ASI220MM-Mini not connecting with PHD2

Chiefsmith

I have had a guide camera for a few days now and have been "learning" all about it. It has been connected to three computers that I use. Two of these are IntelNUCs both running Win10 PRO. One with the i5 and 32GB ram the other with the i7 and 64GB ram. I did not install the ZWO_ASCOM_V6.5.25 driver package on the i5 NUC. This computer seems to be more stable than the i7. Right now it has been running for about two-hours with no disconnects. On the i7 I loaded, in this order, PHD2, the ZWO_ASCOM_V6.5.25 driver package, and the last driver package was the ZWO_ASI_Cameras_driver_Setup_V3.24. My ASI220MM-Mini does not connect on the i7 until I start APT, connect the 220MM-Mini to APT and hit LiveView. All I get from that is a white screen on the APT monitor. After connecting to APT I may get some kind of an image on the PHD2 screen but that is not much and lasts only a few seconds before it is disconnected. I have uninstalled/reinstalled everything on the i7 computer several times and that includes trying the 32bit version of the V6.5.25 driver package. I read that there were issues with the ASI220MM-Mini and PHD2 going back to 2020. Of course, I read these just today so I am rather upset that this issue has not yet been resolved four-years later. I am equally upset that there was not more information put out about the problems with the ASI220MM-Mini. How do I solve this on my i7 computer? The i5 is working without the V6.5.25 ASCOM driver package so I will do nothing to upset the current balance of that computer, but I need all of my computers to work with PHD2 and this ASI220MM-Mini. Your suggestions and comments are most welcome. Are there log files for the ASI220 or just for PHD2?

I will update this post with screen shots, and attach PHD2 logs, of what I see maybe tomorrow if I can find the post in the forum.

Tech@ZWO

Chiefsmith PHD2 supports two ways to connect ASI cameras, one is via ASI native driver, the other is via ASCOM driver.

Do you try these two ways to see if any difference? if the problem only appears when connecting via ASI native driver, update the PHD2 version to the latest to try. thanks.

BTW, ASI220MINI was released on 2022, so i thought the post you read is not related on 220mini.

Chiefsmith

Thank you for the suggestions. It does not matter whether I go with the ASCOM route or the native drivers. The result is the same. However, after try various connction methods the one that seems to work the best is to start APT first and get an image, albeit an upside down image, with the ASI220MM-Mini. Once I have that image, then I start PHD2, connect, and hit the looping button. An image appears, it may take a few seconds, but I do get an image and it is right-side up. As soon as that image appears I immediately hit the disconnect button on APT and keep my fingers crossed that PHD2 still is working. Right now I have had a stable connection for over an hour.

Somehow, I do not think this is the way the ASI220MM-Mini is supposed to work with PHD2. I may be wrong but what I have to do does not seem right.

I am using PHD2 2.6.13dev4.

Tech@ZWO

Chiefsmith Sounds strange, I will test it and try to reproduce the problem at my end.
did you try other software which work with PHD2 such as NINA to see if has the same problem?