camera. This is a very generous amount of time and should work well for most cameras. However, some cameras are known to create problems by making large bandwidth or power demands on the USB subsystem. If you are getting timeouts of this sort and are convinced the camera is working properly, you can increase this timeout value. Doing so leaves you vulnerable to apparent hangs in the user interface and erratic guiding behavior, but it is a choice you can make for yourself. A larger value for the timeout will not create extra delays during normal camera operations - once the image is downloaded from the camera, the timer is cancelled and guiding will proceed immediately.
If you get camera timeout problems the common sources of the problems are :
· The USB subsystem on the host computer.
· Incompatible USB-2 / USB-3 connections. There are often problems when a USB-2 camera is connected to a USB-3 port on your computer. Those things are supposed to be backward-compatible but that is only at the hardware level and some driver implementations can be adversely affected.
· Damaged or low-quality USB cables.
· Flakey camera drivers.
so try following this approach :
Start by confirming that the guide camera is basically working. Use a short, direct cable from the camera to the computer and take exposures with the native or test application that came with the camera.
If the camera is functional, you can start looking at the connection hardware - USB hubs and cables. Do not forget that we work in a hostile environment while doing our imaging, and many of the components we use are not designed for cold, outdoor conditions. Something that worked just last week or last month may no longer be reliable.
You will probably need to work through a number of scenarios to see what your problem is. Fortunately, this can usually be done in the daytime by putting the cameras in continuous-exposure mode and letting them run. Start by connecting only the imaging camera and the guiding camera on the USB subsystem as these will be the two heaviest users. There are two areas to look at, power delivery to the cameras and USB traffic and bandwidth :
1. Your main imaging camera probably has its own power supply but other devices like the guide camera may be powered via the USB cable. If so, you should consider using a powered USB hub to deliver power to the camera. It is also best to use high-quality USB cables with a 24AWG power conductor and eliminate long USB cable runs and USB extenders. In recent years, poor-quality USB cables have proliferated including those that are shipped with many new guide cameras.
2. If your problem seems to be with USB traffic, there may be other things you can try :
· Swap the USB cables, one at a time, to see if you can isolate the problem.
· Make sure your computer is running from AC power and that the OS cannot disable the USB ports for power conservation. In Windows, you can do this in the Device Manager by right clicking on any USB hub or controller, selecting Properties and then the Power Management tab, and unchecking the Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power parameter. The default settings in current versions of Windows enable this type of power management.
· Do not run other resource-intensive applications while trying to image.
· Bin the guide camera to reduce the size of the downloaded guider images.
· Adjust the USB usage limit of the camera if the camera driver supports that option.
· Use sub-frames.
· If you are running Windows, you can use a Microsoft tool, USBView, which shows how the various USB ports are connected to the USB controllers in the computer. Then you can try to isolate the two cameras on separate USB buses.
· Try using a different camera driver (e.g. an ASCOM driver) if one is available.
Since your camera may have worked with the native application or a video-streaming application like SharpCap, you may be inclined to think the problem is with PHD2. That is a mistaken conclusion. PHD2 uses the guide camera in a single exposure mode, so each exposure involves back-and-forth control traffic between PHD2 and the camera. That is unlike a streaming application which basically just tells the camera to start streaming data, then tells it to stop sometime later. The single-exposure mode uses different logic paths in the camera driver software and each control message is vulnerable to timing delays.From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Veylonau
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2022 5:41 PM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] ZWO ASI120MM Mini - Lost connection and no frames
I updated and reinstalled the driver to version 3.18, installed PHD2 v2.6.10dev3, installed ASCOM driver v6.5.1.13 and used ASCOM ASICamera 1 and 2, try on another computer though nothing helped.
Here is the log from PHD2:
03:53:46.185 00.015 3536 Try camera reconnect, now =
1644544426
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536 More than 3 camera reconnect attempts in
less than 60 seconds, return without reconnect.
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536
OnExposeComplete: enter
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536 OnExposeComplete: Capture
Error reported
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536 StopCapturing CaptureActive=1
continueCapturing=1 exposurePending=0
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536 Status Line:
Waiting for devices...
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536 setting force full frames =
true
03:53:46.185 00.000 3536 Status Line: Stopped.
03:53:46.201 00.016
3536 Changing from state SELECTING to UNINITIALIZED
03:53:46.201 00.000 3536
guider state => SELECTING
03:53:46.208 00.007 3536 Status Line:
Stopped.
03:53:46.223 00.015 3536 Error thrown from
C:\cygwin\home\agalasso\projects\phd2\myframe_events.cpp:488->Error reported
capturing image
03:53:47.159 00.936 3536
GetString("/profile/2/camera/LastMenuChoice", "None") returns "ZWO ASI
Camera"
03:53:47.159 00.000 3536 GetString("/profile/2/scope/LastMenuChoice",
"None") returns "EQMOD ASCOM HEQ5/6"
03:53:48.919 01.760 3536
GetInt("/profile/2/camera/ZWO/bpp", 16) returns 16
03:53:50.386 01.467 3536
GetString("/profile/2/indi/INDIcam", "") returns ""
03:53:50.974 00.588 3536
gear_dialog: OnButtonConnectCamera
03:53:50.974 00.000 3536 gear_dialog:
DoConnectCamera [ZWO ASI Camera]
03:53:50.974 00.000 3536 Status Line:
Connecting to Camera ...
