I’m at an impasse and could use some help.
I’ve been imaging with SGP for a long time and with my ver. 1 ASI1600MM-cool since it originally came out with virtually no problems. I’ve not had much chance to image since last fall and recently updated my ASI and ASCOM camera drivers as well as the latest SGP release. I’m trying to make new dark masters and have the camera on my workbench connected directly to my imaging laptop through the USB 3 port - same configuration as for imaging, and what I’ve used for biases and darks in the past. I have no idea what is going on but at first I would get completely black frames at any of three gain settings (using “ASI camera (1)”, as I always do for imaging). I mean black - no noise, no amp glow, no signal, just black (with or without auto histogram and confirmed in PI). Then, as I change the gain between sets of images (60, 90, 120 seconds etc. per gain setting), the images start coming out pure white. I discovered that if I restart and reconnect SGP and the camera, that I get black frames again, but ANY change to the camera settings in SGP and the frames come out white, unless I restart SGP and reconnect the camera. Then I noticed the camera setting was set on “RAW8”, so I tried RAW16 and voila! I got a few “normal” looking dark frames with amp glow, etc - like I expect for a dark frame. So I tried starting over using the unity setting on the camera set up dialogue (SGP) and RAW16, but I get only white frames. Change it to RAW8 or try different gain settings - re-starting SGP and reconnecting the camera each time - and I get only white frames. I’ve tried 4 different USB cables, including a brand new short cable with not change. USB speed is set at the default 40, but until these new driver updates I’ve always had great luck at up to 80. I’ve also tried the “ZWO camera” option in the SGP camera dialogue box with the same white frame issue.
I’ve occasionally, but rarely, seen the white-frame issue in the past and found it was related to the USB speed setting and always went away when I lowered the USB speed setting to 70. I’ve never used the lower setting of 40, but now any setting above 40 (i.e. 70) results in the unending “downloading” problem.
Any ideas? Is this likely SGP, driver, camera or laptop related?
Larry