Trouble with unwanted shutdown and ABORT commands

[Cystokid]

I think this has been covered but I cannot seem to locate the thread. Is there some difficulty running BYE through a USB 3.0 port? I had real difficulty running the program last night. The camera would lock up, I would get connection to camera lost, etc. I use a powered 3.0 hub . When I switched ports to. 2.0 type, it seemed to resolve the problem. I have checked and swapped out all the cables, and run Win 7 pro 64 bit...Any ideas about this?

B

[Cystokid]

All of these comments help a great deal. At least I now have a good plan of attack" for my problem isolation.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!

Bryan S.

I now have single full length active Tripp USB cables (16' each) and two 2.0 powered USB hubs and the problem while testing in my garage, seems to have disappeared. Thanks to all who replied to my post and gave me such good, common sense suggestions!

[admin]

Thanks for coming with your solution, I'm glad your were able to fix your issue.

 

Guylain

[s3igell]

I now have single full length active Tripp USB cables (16' each) and two 2.0 powered USB hubs and the problem while testing in my garage, seems to have disappeared. Thanks to all who replied to my post and gave me such good, common sense suggestions!

 

Quick follow-up:  Are you still using USB3 cables and USB3 laptop ports??   Or are you using USB2 cables to go along with the USB2 powered hubs??

(Since you are using Powered Hubs, the Higher Power supplied by the Laptop USB3 ports is not utilized.  So it is interesting to see whether you found success with USB3 or USB2 Cables.)

[s3igell]

I hate to say this, but...  

Suspect your USB3 Port - either the Chipset used to implement it or the Drivers used to support that Chipset.  Or the same in your USB3 Hub.

 

As well, you appear to be using a USB3 Port with a USB2 Device (Camera).  

The "Backwards Compatibility" is dependent upon the implementations of both Chipset and Driver/Firmware in both the USB3 and USB2 devices.  This is a tall ask, and one that hasn't been painless for lots of combinations.

You may want to test a few additional combinations.  Or you may want to stick to using the USB2 Camera on a USB2 Port, and test whether other peripheral USB devices are better combinations with the USB3 Port.

 

In any case, BYEOS simply uses the Software Device Interfaces presented by the Operating System which manages the individual Drivers.  So BYEOS can do little to nothing about USB3-USB2 Device difficulties...

[astroman133]

I think this has been covered but I cannot seem to locate the thread. Is there some difficulty running BYE through a USB 3.0 port? I had real difficulty running the program last night. The camera would lock up, I would get connection to camera lost, etc. I use a powered 3.0 hub . When I switched ports to. 2.0 type, it seemed to resolve the problem. I have checked and swapped out all the cables, and run Win 7 pro 64 bit...Any ideas about this? B

 

I assume that you are using a USB 2.0 cable plugged into a USB 3.0 port, since Canon doesn't really support USB 3.0.  How long is cable from the camera to the hub?  As I understand it, the male connectors on USB 3.0 cables are longer and go further into the female socket.  However, when you plug a USB 2.0 cable in, the clearance is often to small and the USB 2.0 cable can make contact with the deeper 3.0 pins.

 

I would try these things:

 

It is highly unlikely that your issue has anything to do with BYE.  To test you can try controlling your camera with the EOS Utility.  This should behave the same way as BYE does.

 

Try a shorter cable between the camera and hub.

 

Try not seating the cable quite all the way into the hub.

 

Continue to use the USB 2.0 port, since it works and that is what Canon intends you to use.

 

 

[Cystokid]

Thanks, guys. I did not think it was BYE but the explanations you have given me make good sense. I'll implement the suggestions....

Bryan

 

[Jim]

Hi guys,

 

I use the USB 3 hub on my laptop (Samsung)

Connected to a USB 3 active cable.

Connected to a USB 2 active cable

Connected to a USB 2 powered hub (runs off my 12 V DC rectifier system).

 

USB 3 can provide higher power, though the data through put is limited to the slowest USB device type via the hub.

