Problem with ASI120MM-S camera and PHD2

trinacria12

Recently purchased the ASI120MM-S for use as a guide cam for Celestron 9.25" SCT and CGEM II Go To mount. I've successfully downloaded and installed the following software and drivers:

ASI camera v3.0.0.5

ASCOM platform v6.3

ASI camera ASCOM driver v1.0.3.23

ASICAP software v1.5

PHD2 v2.6.5

The camera is connected to a USB 3.0 port on a Lenovo laptop (Windows 10, Intel core i7 chip) via a new USB 3.0 cable.

After selecting "ZWO lASI camera" and "Celestron Telescope Driver (ASCOM)" in the equipment profile on PHD2 and clicking the "connect" button, the status window shows that the camera is connected. However, when I select the "loop" button to begin image capture I eventually receive the following error message: "After 20 seconds the camera has not completed a 2 sec exposure, so it has been disconnected to prevent further complications."

I've attempted increasing the timeout period in the camera settings window, reducing USB traffic, switching USB ports (I'm not using a hub), and switching USB 3.0 cables, but none of these helped. I continue to receive the same error message. I've also consulted the PHD2 help forum as well as the camera instruction manual and support resources, none of which were helpful.

I would appreciate any advice or suggestions you might be able to offer.

chad

Hi,

Can you test it with SharpCap or ASICap?

Thanks

Chad

trinacria12

I tested it with ASIcap and it does project an image on the screen; however, it does not capture or project an image on the screen in PHD2 (even though the status window in PHD2 shows the camera as "connected") and the capture command simply times out as described above.

chad

HI，

Please send an email to our email: support(at)zwoptical.com

we will help you to catch the log to check out what happened. Usually, it should be fine.

Thanks

Chad

trinacria12

Thank you. I did that; unfortunately, the response was unhelpful.

chad

eh！

Do not worry, I will follow up this issue with our support.

Sorry again.

Thanks

Chad

photongrabber

Chad,

I'm having the same issue. Latest drivers, applications, ASCOM, etc loaded. I've tried different USB cables, computer. Connected directly to the computer exhibits same problem. The problem is mostly repeatable, but occasionally the camera will return an image. It will show a video image.

I'm interested in learning if you come to a resolution.

Harry

chad

Hi Harry,

Still not sure what happened now.

I tested with the same version on my side, it works well.

Can you test it with another computer?

Thanks

Chad

katherine.tsai

photongrabber wrote:

Chad,

I'm having the same issue. Latest drivers, applications, ASCOM, etc loaded. I've tried different USB cables, computer. Connected directly to the computer exhibits same problem. The problem is mostly repeatable, but occasionally the camera will return an image. It will show a video image.

I'm interested in learning if you come to a resolution.

Harry

Hi Harry,

You can send an email to support@zwoptical.com,

And shall we try to remote control your PC and see what happened?

trinacria12

Good luck, Harry. I hope you have a better outcome than I did. After several weeks of trying to find a resolution (which, by the way, exceeds the retailer's 30-day return window), I've given up and accepted defeat and I'm now the owner of a very expensive shiny red paper weight. Lesson learned...

photongrabber

I'm way past the 30 day on my exchange as well. Video works on the camera, so I might use it as an all-sky camera or ? I'm going a different direction! :(

chad

Hi ALL,

Like I said before, we tested it on our side, it is fine, now we are also not sure what happened.

So we need a volunteer to help us identify the problem. We might need him to do some tests, and grab the logs.

Unfortunately, we haven't made any progress so far.

Thanks

Chad

trinacria12

Sorry...I volunteered to pay a fair amount of money for a camera that didn't work as advertised and then spent weeks attempting unsuccessfully to get an informative response regarding potential causes and solutions for the malfunction. I trust you'll understand my rather less than charitable mood when it comes to requests for volunteers...

chad

Trinacria12 wrote:

Sorry...I volunteered to pay a fair amount of money for a camera that didn't work as advertised and then spent weeks attempting unsuccessfully to get an informative response regarding potential causes and solutions for the malfunction. I trust you'll understand my rather less than charitable mood when it comes to requests for volunteers...

Hi，

Sorry for the trouble again.

But I also hope you can understand. It is impossible for our camera to connect and test all the computers in the world with various configurations, so there will always be some problems beyond our consideration, sometimes, what we can do is only try our best to solve the problems after we find them.

Thanks

Chad

ian

I have this camera a week now and testing out on PHD2. I do do have a similar issue with this model. Connection via sharpcap with active powered extension usb3 along with powered hub at computer end is stable, but using same cable connection with PHD2, it goes glitchy after around half hour usually when I change settings.

This is using ST4 port.

My guess is that it is cable related and/or usb port related. 6ft high quality cable from camera to laptop in the observatory seems to be stable so far.

dave manning

HI folks.

I am also having this problem with my ASI071MC Pro Cooled camera with Celestron CGX mount and it started about 3 months ago .... or so....

I was originally using the one laptop computer for both PHD2 & SharpCap Pro until this problem started.

Error messages were “ASCOM driver failed checking IsPulseGuiding…..” and "RPC Server is unavailable (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)"

Also, it occurred RANDOMLY!!!!!!!

Some sessions it would happen after only 5minutes, other sessions after an hour or so. On one night it didn't happen at all and I got over 4 hours of uninterrupted guiding and imaging.........

SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Basically, and from my own very amateur testing (using different cables, short cables, different ports, etc, etc.) I have deduced that the problem is that PHD2 doesn't like running through a USB3 port i.e. "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port......".

Exactly WHY the problem surfaced is anyone's guess, but it looks like it may have been an earlier Windows update which has changed something to do with how data is fed through USB3 ports.................................

Like I said, I'm no expert .... ;)

What I'm doing now is using a seperate, older laptop for running PHD2 as it only has USB2 ports.

SharpCap Pro and imaging is running on the newer laptop, which has only USB3 ports.

It's only a minor discomfort having to use a larger table but it works .................... so far ... ;)

PHD2 authors have been of magnificent assistance to me while testing.

I would be very interested in other's experiences with this same problem.