03:53:50.989 00.015 3536
GetString("/profile/2/cam_hash/8d44cd37/whichCamera", "") returns "0,ZWO
ASI120MM Mini"
03:53:50.989 00.000 3536 Connecting to camera [ZWO ASI Camera]
id = [0,ZWO ASI120MM Mini]
03:53:50.989 00.000 3536 ZWO: find camera id:
[0,ZWO ASI120MM Mini], ncams = 1
03:53:51.004 00.015 3536 ZWO: found matching
camera at idx 0
03:53:51.961 00.957 3536 ZWO: using mode BPP =
8
03:53:51.961 00.000 3536 ZWO: usb3 = 0, is_mini = 1, name = [ZWO ASI120MM
Mini]
03:53:51.961 00.000 3536 ZWO: selecting snap mode
03:53:51.961
00.000 3536 ZWO: IsColorCam = 0
03:53:51.976 00.015 3536 ZWO: supported bin 0
= 1
03:53:51.976 00.000 3536 ZWO: supported bin 1 = 2
03:53:51.976 00.000
3536 ZWO: gain range = 0 .. 100
03:53:51.976 00.000 3536 ZWO: lowest RN gain
= 48 (48%)
03:53:51.976 00.000 3536 ZWO: frame
(0,0)+(1280,960)
03:53:52.023 00.047 3536
GetDouble("/profile/2/camera/pixelsize", 0.000000) returns
3.750000
03:53:52.023 00.000 3536 DoConnectCamera: reconnecting=0
warningIssued=0 lastCam=[ZWO ASI Camera] scaleRatio=1.000
03:53:52.023 00.000
3536 Connected Camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini
03:53:52.029 00.006 3536
FullSize=(1280,960)
03:53:52.029 00.000 3536 PixelSize=3.75
03:53:52.029
00.000 3536 BitsPerPixel=8
03:53:52.029 00.000 3536
HasGainControl=1
03:53:52.029 00.000 3536 GuideCameraGain=48
03:53:52.029
00.000 3536 HasShutter=0
03:53:52.029 00.000 3536
HasSubFrames=1
03:53:52.029 00.000 3536 ST4HasGuideOutput=1
03:53:52.029
00.000 3536 GetBoolean("/profile/2/camera/AutoLoadDefectMap", 1) returns
1
03:53:52.029 00.000 3536 auto-loading defect map
03:53:52.045 00.016
3536 Loading defect map file
C:\Users\laptop\AppData\Local\phd2\darks_defects\PHD2_defect_map_2.txt
03:53:52.045
00.000 3536 Defect map file not found:
C:\Users\laptop\AppData\Local\phd2\darks_defects\PHD2_defect_map_2.txt
03:53:52.045
00.000 3536 Status Line: Defect map not loaded
03:53:52.045 00.000 3536
GetBoolean("/profile/2/camera/AutoLoadDarks", 1) returns 1
03:53:52.045
00.000 3536 Auto-loading dark library
03:53:52.045 00.000 3536 Error thrown
from C:\cygwin\home\agalasso\projects\phd2\myframe.cpp:2344->File does not
exist
03:53:52.045 00.000 3536 failed to load dark frames from
C:\Users\laptop\AppData\Local\phd2\darks_defects\PHD2_dark_lib_2.fit
03:53:52.045
00.000 3536 Status Line: Darks not loaded
03:53:52.061 00.016 3536 Status
Line: Camera Connected
03:53:56.215 04.154 3536
GetBoolean("/profile/2/target/refCircleEnabled", 0) returns 0
03:53:56.230
00.015 3536 GetDouble("/profile/2/target/refCircleRadius", 2.000000) returns
2.000000
03:53:56.414 00.184 3536 GetBoolean("/profile/2/ShowDecModeWarning",
1) returns 1
03:53:57.216 00.802 3536 StartLoopingInteractive: Loop button
clicked
03:53:57.231 00.015 3536 Status Line: Looping
03:53:57.231 00.000
3536 StartCapturing CaptureActive=0 continueCapturing=0
exposurePending=0
03:53:57.231 00.000 3536 ScheduleExposure(1000,3,0)
exposurePending=0
03:53:57.231 00.000 3536 Enqueuing Expose
request
03:53:57.231 00.000 10220 Worker thread wakes up
03:53:57.231
00.000 10220 worker thread servicing REQUEST_EXPOSE 1000
03:53:57.231 00.000
10220 Handling exposure in thread, d=1000 o=3 r=(0,0,0,0)
03:53:57.231 00.000
10220 ZWO: set CONTROL_EXPOSURE 1000000
03:54:00.285 03.054 10220 ZWO:
getexpstatus EXP_FAILED, retry exposure
03:54:03.317 03.032 10220 ZWO:
getexpstatus EXP_FAILED, retry exposure
03:54:06.380 03.063 10220 ZWO:
getexpstatus EXP_FAILED, giving up
03:54:06.380 00.000 10220 worker thread
setting skip send exposure complete
03:54:06.380 00.000 10220 worker thread
queueing reconnect event to GUI thread
03:54:06.380 00.000 10220 Error thrown
from C:\cygwin\home\agalasso\projects\phd2\worker_thread.cpp:190->Capture
failed
03:54:06.380 00.000 10220 worker thread skipping
SendWorkerThreadExposeComplete
03:54:06.380 00.000 10220 worker thread done
servicing request
03:54:06.380 00.000 3536 Alert: Lost connection to
camera
PHD will make several attempts to re-connect the camera.
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