Mallincam Ascom Driver Issues

[Darryl Ellis]

Hi All,

I recently updated my computer with the newest Ascom Drivers from Mallincam for their SkyRaider AGC which can be found here:  http://www.mallincam.net/software-downloads.html.

When setting up the SR AGC in PHD2 with the new AscomMallincam Drivers, it defaults to a pixel size of 7.5. Originally, it was 3.75 which worked for guiding. 

Even when I enter 3.75 in the set up wizard, PHD2 changes it to 7.5 in the Brain module. Even worse is it is grayed out and cannot be changed once it defaults.

This is very frustrating as the camera consistently loses the guide star and guiding becomes erratic at best. Tonight I lost a very good imaging opportunity as a result. Clear skies are becoming a rarity these days. What's more is I had everything working fine, and all of a sudden the pixel size changed and ruined guiding and imaging. Regardless of what I tried, I could not get it back.

In the last version of the driver software, I got around this by setting up the camera as a WDM camera and setting the pixel size in the camera setup module when selecting the camera. It also gave me control over camera settings once guiding by clicking on the camera icon next to the Brain. This option is not available with the new software. You can select the WDM option but it still defaults to the Ascom Mallincam drivers.

Anybody have any suggestions for a possible fix or a copy of the previous software?  My guide and debug logs are as follows: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4WFO_YOE-y-cEVwVDI4djg3dlU?usp=sharing.  

Thanks,

Darryl

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Darryl.  These logs are from mid-August and we’ve already seen them.  If your problem is “recent”, I think you’ve posted the wrong data.

 

Even so, I don’t know why you’re so excited about the pixel size – it has no real effect on guiding.  It *will* affect what you see on the guiding graphs, and it would force you to rebuild your dark library.  Did you do that?  It’s primarily used to compute the image scale, and that’s used for displaying guiding results in units of arc-secs.   If you’re having guiding problems, I suspect you’re probably making a mistake by connecting that to the change in pixel size.  And the pixel size, by the way, is now gotten directly from the driver, which is why you aren’t able to change it.  So if the pixel size value is wrong, that would be something to take up with the author of the ASCOM driver.

 

If you want to submit the correct logs, we’ll try to look at them.

 

Good luck,

Bruce

 

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[Darryl Ellis]

Hi Bruce/All.

I was able to successfully calibrate and guide last night.  After contacting Mallincam, they evidently recently updated the ASCOM Drivers and corrected the pixel issue and a few other things.  I noticed immediately that my camera was more responsive in PHD2 than in the past.  For instance, when I changed the exposure settings to .5 s to use my camera and guidescope as a finder for aligning and calibrating my mount I could see and tell the difference in the display.

I also was able to set up my camera in the new profile wizard as a WDM camera.  Though the ASCOM Mallincam driver worked, the WDM camera allows me to use the camera control menu next to the brain.

At first I was having trouble calibrating, but I believe it was because I was pointing high in the Western sky.  I then pointed the scope towards the south near the Meridian and Equator and got a much better calibration.

By then my original target, M27,  had moved behind the trees, so I just shot more subs of Andromeda.  I also allowed the Guiding Assistant run and implemented it's suggested changes.

At first, I experienced some very bad star trailing.  I had adjusted the position of the telescope earlier, so I checked it's balance in dec and ensured I had no cable snags.  Afterwards, I was able to shoot 18 5 min subs of M31 with fairly good results.  The stars were fairly round, but no star trails.  Previous to my most recent issues, I was getting great 10 minute subs, so I have some more tweaking to do.  However, I am now getting better guiding results.  I have been using Polemaster to polar align with good results.  However, I have not verified my PA with the PHD2 drift tool.  I will do that next soon.

Please advise me as to how to further improve.  These are my most recent logs (I hope): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4WFO_YOE-y-cEVwVDI4djg3dlU?usp=sharing

Thanks,

Darryl

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Darryl,

I just looked at your guide log with PHD2 Log Viewer.  For that final 1.5 hour guide session, your total RMS error was 0.75", which I think is an excellent result, and your guiding is unlikely to be the limiting factor for your stars in your imaging camera, especially if you are working at moderate focal length, nice work! Any visible residual star elongation is probably more likely to be related to differential flexure.

Your polar alignment introduced a small dec drift which allowed nearly all the dec corrections to be applied in one direction.  This helped your dec guiding by preventing phd2 from having to reverse direction and overcome the backlash.

Andy

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