refresh problem

[Michele Puppis]

Good evening,

I use the latest PHD2 version (2.6.7) and Windows 10 64-bit.
I installed all the necessary drivers for my ASI120mm camera, but when I connect it, I can't see the camera preview. Sometimes the preview starts, but the image refresh doesn't match the set refresh rate. That is, if I set a refresh rate of 1 second, the preview should update every second, but instead the update occurs randomly, sometimes every second, sometimes it freezes and then restarts after 5-6 seconds, sometimes it freezes for a few minutes and then restarts.
I haven't uploaded the logs because not being able to get a preview prevents me from calibrating and then tracking.
With the same camera, drivers, and connection cables, everything works on another laptop (with Windows 7).
Could you give me some advice?

Thanks.
Michele

[Bruce Waddington]

The current PHD2 version is 2.6.14, not 2.6.7.  And you need to upload your log files as instructed.  You don't need to have calibrated or started guiding, the debug log files will help us understand what's going wrong with your camera connection.  So please update to the latest release, retry your efforts to calibrate and guide, then upload the log files if things don't go well.

https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

Bruce

[Michele Puppis]

Hi,
this is a log from last night. Can you try to see if you can help me out?
Thanks for your help.

Michele

https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_aBgM.zip

[Bruce Waddington]

I'm afraid you've gotten off to a pretty bad start here.  Please read the PHD2 User Guide and the Best Practices document to better understand what you need to do.  

https://openphdguiding.org/documentation/

https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

The first thing to do is to fix the hardware-related problem that is creating the camera timeouts.  Those problems are probably coming from the USB connection to the camera assuming that you are running the latest version of the ZWO drivers (not an old version from the Windows 7 system).  If all of your camera-related gear works correctly on Windows 7, then the place to start looking is the USB subsystem of the new computer.  There is an extensive trouble-shooting section in the User Guide that provides suggestions on what to look for.  All of the testing can be done during the daytime simply by looping camera exposures.  Until you can run for several hours, at least, continuously taking 1-2 second camera exposures, you won't make any progress with guiding.

Once you have resolve the timeout problems, you need to follow the correct procedures in PHD2:

1. Create a new configuration profile using the new-profile-wizard

2.  Plan on using 1-2 second exposures, nothing smaller

3.  Build a dark library for your guide camera.  You can do this as the last step in the new-profile-wizard

4.  Increase the guide speed setting in the mount to 0.9x sidereal.  This is done using the hand-controller or the ASCOM driver configuration, not PHD2.

5.  Use multi-star guiding by clicking on the auto-find icon.  Don't try to select stars manually

6.  Use the Calibration Assistant to complete a calibration, following all of its suggestions including a correct pointing location in the sky

7.  Run the Guiding Assistant for at least 2 minutes, then follow its recommendations

Regards,

Bruce