Will Not Calibrate

ohno

First question for this support group. I received my ASIAir this week. The usual bad weather came with it. I had researched a lot about this product and knew of a few issues but purchased it anyway. Right now my review would be mixed. A lot of things run flawlessly, others not so much.

I am about 3 years deep into AP so this isn't my first rodeo. In the past I have used APT, SGP and SharpCap Pro as capture/control programs. Guiding has always been done by PHD2. Have I had issues, you bet, but usually they can be fixed by taking new Dark files and re-doing the Calibration. My first session with the Air was a "let's see what and how it does it all.

PlateSolving worked as good if not better than any program I've played with. BUT, for the life of me the I can NOT get the thing to Calibrate the guiding. I saw no place for what the original PHD2 called Dark Library. I found a post on here about changing a setting for the Calibration Steps which I tried everywhere between the lowest to maximum. I changed the Gain on the guide camera....

The Goto works fantastic but without Guiding I am hooped!

My equipment is as follows:

CGEM Mount

SharpStar 61 EDPHII imaging scope

ZWO ASI533MC Pro imaging camera

StarField 60 guide scope

ZWO ASI120MM Mini guide camera

This equipment has a proven track record with the above equipment and APT or SGP as a capture/control program with PHD2 guiding giving me a total RMS in Pixels of .8 and under.

Hope someone can offer advice on what I am doing wrong!

ohno

If it helps I found the PHD guiding Log. Seems settling is the issue!

PHD2_GuideLog_2020-08-07_224050.txt

ohno

I may have found my issue. I probably had the pixel movement too tight in the settings! Bring on the Dark for round 3! :

ohno

Seeing as there hasn't been any response here I review everything I could find in the PHD2 literature. Another 2 1/2 hours of wasted good imaging sky (total time spent on one issue was around twenty hours), messing around attempting to get the dumbed down version of PHD2 that ZWO installed in the Air Pro OS.

I adjusted every setting related to the mount and guide scope. I unplugged the guide camera and mount and hooked it up to my old imaging computer. Opened up PHD2 and had it configured in the time to build a dark library and calibrate (which didn't take much time at all). The guiding was sub 1 Total RMS in Pixels with no adjusting anything SO it isn't my Mount, Guide Scope, or guide camera it is the ASIAir Pro programming for the configuration of equipment I am using.

With the Air Pro not being able to configure the guiding and the terrible range on the ASIAir Pro I will purchase an appropriate length cord for the Guide camera to my laptop and toss this thing in the "Should have left at the store" bin! In total with the additions to get the WiFi reaching where I want to be it saved 2 cord hanging off the scope/mount.

For my situation the OS is too bare bones for what I am attempting to do. My scope had previously been run remotely using Chrome Remote Desktop and a laptop. The air pro needs more gizmos to get a WIFi signal to my house 45 yards away. The Power ports on the Air Pro are useless for the peripherals I run. You would think ZWO would at least build the AIR to run enough amps to power the line of Cameras they build and sell. Maybe configure a antenna in place of one or two of the Power ports seeing the aluminum case is killing the WIFi Output!

Thanks for reading my rant.