 

Running off the hub is:

 

Canon EOS 650D (wouldn't recommend for Astrophotography as Live view frame rate in Planetary is limited to about 10fps by the camera)

iOptron iEQ-45 mount, via ASCOM POTH

Guide Camera QHY 5-II

 

I use the following software:

 

BYE

ASCOM

AlignMaster

Astrotortilla

Stellarium (via Stellarium Scope)

iOptron mount control

PHD

 

And as long as I remember to only have one of the software packages connected to the mount at a time (using the connect/disconnect function in each of the packages) I don't have issues using USB 2 or USB 3. If I have more than one software package connected via ASCOM to the mount at a time it all gets flaky and things start to fail. I.e. when I move to a target using Stellarium only Stellarium Scope is connected to the mount. After disconnecting Stellarium Scope I connect Astrotortilla and centre the object. After disconnecting Astrotortilla I connect PHD and start guiding.

 

Then I start taking pictures and if I've got a decent Polar alignment and have used the automatic balance setting sequence in the iEQ-45 I get about +- 4-6 arc seconds peak to peak accuracy as indicated in PHD over a period of a few hours, frequently even better for long periods.

 

Info for other iEQ-45 users, I find if I manually balance my mount so that it is 'perfect' and then unbalance it slightly to give the drive something to push against I only get about +- 6-12 arc seconds accuracy as indicated in PHD. The automated set up looks to provide the 'ideal' imbalance for the mount to track best. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

 

I have only had my mount a few months and this has meant I've only used it outside about 4-5 times due to poor conditions. What I have been able to do has been very impressive compared to my old Celestron CG-5, typically since removing the cone error targets appear in the main scope after only a polar and one star alignment. Only issue has been with cone error between my C8 and the mount. The first mount I received was so bad it had to be exchanged and the second one I have had to add many washers between the scope casing and its Vixen mounting bar at the back end to correct the cone error. There was no noticeable cone error (I.e. to prevent objects from appearing in the C8 after a GOTO slew) between the C8 and the CG-5.

 

Does anyone know of an adjustment system to correct cone error for the C8, other than playing with washers like I have currently?

 

Regards

 

Jim

[s3igell]

Your questions about your Mount would be better asked in a more general Astronomy forum (such as AstronomyForum.net) where the number of active viewers is greater and therefore the likelihood of an iOptron Mount "expert".

[Jim]

s3igell, good point. My response started out as just a response to USB 3 working and how my kit was connected. It then all went down hill when I wandered off topic :^))

 

Regards

 

Jim

[s3igell]

Your USB3/USB2 mashup is "interesting", but probably the source of your BYEOS difficulties with "Disconnects" and "Lockups".

 

Active Cables (USB2 or otherwise) are subject to the design and USB implementation of the tiny microcontrollers in their "Active" component - and too often only nominally USB compliant.  It is usually best to string together a combo of the same Brand and Model - but you are also adding a "version/speed difference" between cables.

 

Your best option to debug this issue is to "walk the chain" with your laptop.

 

Plug your laptop in at the Powered USB2 Hub, using a short known good USB2 cable and your laptop USB3 port.  Test with all of your Imaging and Guiding and Mount devices up and running.  (This doesn't need to be done at dark of night - PHD and BYEOS will take images and shoot data down the USB in daylight but PHD just won't find a Guide Star nor Calibrate nor actually Guide.)  Confirm that everything works as expected.  Give it as much operating time as you previously spent at night before a lockup would occur...

 

Now, assuming this is Good, move on to the next piece:  Attach the Active USB2 cable and repeat the above tests.

After that, add the Active USB3 cable and repeat.

 

This should identify the culprit combo...

[admin]

I echo what s3igell just said. 

 

I would start with the camera connected to the PC directly, no hub to start with and with a known good < 6 feet USB cable.

 

ALL CAMERA DISCONNECT are always attributed to a bad cable/connection.

 

The Canon SDK is extremely sensitive, if the connection between the camera and the computer is temporarily interrupted, even if it's only for 1 millisecond, it will fire a camera disconnect event.

 

This will also occur if the USB cable is saturated with data at any given time.  So if you have -all- your devices connected to a hub and the hub into a single usb port on the computer sooner or later the cable will be over saturated with data and the camera will disconnect.  Almost -all- reported camera disconnect falls into this category <_>

 

Hope this help,

 

Guylain

[Cystokid]

All of these comments help a great deal. At least I now have a good plan of attack" for my problem isolation.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!

Bryan S.