11 replies to this topic

[david.saunders40]

Hi all,

I too am having conecting problems with my LX90 and DSI to Evisage, and it's driving me mad

I have many many times followed the setup instructions for A/Star suite serial connector cables but still get same "unable to open com port 1" or "connection error : not connected"
I've checked computor device manager and there's no nasty yellow ? so what am i doing wrong

I have been able to control scope with my laptop via A/star suite with no problems, so there is no conection problem there , so why will it not conect through Envisage.

Hope somebody can help please,  Dave.

[Mark Sibole]

Dave,
It has to be something simple but let me ask you.
Why do you want Envisage to connect to the scope?
The only reason really to connect to the scope in Envisage would be to use the drizzle.
Other than that use it like a capture program and use PHD to guide with if thats why you want to connect.
PHD will work much better for guiding.

Mark

[david.saunders40]

Hi Mark,

I must admit I've not heared of PHD, but then I've not yet tried autoguiding!!
My reason to connect my LX90 to Envisage was to try out there guiding program,you must rate PHD as a much better program?

I've had a look at the PHD website but will it work ok with my LX90/DSI1 setup? Will i have to also download the ASCOM driver? Do i still run Autostar Suite and Envisage programes with PHD? It says its a free download but are there any catches!!

Sorry so many questions but there seems to be so much to know (and so few brain cells now working)

Regards Dave

[Mark Sibole]

PHD is free and always will be.
Download it and try it.
If you have any problems let me know.
I know this can be a bear to get working sometimes.
If we have to we can have you download and install logmein.com and I can access your pc to make all the changes to make it work if your PC has internet access for the scope.

Regards

Mark

[david.saunders40]

Hi Mark,

I've downloaded PHD onto my laptop but have not had chance to try it out ( too cloudy!!)

I think it looks ok i've linked it to my DSI and it seems to show connected?? but not sure about the "mount.
If you click on mount , in the drop-down box it shows 5 options + camera, not too sure what  these mean?? Anyway my LX90 wont connect with the top 2 but  there seem to be perhaps a connection with the others?
Tried it out in the daytime, connected DSI & LX90 and am getting some thing! If i click on the screen a green box appears and then flashing yellow + hatch, guess I'll have to wait for a clear night to confirm if its downloaded ok.

It looks an interesting program, will this guide my scope better than Envisage? at the moment i seem to get egg shaped stars if i use too long exposure even with scope well polar aligned?

Regards Dave.

[Mark Sibole]

Dave,
It will work 1000% better than Envisage for guiding.
under mount select ascom if you are using a ascom driver
GPusb if you are using the GPUSB adapter to st4
GPint if you are using the show string parralell port adapter.
You will use 1 of the 3 depending on what your paralell port is assigned.

Mark

[david.saunders40]

Hi Mark,

Well I did get out for about 1 hour last night before the clouds came back!!

The good news is, yes I did get something  on PDH. I managed to get "Vega" on screen and showed DSI connected and scope connected to GPINT 3BC, followed instructions with green box around  star then clicked start, yellow + hatch appeared and at the bottom left corner showed "calibrating West.

Now the bad news, it ran for about 1 min. and then showed error message " star not moving enough"
Tried this a few times ,changed to Arcturus, still the same message only once did it almost run through complete prog. calibrated west/east and just started on north when lost star in the clouds and it aborted.

Am i doing something wrong or is it just being a PIG !!!!!!

Regards Dave.

[Mark Sibole]

Change the calibration steps.
Default is 700 I believe  try raising it by a few hundred in either direction.
It will not calibrate if it dosnt see enough movment in pixels.


Mark

[david.saunders40]

Hi Mark,

Well I may have sorted the PHD problem only to open another

The problem with PHD seemed to be scope was NOT connected although to me it looked as if it had. I had not downloaded the ASCOM driver that let my LX90 talk to PHD. So now it runs through the complete guide setup.

Now for the other hiccup, as a complete novice to guiding would I be right in assuming that you CANT image and guide through the same Meade DSI because when i do my laptop crashes. Do I need a imager for guiding and one for imaging?? but still through the same laptop??

Regards (with a bit less hair) Dave

[Mark Sibole]

Dave.
You are correct that you need an imager for imaging and 1 for guiding.
If you try to connect 2 different programs to the same camera they will crash.


Regards

Mark

[justin8571]

Hello David,

I had similar issues some time back when trying to connect an LX200 to a PC using AutoStar and Envisage software. I've recently started a new website (Sussex Astro Imaging) and I've posted a solution to this that worked for me. The solution was kindly given to me by someone else on this forum. The link for the page to my website for this procedure is;-

http://www.astro-mo-fo.com/page51.htm

I've also posted a step-by-step tutorial (with screen-shots) on how to guide using PHD (this was done when using a DSI as a guide camera). PHDGuiding is an amazing free guiding software program. If you're having any issues then I'm sure this will help as I've detailed the whole process I took including installing Ascom drivers etc, what cables and software you'll need etc. Hope it helps;-

http://www.astro-mo-fo.com/page50.htm

Anyway, take care and clear skies.

Justin

http://www.astro-mo-fo.com/index.htm

Added 08/07/09

I realise my website address might not be to everyone's taste. It was only meant as a little light hearted fun but it's already been automatically blocked by another forum's censoring software so my site can now also be accessed by;-

www.sussexastroimaging.co.uk

[david.saunders40]

Thanks Guys for your help.

It never ceases to amaze me how generous astronomy people are with there time, patience and advice, a very big THANK YOU from me 

Dave.