PHD2 Lock-Up / Optimum Exposure Calculator Not Responding and NINA Error Messages.

[Jim Waters]

Once or twice a night PHD2 Rel 2.6.8 will lock up to the point where I have to 'Disconnect All' and 'Reconnect All' to clear the problem. I also get NINA error messages. A NINA developer on Discord / Support says it’s a PHD2 problem. The Google PHD2 developers disagree. IMHO there may be multiple issues here. My Setup includes the following:

• PHD2 Rel 2.6.8
• NINA 1.10 Beta 05
• Windows 7 Pro x64 – Using another Lenovo E440 laptop. Will be upgrading to Win 10 Home when I get the DVD.
• QHY5L-II Auto Guider - Running current QHY drivers.
• ZWO ASI2600MC Pro Imaging Camera - Running current ZWO drivers. I am using the ASI 2600MC Pro USB Hub.
• Losmandy GM811G - Running Gemini2.net.

Note: I am not using the ZWO USB Cables. I find them to be problematic at times.

Steps to Reproduce:

• The sequence of events is something like this:
• I start up NINA and connect to the - ASI2600MC Pro (Native ZWO Driver), Manual Filter Wheel, Pegasus FocusCube2, and Losmandy Mount.
• I start up PHD2 and calibrate against a star and start guiding. I display the RA/DEC correction graph.
• I connect NINA to PHD2.
• I run NINA auto-focus routine and focus.
• I set NINA up for a 'Snapshot' sequence and run the sequence.
• I run the NINA 'Optimum Exposure Calculator'. I am using the generated output of the SharpCap sensor analysis to help determine the correct exposure. Problem: The optimum exposure calculator rarely returns an exposure value. One time I waited ~2 minutes and gave up.
• Around this time I get the following NINA Error messages – ‘Camera download failed. Exposure time 300s. Type SMAPSHOT Gain 0 Filter Baader UHC’ also ‘Error retrieving image from camera’. See Discord link below. I see that the PHD2 RA/DEC graph has stopped running under NINA. I switch to PHD2 and the screen is flashing and I get a message something like 'Star lock lost / Star lost - Low Mass'. I have to ‘Disconnect All’ and ‘Reconnect All’ to clear the PHD2 problem. When I do restart PHD2 I see that’s there’s nothing wrong with the star that I selected. There are no clouds. I showed a section of the NINA error logs to a developer on Discord and they say it’s a PHD2 issue. The PHD2 developers say no. IMHO this / these problems only occur when I run the ‘Optimum Exposure Calculator’ and use Snapshot. This happened May 17 and 18th doing about the same thing. Other than running the ‘Optimum Exposure Calculator’ everything runs without issues. I ran each night ~4 hours without any issues.

Why does PHD2 lock up this way? Why doesn’t the ‘Optimum Exposure Calculator’ return a value? Are these two issues related? I suspect this is a NINA issue (bug) or a NINA process issue on my part. NINA log files are included. Let me know what else you need.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/436650937663356939/711862273957691442/unknown.png

Expected behavior

To function as expected.

Actual behavior

See above.

[Dale Ghent]

I see your thread here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/open-phd-guiding/NrGacdGrHYc

What you neglected to tell them was that NINA lost connection, for unknown reasons, with the PHD2 TCP server (connection reset by peer), and it appears that either you or they have misinterpreted what you meant by “locked up”, which has them dismissing your report and returning the blame back to NINA.

There is nothing in what they wrote that says this is a NINA problem. Brian Valentine even says that SGP goes into recovery mode. Yes, if it’s in a sequence. But you’re not running a sequence, so he’s completely misunderstood your situation. You have to be careful and be thorough in detail as this is how other developers find ins to offload the problem.

At any rate, PHD2 locking up is not normal and they should not be treating it as such. It’s a problem, but it’s their problem as it’s their program.

Since you mention that NINA is reporting that the camera download has failed, the fault might not be in either program. This type of error in NINA is usually the result of the camera disappearing on it for some reason - a USB bus reset, or other lower-level issue. Vendor camera SDKs are generally pretty terrible at telling us when there’s something wrong, so when something does go wrong with its connection to the camera, the only way we know is when stuff starts breaking - like a frame that is commanded to be taken but then the camera appears to disappear into neverever land and we never hear from it again.

So what I think might be happening in your case as perhaps something USB related - NINA’s griping about the camera disappearing, and PHD2 is locking up or hanging because it can’t talk to the guide camera anymore - likely because the USB bus reset and broke both programs' connection to their respective cameras.

What I would do is two things:

1. Turn down the USB Speed setting in NINA to 40 or 50, or as low as it will go for your camera. PHD2 fails to offer an equivalent setting so the guide camera is going to try to utilize the USB bus fully. When your camera and guide camera are both trying to do this, this can sometimes cause USB bus resets. Because we offer the USB Speed setting in NINA, turn that down and see if stability improves.
2. Keep the settings the same, but do not use the OEC with the guide camera running. This would put only your main camera’s traffic onto the USB bus, eliminating any possibility of both it and the guide camera’s traffic combining to cause issues.

I have an ASI290MM guide camera that I use with PHD2, and an ASI1600MM main camera. I have to turn down the USB Speed in NINA for the ASI1600MM because, if I don’t, I also get random bus instability when the guide camera is looping in PHD2 and I’m trying to download frames off the ASI1600MM. This was especially the case when I used an active USB extender.

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[Jim Waters]

Dale – Thanks for taking the time to reply and pointing out a few items. I know Brian from CN’s, Losmandy/Gemini-2 forums and some e-mails. I posted a reply to Brian trying to clarify what I meant by PHD2 ‘Lock-Up’ - below:

“The PHD2 screen was 'White' like everything was out of focus, the banner was flashing, the RA/DEC plot stopped, I pushed STOP and then GUIDE and nothing changed. The only way to get PHD2 to respond was to 'Disconnect All' then 'Connect All'. After I did that PHD2 worked as expected. The star field was clean (no clouds) and the guide star I was using was good. Perhaps a little too bright / large.”

I have time to investigate this more. This problem happened on two separate nights only when I was using the ‘Optimum Exposure Calculator’. I think I can get it to happen again. I would like to trace the TCP traffic between the camera’s and my laptop. Can you recommend a TCP Trace app? I am using the native ZWO Driver. I have the USB Speed limit set to 40%.

If it’s a UBS Speed / Bus Reset problem why would this problem only occur while running the ‘Optimum Exposure Calculator’? Over the 2 nights I ran ~8 hours without any issues – other than the above.

What’s the recommended method to run the ‘Optimum Exposure Calculator’?

I upgraded to Beta 6 today. Is there any way to step back to Beta 5 without doing a clean install? I want to do some additional testing. Thx

[Stefan B]

Seems to be hardware issue. If still a problem, more details are required if this is really nina related