AA4 and SXV-H9C with Autoguider Head

[Kevin Sweeney]

Hi All,
I am trying to get my autoguider to work.
Running AA4 and SXV-H9C is no problem - getting images displayed.
Now I want to add the Autoguider Head.
Plugged in the cable from the H9C to the Autoguider - red light operates on the guide head.
In the "Setup" screen of the control panel, I have selected "Classic SXV guider" .
I have ticked "full CCD flush" and "Primary Device"
In the "Focus/Guide" panel I selected "Int. Guider" but when I take an image it is pure white no matter what the exposure.
Am I missing a driver or something or is it in my setup?

Kevin

[Iver]

It's been a long time since I had an SXV-H9 and SXV guider! I do recall that with the cover on the guider the auto stretch would make the image look white. If you were taking the images with the cap on the guider try a pin hole lens, aluminum foil with a pin hole in it over the front of the guider. Maybe this will help.
Good luck!
-Iver

[Kevin Sweeney]

Iver,
Thanks for the reply.
I've tried the pinhole idea. Main camera works fine. When I select focus/guide and select "int. Guider" and take an image, the image is taken via the main camera.
If I then select "guide" the image is now immediately taken via the autoguider and is pure white. Using the histogram shows all data are at 255 counts - stretching doesn't work.
However, if I draw a box in the white guider image and select guide again, the guide window opens and a good image is displayed where it now asks to mark the guide star etc. Thus it appears, from this point, the guider is displaying correctly now and will operate correctly.
The problem is that when the all white initial guide image is displayed, I am unable to draw a box around a guide star because I cannot see one on the white screen.

Also as a more general question, when I select the focus/guide tab in the "control Panel" and then select "Int. Guider" and then press "Start" to take an image, I would expect the image to be taken via the guider but in my case the image is taken via the main camera. Not sure if this is linked to my previous described problem but any hints would be welcome.

Kevin

[fabdev]

Other things you could try:

1) Take two full images one after the other (maybe the CCD is not flushed correctly?)

2) Select a box almost as big as the whole image, then use the focus or guide window to verify the field.

3) Are you really sure that what you see in the guide window is a real signal? (not random noise).

4) A test with the SX software?

[Kevin Sweeney]

Thanks for your replies and suggestions.
I am going to be away from my setup for a while so I'll have another go when I get back.

Kind regards,
Kevin

[Iver]

Hi Kevin, does your guide tab look like this? I've used AA since ver. 2 but I don't remember if it's changed since then. If it is the same, in your post you state you press "Start" and expect it to be a guide image. If the guide tab hasn't changed the start button is for the imaging camera! To take an exposure with the guider you press the guide tab button that says "Guide" that opens a guider image then drag a box around a star and click the guide button again to start guiding.
Maybe this is your problem

"Also as a more general question, when I select the focus/guide tab in the "control Panel" and then select "Int. Guider" and then press "Start" to take an image, I would expect the image to be taken via the guider but in my case the image is taken via the main camera. Not sure if this is linked to my previous described problem but any hints would be welcome."