Nikon D850 only runs for tens of minutes under BYN 2.1.2 before quiting:

[fkleinha]

Nikon D850 repeatedly disconnects and BYN eventually crashes:

Nikon D850 disconnects after ~ 45 min and then more quickly on restarts until it won’t run at all.

Occurs on two systems and three cable set ups.  There are errors in the logs.

Most recent set up:

Lenovo T480s (circa 2018), Win 10 Pro 64, i5, 8 GB Ram, SSD:

This system was built fresh on a clean machine in April of 2021 so all software and drivers are the latest:

BYN v2.1.2

Nikon D850 cooled, moded from Central DS operated off its own high capacity 7.2 VDC battery.

Ascom 6.5SP1

AP Mount (CP4 controller with attached AP hand paddle); AP Ascom Driver V2_5.30.10

FTDI Serial link; laptop to mount

PHD2 V2.6.9

ZWO 290 Guide Camera and latest driver.

Sky Tools Pro 3 Planetarium Pgm Ver 3.2k

Temperhum (old)

In simulations the system does not crash, but does throw off error messages (see log).

Inside, warm, dry workroom.

Mount tracking, PHD2 cycling, no guiding, no dithering, image capture, say, every minute.

Outside for real:

50’s F and damp.

Mount tracking, PHD2 guiding, BYN capturing images and dithering, STP3 controlling mount.

Camera Connection Method One:

T480s to USB3 port to ~ 10 ft USB 3 cable to USB 3 hub (Aluratek unpowered).

Attached to hub are ZWO 290 guide, Temperhum, and D850 on short USB cable.

Since this failed I tried:

Camera Connection  Method Two:

T480s to USB3 port to ~ 10ft USB 3 extension cable (different than above) to short cable (different than above)  to D850.  The ZWO 290 and Temperhum are still on the USB 3  hub with its own USB computer port.

The camera quits after 30 to 60 minutes.  The camera shows an ERR which can be cleared (per the manual) by physically firing the camera shutter.  BYN shows the camera disconnected.  Sometimes the camera can be reconnected; sometimes not.

When not:  hitting connect superficially appears to reconnect the camera (so says the program), BUT the exposure buttons on the lower right are grayed out and the camera can not be operated.

Closing BYN and reopening does not fix the problem.  Eventually BYN will not even run.  At this point rebooting the computer still does not fix anything.  But the next nite is a fresh start.  I suspect all these details are noise.  The error logs hold the answer but I can not interpret the errors.

The disconnects/crashes seem to occur when BYN is busy  download a file or dithering. 

This exact same system running BYEOS V3.2.2 and a Canon 6D works perfectly all night.  Only the short cable from the hub to the Canon is different (of necessity).

I am sending the error logs as three files:

(1)  A typical BYEOS-Canon 6D run under the stars.

(2)  A simulated run (inside, warm, no guiding, no dithering) with BYN and the D850.  Camera runs, but with errors in Error Log.

(3)  An entire evening of BYN and D850 with repeated runs and crashes.

This is extremely frustrating as the camera yields beautiful images when it is running.

Similar problems occurred in the Fall of 2020 running on a T430s.  I was hoping the computer upgrade would fix the problems.

fritz kleinhans, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

[fkleinha]

3 hours ago, astroman133 said:

Fritz,

Yes, I thought that I recognized your name, but could not remember where from.

I understand about how involved and time-consuming it is to set up your gear, so when you do it is important to make the most of it.

The following snippet is from the T480s User Guide.

I take it that you are using port #5 for the camera since none of the other ports are described as USB 3.0 ports. This port has various user-configurable power settings, including staying on whenever the computer is connected to A/C power, even if the computer is powered down or hibernating. How do you have it configured?

Rick - Who knew.  I am relatively new to Win 10.  Never heard of Selective USB Suspend before.  That still does not explain why my system works inside but not outside.  However, I see that even when the PC is set to NEVER Sleep, Selective USB Suspend was still Enabled.  So I have fixed that; Disabled.  THANKS!  I also verified that my USB drivers are current.  We will see if that makes a difference under the stars.  My astro field laptop has always been set to never sleep for any and all tests/use.  I could not find anywhere to control the 'Always On' aspect of Port 5, but in any case, that only applies when the laptop is off, I presume.

As to the USB 3 ports:  There is a USB 3 port (#5) on the left that you point to above.  And port 2 can also be used as a USB 3 port using a little dongle.  And there is another USB 3 port on the right side. So the configuration which should be most stable and used for my last few nites is as follows:

D850 on left side USB 3 port.  Guide camera and TemperHum on hub on port 2.  FTDI to serial to control mount on right side USB 3 port.

The next step, of course, is to swap these around.  I have swapped the left side ports to no effect.

In any case, I have now accumulated a lot of things to test, next nite under the stars.  I am working on a small airline portable mount (RST-135) which is easy to set up and hopefully in the next month I can do some under the stars testing.

Thanks again.

[fkleinha]

52 minutes ago, admin said:

Do you have a USB port on the other side of the laptop?  If yes try that port, even if it's a USB2 port. 

Most laptop with USB ports on both sides of the laptop will often run off a separate USB bus inside the laptop and in the off chance that the left side could be over saturated with data, the right side might not be. It's worth a try.

Agreed.  Next nite under the stars I need to swap the right side and left side ports.  They are both USB3.  The USB to Serial to Mount is on that other line

[fkleinha]

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.  I now have a lot of ideas to try on my next nite out under the stars.  For me these nites are rare so it will probably be months before I have this all sorted out.  I will report back when I find a configuration that works!

clear skies,  fritz k

[fkleinha]

Update Report:

All of my above problems appear to be due to usb cable length.

I find with my 'small' rig using a 7 ft usb connection from computer to camera that every thing works fine and no special provisions are required (e.g. max stability).

For my big rig I bought a Tether Tools Tether Pro 16 ft (orange) USB 3.0 Active Extension cable (from B&H).  This has an active amplifier in it.  With a 2 ft extension from cable end to camera that is about 18 feet.  This ran awhile then crashed.  I then set BYN for max stability, raw only.  This seems to work reliably.  It did crash once but I attribute that to heavy dew which got into the very open USB amplifier at the end of the cable.

Thanks for all the suggestions from everyone.

Clear Skies, fritz kleinhans