Download problems with ASI1600MC Cool

General
1

I have been using SGP Pro (trial version) for about a month and really love the software. BUT, I’ve been having issues more than I am comfortable with. Hardware and software failures are to be expected from time to time but not 80% of the time.

I have troubleshooted extensively and I am now certain that the issued lies with SGP and or the drivers.

The problem is with downloading images. More often than not the download process hangs, sometime after 2 frames, sometime after 10. It’s pretty random when it happens. On two occasions out of 10, everything has run without a hitch.

I have run my cables and hub setup with a completely different system - AstroImager running on a MacBook pro and have not dropped a single frame in many nights of use, so it’s definitely NOT the hub or cables.

I have used SGP 2.6.0.25 and tried SGP 3.0.1.0 last night, but this version bombed after two subs.

I know there have been others that have reported similar issues, so would really appreciate a solution to this problem before I finally purchase SGP.

I really want to use SGP as my permanent imaging software solution, so would really appreciate some assistance here.

Thanks and kind regards

Peter

2

If I’ve understood correctly, SGP has native support for ZWO cameras, and there’s also an ASCOM driver. Which one are you using?

I remember hearing a lot of complaints about one or the other, but I don’t remember which. I don’t own an ASI1600 so I have no personal experience.

3

If you go to setup on the ASCOM driver, you can change the download speed for the camera. The issue you are having will like go away if you lower the download rate. I haven’t look the native SGP driver so I don’t know if it has such a setting.

4

I have had the same problem with my ZWO ASI 071. Once in a while it would ‘hang’ during downloading. I installed a StarTech USB3 adapter in my PC (it is old enough to only have USB2 interface). I also made sure I connected the power cable to the interface card since the ZWO devices require power at the very limit of what the unpowered interface can handle. I then bought a very robust USB3 15ft cable. Since then I have not had any hangups during downloading. “knock on wood”. I can give you the exact models I bought if you are interested.

There are a few discussions about this on the ZWO users group .

Roger

5

I forgot to mention… I currently still use the ASCOM driver, however the SGPro ver 3 includes native support for ZWO cameras (although they say it is still in the beta phase). I only briefly tried the native driver since my equipment configurations include the ASCOM driver. Someday I will experiment with the native driver and report back.

Roger