Can't guide with the asi air

themoeller

So I've had my air for a while now. I've attempted to guide 17 different nights and I've never had success. When guiding with phd2 and my Orion guide cam, it works great.

I've tried the 30mm and 50mm zwo Scopes and the 50mm Orion scope with the asi 290 mini.

I've entered the correct focal lengths, I set my exposure time to 3-4 seconds, gain at 80-100, I select a star, it guides for a moment, then the star is lost. Every single time.

I haven't had a successful night out since last winter with my laptop.

Help me please. I'm at wits end and ready to sell some equipment.

I just have the USB from The 290 to the 294. No st4 to the mount.

30 and 50mm zwo guide scope

72mm doublet and 127mm triplet

Asi 294 for imaging

290mini for guiding

Eq6 r pro mount

Here's a link to some screenshots of what's going on. I just spent another 4 hours outside, no luck.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DJwD2WR37oW962ZX9

PMTeam@ZWO

themoeller wrote:

So I've had my air for a while now. I've attempted to guide 17 different nights and I've never had success. When guiding with phd2 and my Orion guide cam, it works great.

I've tried the 30mm and 50mm zwo Scopes and the 50mm Orion scope with the asi 290 mini.

I've entered the correct focal lengths, I set my exposure time to 3-4 seconds, gain at 80-100, I select a star, it guides for a moment, then the star is lost. Every single time.

I haven't had a successful night out since last winter with my laptop.

Help me please. I'm at wits end and ready to sell some equipment.

I just have the USB from The 290 to the 294. No st4 to the mount.

30 and 50mm zwo guide scope

72mm doublet and 127mm triplet

Asi 294 for imaging

290mini for guiding

Eq6 r pro mount

Here's a link to some screenshots of what's going on. I just spent another 4 hours outside, no luck.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DJwD2WR37oW962ZX9https://photos.app.goo.gl/DJwD2WR37oW962ZX9

Okay, I read about your screenshots, I guess the pulses are too low, please check the Guide Settings page, use higher values:

2000/1500/1500 ms.

Yes, you are right, do not use the ST4 cable to connect the Mount and the ASIAIR, just thru the SynScan HC or EQMod cable.

EQMod is recommended.

themoeller

They are currently set to default values, 2000ms etc.

I adjusted my aggression on the mount last night to %30 and I still couldn't guide.

I did get an excellent polar alignment and was able to get 60 sec subs.

But yeah that's night 18 no luck with this thing.

PMTeam@ZWO

themoeller wrote:

They are currently set to default values, 2000ms etc.

I adjusted my aggression on the mount last night to %30 and I still couldn't guide.

I did get an excellent polar alignment and was able to get 60 sec subs.

But yeah that's night 18 no luck with this thing.

Okay, one more thing we could do: do a nicer focus, make the star more round and visible - to avoid the star lost.

themoeller

Working on that. I'm having a really hard time getting stars in focus with any scope and the 290mini.

Guiding isn't a problem with the Orion cam and scope.

I'm starting to wonder if the cam is bad

PMTeam@ZWO

themoeller wrote:

Working on that. I'm having a really hard time getting stars in focus with any scope and the 290mini.

Guiding isn't a problem with the Orion cam and scope.

I'm starting to wonder if the cam is bad

Could you please check the guide scope back focus either?

hagen

I will follow this discussion

It looks like I have the same problem with the Asiair connected to my Ioptron CEM 60 mount.

I bought the Asiair this summer and it worked flawlessly until ten days ago.

It seems like the RA stepper motor is speeding up and get stuck in guiding speed + 0,5x-

The dec axis motor is not affected

I do not have problem focusing the guide scope and the problem occurs even with good quality guiding stars

themoeller

Ji.zwo wrote:

themoeller wrote:

Working on that. I'm having a really hard time getting stars in focus with any scope and the 290mini.

Guiding isn't a problem with the Orion cam and scope.

I'm starting to wonder if the cam is bad

Could you please check the guide scope back focus either?

Not sure how to do this? I thought I was out of focus since I've had no luck, but I'm definitely in focus. I've tried the zwo 50mm helical focuser too. I'm using the extender for the 290mini. I'm able to get stars in focus and with good values. I tried again tonight, night 19, no luck.

Shame my skyguider pro stopped working too. Bad luck ☹️

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DJwD2WR37oW962ZX9https://photos.app.goo.gl/DJwD2WR37oW962ZX9

franky2019

Hello,

just try the ST4 port or the eqmod port connection for guiding. I have also trouble with guiding throuh the Synscan HC.

Best regards

Franky

themoeller

I've tried the st4 cable to USB and that doesn't work with the air. The time I can make a connection is with the USB from the hand controller.

Unless you're talking about the st4 to a laptop, in that case PhD works.

w7ay

>> I've tried the st4 cable to USB and that doesn't work with the air.

To guide using ST4, you'll need to select "On-Camera-ST4" as the telescope type in the Telescope Settings window. Then connect the ST4 port from the selected guide camera to the ST4 port of the mount -- no USB involved.

With ASIAIR (today), you cannot concurrently control the equatorial mount and use ST-4 for guiding. It would definitely be a useful option (someone else on this forum has also asked for it).

Chen

themoeller

Thanks Chen. Looks like tomorrow night's going to be clear so I'll give it a go.

Also, after doing some digging on the forums, I saw another user had the same problem that I'm having. I'm using the synscan hand controller for the telescope driver, he suggested the beta.

I will try that as well and report back.

I also just picked up a few extensions for the 290 mini, and I'm going to try my 72mm doublet as a guide scope for my 127 Ed.

thank you for all your help and I will let you guys know what happens.

bb001

I have an iOptron and you need to use th AsiAir (usb) port’s mount output and connect that to your handcontroller via the serial cord provided by iOptron (that has an RS232 adapter) connect that to the zwo provided cord w rs232. My ioptron would not guide from the ioptron guide port; only while plugged into the HC.

PMTeam@ZWO

BB001 wrote:

I have an iOptron and you need to use th AsiAir (usb) port’s mount output and connect that to your handcontroller via the serial cord provided by iOptron (that has an RS232 adapter) connect that to the zwo provided cord w rs232. My ioptron would not guide from the ioptron guide port; only while plugged into the HC.

Yes, when connected to the Guide Port, we need to choose the On-Camera-ST4 in the telescope drop list just as Chen said.