QHY5L-II, Mac and PHD2

[Al Ferrari]

Andy,

I'm new to the group. Not a developer or coder...Where do we stand on using QHY5L-II on Mac with PHD2? Do we need specific drivers etc? I have PHD2 downloaded on the Mac. Haven't tried anything as yet.

Wanted to check with the pros.

Thanks,

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Al,

Welcome to the forum.  Unfortunately the QHY camera Mac support is still work in progress.  We have been in contact with the developers at QHY who are creating drivers for the Mac and Linux. At this time we do not have a working version, though we test each new version they release and report back to them.

Andy

[Al Ferrari]

Thank you Andy,

New to forum and trying to navigate. Just got your reply. I tested PHD2 running on Windows using the QHY-5L-ii mono Autoguider and my CGEM DX. I got it to talk although guiding was another issue. I am still a little confused over how to directly connect the hardware and which drivers to select.  Also, how to control exposure.

I send the cable from the QHY to the ST-4 port on the CGEM.  In the program, I select the QHY-5L-ii camera and the mount to "on-camera". I am lost with the aux mount and whether I even need it. I was reading that people use the WDM driver??

At this point, I just want to get my connections squared away.

I attended the RAC Star Party Aug 4-7 and gave it a go. Tracking was all over. I did a polar alignment using Polemaster and I recently did a complete Hypertune on the mount. It still is a Chinese CGEM I know it will be limited.

I want to see if there is hope for the mount before I consider investing $$$ for something of decent quality. My budget is $5K and I have 30lb on now with C9.25 + 60mm guidscope + Mallincam + Finder. I may want to graduate to the C11 Edge.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

I'm a newbie. These are unguided with Mallincam. Max iteration was 100 sec. Not sure what to expect of the CGEM unguided.

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Al,

We'll be happy to help you get your camera and mount connected and guiding with PHD2.  Most of your questions I believe are answered in the Equipment Connection section of the PHD2 user guide which you can get to from Help => Contents on the menu in PHD2, or you can read online here.   Please take a look at that and if anything is still unclear then by all means post back and we'll do our best to help you get it sorted out.

Andy