Lodestar X2 communication interrupts

[Forum_2015]

Hello!

I've been using Astroart for several months with an ATIK 314L+ and now I bought a Lodestar X2 as guider. I have serious problems with the Lodestar concerning the stability of the USB connection. I tried to reduce the possibilities of failures, disconnected several other USB devices and now I'm at a point where the Lodestar is the only camera, connected directly to the PC without USB hub. Normally I will use an active USB hub, but this is not the reason for the problems as I can see now.

What's going on: I connect the camera to the PC, start Astroart, use the simulator as main camera and the Lodestar as guider. I connect the simulator and the Lodestar, take a photo with the Lodestar (binning 2x2), define a region and open the focus window. Here the photo is updated cyclically, everything looks fine as it should be normal. Then after some minutes (normally 5 to 15) the photo is not updated anymore and the camera cannot be connected anymore until I close Astroart and disconnect the camera from USB.

The original Lodestar control interface works fine, even after a much longer time the camera is still working so the problem must be in Astroart. How can I solve this? Does anyone know this effects?

I use AA5 SP4, Camera interface 5.41, the current plugin for the Lodestar from the Astroart homepage and the newest drivers from SX. In Options 2 of the control panel the "Camera control in background" is checked.

Thanks for any information on this!

Stefan

[Forum_2015]

Stefan, I don't have a Loadstar but am planning to get one at some point so I am interested in this post. There is an ASCOM driver available for the Loadstar why don't you try that and see if it solves the issue?

ASCOM driver link http://www.daddog.com/ascom/sxcamera

Iver

[Forum_2015]

Thanks Iver for your reply. I started my first trials with ASCOM. Since this also wasn't stable I found out that AA supplies an own driver which I used then. The original SX software has been running now for more than 8 hours! Now I will try again the ASCOM version, at least it seems to me that it is a bit more stable than the AA driver. Anyway, I'm still open for any hints...

Edit - AA crashed after half an hour and was terminated by windows, the camera isn't available anymore and must be restarted Am I really the only person who has problems with AA and Lodestar? Strange... I'd be really glad for any help!

[Forum_2015]

I had a similar issue with my QHY5 guider a few years ago, out of frustration I bought a new USB cable and the problem stopped. I hope you find a solution to your problem.

[Forum_2015]

I've tried two different USB cables so far. And the SX software is working fine, at least it did for more than 8 hours tonight. At the moment it seems to be clear that it must be software...

CS, Stefan

[Forum_2015]

Hi all!

At the moment it seems to work. At least for the last 2 hours I got a stable function of AA and Lodestar. What I did: Setting up a virtual machine with Windows XP 32-bit and installing the stuff there (I forgot to say that I use Win7/64). Now I will install all remaining devices and see what's happening...

Stefan

[Forum_2015]

Short update: For the moment it seems that this action with Windows XP was successful. Lodestar is running fine for a longer time with Astroart until I stop it. My next problem is using the ATIK 314L+ in the virtual machine. The drivers were installed without problems, but neither Astroart nor ArtemisCapture can connect to the camera. But that's another story...

Stefan

[Forum_2015]

Maybe the VM slows down the USB to USB1 speed?

I would try to change the USB cable again, since the problem happens with both the SX ASCOM driver and the Astroart Lodestar driver. Other useful tests: does the problem happen with the Guide Window too? And with and endless sequence? (disable the option New Window). How big is the subframe?

[Forum_2015]

Thank you for the good hints! Meanwhile even the VM makes problems from time to time. Up to now I used the whole frame for focusing, but I know that this isn't really realistic (I thought it should work anyway, but maybe it won't). If a subframe of 20 x 20 solved the problem this would be fine for me.

I will test all your recommendations and give you a feedback.

[Forum_2015]

First results:

> would try to change the USB cable again, since the problem happens with both the SX ASCOM driver and the Astroart Lodestar driver.
I checked different cables, but I see no difference.

>does the problem happen with the Guide Window too?
Yes, last night it worked for three hours, then the connection to the Lodestar died. At the same time I had the ATIK running making a sequence. I stopped it this morning after 400 photos, it worked fine.

>And with and endless sequence? (disable the option New Window).
This I couldn't check so far, but since the guiding stopped maybe it should not be necessary anymore.

>How big is the subframe?
25 x 25

Somehow I have the feeling that my computer has a problem. Sometimes it is quite slow without recognizable reason, maybe something disturbs the USB communication and the Lodestar is quite sensitive. I just looked first at Astroart because the original SX software worked for over 8 hours without problem, even using an USB to Ethernet adapter, 20 m Ethernet cable and a powered USB hub. But maybe I will have to do more tries, could be that this was only one lucky case. I also tried to use a XP notebook, but as soon as I install the Lodestar driver the computer hangs. Bad time at the moment, maybe some day I will get an idea...

[Forum_2015]

Hi fotoman

Have you tried to disable "camera running in the background". Manual suggests to disable this if running two ascom cameras from different manufacturers. Just a thought

I also am running an atik 314L+ and loadstar x2 but i'm having my own issues. (My mount doesn't seem to respond to guide commands) still trying to work it out!

Dean

[Forum_2015]

Hi Dean

I have tried a lot and, as far as I remember, this option, too. Anyway, problem was solved in that way that I sold the camera.