ASI camera disconnects sometimes (randomly?) and kills my sequences

[Nick Kanel]

Every once in a while, PHD2 will have some internal error and the guide cam seems to crash and not recover. I have attached guide logs and debug logs for everyone to take a look at. The debug log is probably useless except for the last 50 lines or so leading up to where the crash happened. I've also attached a screenshot of what my PHD2 screen looks like after the crash happens. The image appears to be split vertically and then shifted to the left by around 200-300px (moving the far left side of the image to the right, like when you shift an array and the starting numbers get pushed to the end).

It happens probably 2-3 times a night but simply opening the equipment panel, disconnecting the guide cam, and reconnecting it fixes it right up. I didn't have this issue with my SSAG, so it seems the ASI 120MM is the cause. It is also possible that this was caused by a PHD2 update around the same time I got my ASI 120MM.

I looked at the guide log and it seems to indicate that the Stop button was clicked? This seems strange because I didn't even have my PHD2 window open (I was watching SGP at the time).

If anyone can help diagnose the problem, that would be great so I don't have to worry about my guide cam disconnecting in the middle of the night and losing a bunch of capture time.

My relevant equipment and connections:
HP Compaq 6735b

ZWO ASI 1600MM-Pro through USB2

ZWO ASI 120MM through separate USB2 connected via "ZWO ASI Camera" option

SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro using a direct serial connection

PHD2 2.6.4 (having separate issues with PHD 2.6.5)

I can't remember if this issue happened before or after my ASI 1600 came, but is it possible that these two cams are interfering with each other? I've never had an issue with the 1600, so I know the 120 isn't interfering with the 1600.

Thanks

[Brian Valente]

Are you using the ASCOM driver or the native driver?

 

The ascom driver works 100% for me, the native driver gives me problems in both SGP and PHD2

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

 

Brian Valente

Brianvalentephotography.com

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[Nick Kanel]

Brian,

I am using the native driver because the ASCOM driver refuses to work correctly for me for an unknown reason. It won't even download images from my guidecam. I'm thinking it might be something to do with the awful computer I have that I've been meaning to upgrade. If no one else has issues with the ASCOM drivers then I'll try another computer and see what happens there. But as far as this issue goes, if anyone has any information or knows what could be wrong, this is a great thing to fix.

Thanks

[Andy Galasso]

Nick,

I don't see any errors in the debug log, and it does show that the session ended with the stop button being clicked.   Is it possible that this is not the right set of log files?

PHD2 2.6.4 (having separate issues with PHD 2.6.5)

It will be much more productive for us to help diagnose the issues with one of the current versions, either the release version, or the development snapshot version.

Perhaps you could try again and send us the logs from a run with the current version.

Andy

 

[Nick Kanel]

That's certainly the correct set of logs. As soon as I noticed the issue, I did press the stop button before copying the logs over to my desktop to post here. That doesn't seem to be what actually stopped it though, because there were still things logged after the stop button press was logged.

As for the latest version, when I connect my ASI 120MM it actually connects to my ASI 1600 and uses that. I can see both cams in the dropdown for which cam to connect to, and no matter which one I select it always connects to the ASI 1600. I don't have any debug logs for that, but I could get them tomorrow if that helps. My description may be enough to diagnose where in the code something went wrong, but if not I'll recreate the issue tomorrow.

Thanks

[Thomas Butts]

I don't have a solution for you unfortunately, but I had the same issue.
I recently switched to an Altair GPCam and have had no issues.

[Brian Valente]

You might try figuring out the ascom part. It runs on pretty much any computer and both PHD and ZWO are up to date on that end

[Andy Galasso]

On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 12:06 AM, Nick Kanel <kanel...@gmail.com> wrote:

That's certainly the correct set of logs. As soon as I noticed the issue, I did press the stop button before copying the logs over to my desktop to post here. That doesn't seem to be what actually stopped it though, because there were still things logged after the stop button press was logged.

yes, it really did stop when the stop button was clicked at 23:05:49.448.  It took until 23:05:50.228 for the exposure to abort and complete and for PHD2 to transition to stopped. The remaining entries in the log, up to 23:08:50.509 are from SGP sending messages to phd2 (one per minute).

As for the latest version, when I connect my ASI 120MM it actually connects to my ASI 1600 and uses that. I can see both cams in the dropdown for which cam to connect to, and no matter which one I select it always connects to the ASI 1600. I don't have any debug logs for that, but I could get them tomorrow if that helps. My description may be enough to diagnose where in the code something went wrong, but if not I'll recreate the issue tomorrow.

ok, yes, we'd like to see those logs.  Having multiple ASI cameras is not uncommon, so I'm not sure why that is happening to you and not to other folks.  Have you checked to see that you have installed the latest camera drivers from ZWO?

[Nick Kanel]

Hmm. I'll look into it some more. I fiddled with it for a while a few months ago but made no progress so I gave up and used the native driver. Perhaps there have been some updates since then that magically fix the issue on accident?

Thanks

[Brian Valente]

I’m not sure I believe in magic, but it’s worth doing a fresh install of 6.3 and the ascom drivers.

 

ZWO has been pretty good about updating them and I know PHD has kept pace

[Nick Kanel]

Andy,

I've had a lot of really strange issues with this laptop so I wouldn't be surprised if it was the culprit. Regardless, I'll see what I can gather for you tomorrow.

Nick