Hi
This is tremendously helpful. Thank you for your suggestions. I will try the Webcams option as well as the platesolve trick.
Shailesh
First, I assume this is an STF-8300. “ST” does not help since there are both “STF” and “STT” 8300 cameras which are different cameras. I assume it is the STF since with the more sophisticated STT, you would probably not be using an STi, rather the self-guide filter wheel option (most users do).
I have previously used an STi (now sold since it had hardware failure multiple times and needed too many repairs - just not robust). When it was not outright broken, it connected fine. Buzz is correct. With the STi, regardless of how it is mounted (OAG or guidescope), SGP has zero to do with your issue since SGP does not talk to the guide camera at all. PhD does all the communication with the STi and SGP then talks to PhD (and vice-versa). For the same reason, the issues described by one poster with connecting two SBIG cameras in SGP are not the problem since only the main camera talks to SGP in this situation.
I cannot say why your STi does not get along with PhD but that is clearly a question for Andy and company over on the PhD forum - they are super helpful.
Also, FYI, I am also using a Paramount (ME) and directguide, as Buzz said, is the way to go.
Yeah, SGP is not the most user friendly, and while documentation is lengthy it’s a bit confusing to read. You might also want to check out this site, especially “the first week of SGP” article. Everyone wants to jump in a start imaging ASAP but with SGP it takes a bit to navigate through all the features. Over the years ‘they’ keep adding more features and it gets a bit tricky.
Alex is a founding contributor of the Astro Imaging Channel. Check out their YouTube channel for some good videos about SGP. They are on most Sunday night’s around 9pm EDT. There actual website is a bit tricky to get to. Here is the link https://www.testing.theastroimagingchannel.com/
1 Like
CCDMan,
No I really mean ST 8300M this is circa 2011 before STF was conceived.
Shailesh
Thank you for the link and details wglowgowski.
Shailesh
When you are in PHD2 and you select your hardware and guiding parameters, you can export it as a profile (.phd). Next, import it into PHD2, so its name comes up, otherwise you just get ‘my equipment’. In SGP, when you select PHD2 as your guiding program, in the settings box next to it there is a dialog for the install parth and PHD2 Equipment Profile. Select your profile there.
1 Like
There are also some video’s here.
http://www.digitalastrophotography.co.uk/Astrophotography/Setup_Videos.html
SGP has to be one of the easiest sophisticated packages out there.
Just proves you cannot please all the people, all the time…
Okay, I’m out of here! Never again will I post. I NEVER SAID THAT I WAS NOT PLEASE YOU !!!
Fairly certain that was taken out of context. I believe buzz was trying to illustrate that it is a fine line to walk between keeping things simple and having a feature rich capture application. I don’t believe that was aimed at you.
Thanks,
Jared
1 Like
Buzz
Wow, I learned something new today (PHD2 export & then re-import). Thank you very much for this tip. This may be the issue. i will check it out.
Shailesh
My point was that this is a no win. Customers keep asking for more and more features and complain when they are politely declined but also complain when SGP as a whole becomes increasingly more difficult to use as a result of more features being added. Not personal. Just a statement of fact, drawn from the forum posts.
In any astrophotography set up one is integrating several sub-systems (hardware and software) to work as a whole. You can save a lot of time and meet less frustration if you work on each piece individually. The equipment profile manager has several tabs. Think of each of these as a single system. One by one get the filter wheel working, get the camera working, get the focuser, the flat box etc. working. When each sub system is working, hand SGP complete the complete system.
In this case (as others have pointed out) I would look at getting PHD (outside of SGP) working with your guide camera and mount before calling PHD from within SGP. All the best.
Ajay
1 Like
I used the STF-8300M and the STi together for a couple of years. It was very frustrating getting them to connect properly with Maxim and pHD2. I always had to connect one or the other’s USB cables while the other was disconnected and the order always varied. Very frustrating. I finally threw in the towel and get the Lodestar - so totally worked first time and every time. Had nothing to do the SGPro.
Jan
@Andy
Andy - the logic around changing and saving profiles in PHD2 has struck me as slightly odd on previous occasions. It seems that if you export a PHD2 profile, it does not appear as a profile in SGP setup unless you first then import the profile within PHD2. An alternative logic would say that all the exported profiles would be accessible without having to be first loaded back in?
Shailesh,
Perhaps things have changed, but several years ago I was imaging with an ST8300 and an STi for guiding. At that time, you had to connect the STi prior to connecting the main camera. Otherwise the STi wasn’t available to select. My workflow then (and still today) as a nomadic astrophotographer was to get PHD2 running and calibrated near its ideal location, then connect the main camera after…
Maybe this no longer applies or you have already tried it. If so, my apologies for jumping in.
Best regards,
Craig
@buzz Profile Export/Import is for saving and loading a PHD2 equipment profile to a file so you can, for example, transfer a profile to another computer. Export saves profile settings to a .PHD file; Import loads a .PHD file into PHD2. These functions are unrelated to what profiles are visible to SGP – all profiles are visible to SGP whenever SGP asks PHD2.
thanks for that - what we discovered, however, is that the act of simply exporting a profile does not seem to make it visible to SGP, hence the problem at the beginning of this post. It has to be ‘activated’ to be seen.
I also have had STF-8300M / ST-i issues with connections, not just in SGP but other software - at some point I had so many issues I backdated the driver and my problems went away - I vowed never to update the drivers again - eventually my ST-i died and I replaced it with a Lodestar X2, supremely better guide camera than the ST-i and have never had any type of connection issues with it
i agree with that, i am deathly afraid to update the firmware of my STT (or the drivers.)
a couple of years back, i think just before DL acquired SBIG, they seem to have gotten a new firmware/driver developer and there was a burst of activity (and a lot of broken stuff.) i have no idea if it ever shook out.
Thank you folks for the healthy discussion & debate here.
If you have not read my previous post on my resolution, you can check it out at this link below
Shailesh Trivedi