PHD2 not seeing stars with ONAG XM and ASI 1600, with Debug log

I forgot to include the debug log on the last post…sorry.

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and look forward to making some new relationships. I have looked through previous posts and did not see anything pertaining to this specific topic. In the past I have used Focusmax, Maxim and CCD Autopilot, but am making the switch to SGP and PHD2, so thanks in advance for your patience.

I recently purchased an ONAG XM from Gaston at Innovations Foresight. He has been a tremendous help. I am using an AT 16” scope, an AP 1600 mount and an Atlas focuser along with the ONAGXM. My imaging scope is a Canon 6D and my guiding scope is a ZWO ASI 1600. For software, I am using SGP and PHD2

I have not been able to get PHD2 to see the stars that are being taken with my ASI 1600. I keep getting an error message every time I try and select a star “Star lost/low mass”. I have brought the guider into focus with the ONAG and the ASI 1600. PHD2 is connected to the 1600 and begins to loop the images. I can see it refreshing as I move the guider.

However, when I try and select a star for guiding, it always gives me an Error message- Star Lost, Low Mass. I have raised the time from 1-6 seconds, and it doesn’t seem to make any difference. The one time it did like the star, it was a mag 3 star. It started to calibrate, and then said it lost the star. I have set the “Camera Specific Properties/Disconnect non responsive camera after (seconds)” to 1000 to remove any chance it is timing out.

As I mentioned, it started to calibrate on the star mentioned above, but kept moving the mount and losing the star. This made me wonder if the mount was communicating with the guider and so I used PHD2’s manual guide and I could see the star moving while I moved it manually in all 4 Axis. I am also using a dark master made from 15 darks from 1-6 seconds. I also made a hot pixel map. Neither the pixel map nor the darks seem to make any difference.
I have included the PHD2 debug log as well as a couple of screen shots.

I am probably missing something obvious, but I can’t seem to see it. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you very much for your help,
Kent

(See debug log)
PHD2_DebugLog_2017-06-02_221646.txt.zip (124.2 KB)

Sorry for my late reply.

I would suggest to bin the guider 4x4 with your setup, this may help PHD2.
Some time PHD2 may lock on a “hot” spot (scintillation from seeing) of the guide star, especially with reflectors and some central obstructions.

Also long guider exposure time values may hep, short ones are more prone to seeing.
With your mount I would at least try 5 to 10 seconds unguided, or even longer.
Alternatively I could provide you with a beta version of PHD2 featuring an alternate centroid calculation which may help. If you are interested just send me an email at gaston@innovatiosnforesight.com.

Another option could be to consider our new SkyGuide full frame auto-guiding solution which is in the process to be integrated with SGP.

Here is a link to full frame guiding and an introduction video of SkyGuide:

https://www.innovationsforesight.com/education/full-frame-guiding-focusing/

If you are using, or planning to, the live autofocus capability of your ONAG (with FocusLock) you may want to consider SkyGuard instead which does both full frame guiding and live focusing.