Guide with ASI120MM in PhD and Image With ASI174MM in SGP?

james1ca

I know that you can't use two ZWO cameras over the ASCOM interface, but can you use the ASI120MM in the latest v2.5dev7 release of PhD while imaging simultaneously with the ASI174MM using the ASCOM interface in Sequence Generator Pro? I select the “ZWO ASI Camera” item in the PhD profile (i.e. I don’t use the ASCOM setting).

I seem to be having some problems with this combination that I think might be related to trying to use the two cameras at the same time (one to guide, the other to image).

Has anyone done this (using two cameras as above) and is it officially supposed to work? I have the cameras connected to separate USB ports on my notebook computer running Windows 8.1 using the latest release of the ZWO software (downloaded and installed on Nov. 6, 2015).

Also, there seems to be no way to check or set the USB transfer rate ("traffic") using the driver setting in PhD. Basically, once you select the camera in PhD v2.5dev7 you can't do anything except connect to the camera. Does PhD just default to a recommended USB traffic setting for the ASI120MM? I think in general the traffic rate is supposed to be kept below 80%.

firstc8

Sorry if I hijack this thread. I have no idea but do have a question, is it possible to use one small notebook for the guider, and a more powerful laptop for imaging?

After a few initial unguided sessions, I begin to think I need to add a guide scope, or at least use a guide session to do the PEC for my AVX mount.

riklaunim

Imaging doesn't require powerful laptops. Only very fast Solar System imaging may require fast storage. I managed to run ASI120 + Atik314L+ from a cheap Windows 8.1 Tablet.

Sam@ZWO

Hi James

you should have no problem with such combination

just make sure you plugin 2 camera at first and then start software

we used 2 cameras together in this way successful

what's your problem? which camera and software cannot be used?

PHD2 used the lowest USB Traffic

james1ca

I can't seem to get it to work. Sequence Generator Pro using the ASCOM driver with the ASI174MM seems fine but PhD v2.5 seems to either not be able to connect to the ASI120MM or it drops the connection to the camera after a short period of use. In fact the camera chooser in PhD v2.5dev7 doesn't even allow you to select a particular camera, it just stays locked to one or the other even though it shows both cameras in the pop-up menu. I guess what might be happening in PhD is that once you select an ASI camera it doesn't allow you to change the selection to a different camera.

It's possible, however, that there is something wrong with my ASI120MM. Also, I just recently changed over to a new PC running Windows 8.1 and honestly I don't know whether my ASI120MM has ever worked under that version of Windows. I was using Windows 7 before and under that configuration I didn't have any problems with the ASI120MM. But, I never tried to use both cameras at the same time under Windows7, so my current dual-camera setup is something new.

Sam@ZWO

Hi James

I think you can try amcap or sharpcap to check weather ASI120MM can deliver any image on your new platform

james1ca

I can get the ASI120MM to work with PhD v2.5dev7, but it seems unstable and sometimes it won't connect. However, I haven't yet been able to guide with the ASI120MM while I'm also using the ASI174MM in Sequence Generator Pro. However, I'm not yet certain whether it is the dual camera connection that is the problem or something else with my setup and the ASI120MM.

Just tonight I updated the firmware to the ASI120MM to version 3.0, but I don't really know whether I'd done that in the past (already) and I haven't had enough time yet to confirm whether that has made the guiding more stable.

Sam@ZWO

james1ca wrote:
I can get the ASI120MM to work with PhD v2.5dev7, but it seems unstable and sometimes it won't connect. However, I haven't yet been able to guide with the ASI120MM while I'm also using the ASI174MM in Sequence Generator Pro. However, I'm not yet certain whether it is the dual camera connection that is the problem or something else with my setup and the ASI120MM.

Just tonight I updated the firmware to the ASI120MM to version 3.0, but I don't really know whether I'd done that in the past (already) and I haven't had enough time yet to confirm whether that has made the guiding more stable.

please don't use the "compatible" firmware

the old firmware can provide best performance and stable image out put

"compatible" firmware if for these who cannot install the driver