Guide logs for 10/10 and 10/14
https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_Mxpk.zip
I know that there are camera issues: 10/10 with a QHY guide camera, driver issues with PHD2
10/14, physical sensor issues with the ZWO guide camera.
I hope to have the guide camera issue finally resolved in a week so that doesn't obscure the issue.
I have, within TSX, run a TrainPEC, and two TSX guide sessions. One session, approximately two hours, was with the OAG/primary imaging camera doing the guiding. This was followed directly by one hour on the OAG guiding. This was followed directly by a 6 hour PHD2 guide session on the OAG (while also imaging).
There is a consistent result between what TSX indicates and what occurs in PHD2. In straight tracking for the PEC, tracking is smooth and the guide/PEC star has minimal movement (ProTrack TSX feature enabled) and the star stays well centered with a 5.5 a-s PEC, P-P. No measurable PEC after applying PE correction (which in TSX speak means the PEC was less than 1a-s P-P).
The TSX guide sessions exhibited no axis related excursions, and while aggression was not optomized, at close to default settings for DirectGuide, the OAG over the two hours averaged a Total RMS error of approximately.5 to .7 a-s. During the hour run under OAG guiding on TSX, Total RMS guide error stayed in the .25 to .38 a-s range. No odd axis related excursions or spikes.
That cannot be said of PHD2 guiding which exhibited both RA and DEC spikes of 2 a-s or greater mixed with periods of 'smooth' guiding which got shorter as the session continued. This story was repeated last night.
In particular, the comments in my earlier posting concerning the poor tracking performance of the mount came the day after Software Bisque noted the extremely good performance and stability of the mount during the PEC training session.
I have noticed in the previous TrainPEC sessions at the first of the year and late last year, that since the replacement of the failed worm drive, I never see exhibited in TSX, the degree of axis instability (tendency to spikes) that are shown in PHD2. I find the difference in unguided tracking performance (as recorded in both applications) concerning since those should be close to identical.
I'm at a loss to explain this growing amount of evidence that PHD2 might be involved in some manner with the mount tracking and guide "issues" shown in PHD2 but not in TSX. Based on the more obvious problems found with the QHY drivers and USB traffic, it seems it is worth asking if a similar but more subtle issue(s) could be present with ZWO guide cameras or with USB connections in general for PHD2?
FYI - the ZWO cameras always operate under the ZWO native windows drivers, not ASCOM.