Back to forums

ZWO 2600 MC 2025 Version Troubleshooting - Missing frames and exposure failures

ZWO ASI2600MC Pro ZWO ASIAIR Plus Troubleshooting
17 replies•416 views
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar

Hello to everybody,

I need help to solve a strange problem with my new Zwo ASI 2600 MC Pro.

I bought the 2025 camera and when I first tested it I noticed this problem: sometimes it did not save the sub in the memory but the asi air kept saying that it was shooting even though the countdown was over (see image below) and then, randomly, I got an exposure failure.

📷 Screenshot_20251017-205157.pngScreenshot_20251017-205157.pngChecking the logs they look like this:

2025/10/17 20:49:14 Shooting 60 light frames, exposure 60.0s Bin1

2025/10/17 20:49:14 Exposure 60.0s image 2#

2025/10/17 20:50:15 Delay 2s

2025/10/17 20:50:17 Exposure 60.0s image 3# ←—— 1 sub missed

2025/10/17 20:52:20 Delay 2s

2025/10/17 20:52:22 Target RA:21h31m13s DEC:+12°16'59"

2025/10/17 20:52:22 Exposure 60.0s image 4#

2025/10/17 20:53:14 Delay 2s

2025/10/17 20:53:16 Exposure 60.0s image 5#

2025/10/17 20:56:29 Delay 2s ←— 3 subs missed

2025/10/17 20:56:31 Exposure 60.0s image 6#

and then randomly:

2025/10/17 23:05:43 Delay 2s

2025/10/17 23:05:45 Exposure 60.0s image 23#

2025/10/17 23:06:46 Delay 2s

2025/10/17 23:06:48 Exposure 60.0s image 24#

2025/10/17 23:07:49 Delay 2s

2025/10/17 23:07:51 Exposure 60.0s image 25#

2025/10/17 23:11:59 Exposure 60.0s image 25# failed ←—- 4 subs missed and then failure

2025/10/17 23:11:59 [Autorun|End] Pause Autorun

I tried on several nights and the problems kept repeating while also noticing that I got immediately some exposure failures during the EAF autofocus process and the polar alignment.

Another thing that I noticed is that if I quit the app and then enter it again, I can see that the countdown has restarted but when it ends I could still get no subs with no countdown.

My rig consists of: AM5N mount, asi 676 guide camera, asi air plus, 2 anti-dew belts connected on single asi air output that I kept at 25%

I did the following tests:

  • I changed the usb and power cables 3 different times with three different brands and using three different cable lengths

  • I changed the usb 3.0 port to which the camera was connected

  • I powered the mount directly

  • I powered directly the camera without using asi air

  • I powered the whole rig with a 10 A converter connected to a wall power socket instead of using my battery

  • i set to save the subs on the internal memory instead of the micro sd

  • I deactivated the anti-dew of the camera and changed the fan speed to 50%

  • I tried different lengths for the subs

  • I did a reset of the firmware

  • I kept the Asi Air updated to the latest version

During all the tests the power to the camera was between 11.4 and 12.0 V or with the mini value higher when powered directly

I also brought the camera to the shop where I bought and right now it’s in Zwo Germany for testing but they both say that they did not find anything wrong with it.

As further info: I tested the whole rig by using my old Asi 533 MC pro (powering the mount separately while the cameras and the anti dew belts were connected to asi air) by shooting 700+ subs and I did not have any kind of problem

After a couple of months I’m getting pretty desperate to find a solution to this strange problem: any kind of help is much appreciated!

Thank you for reading the whole post!

Helpful Engaging
Ian McIntyre avatar
Ian McIntyre avatar
It sounds to me like its entirely possible that the issue with this camera's upload failure with USB 3 cables that existed in my 4 year old version of the 2600mc pro has persisted through subsequent generations.

Try a USB 2 cable.
Concise
ScottF avatar
ScottF avatar

The voltage seems pretty low to me. Voltage issues will cause problems for sure. I would try as Ian suggested, use a USB cable to plug into the camera…the one that has a regular end(usb A) and a USB type B(the one that looks like a little house/square with two rounded corners). The usb type B end fits into the usb 3 socket on the camera. I had trouble with a camera a while ago with failed downloads and that solved the problem.

Helpful
Rainer Ehlert avatar
Rainer Ehlert avatar

Hi,

As ScottF mentioned the voltages are low. When you connect all that you get asignificant voltage drop. and 11.4V to 12V is on the low end.

Please post an image of your wall power.

IMHO you should use a good power brick with adjustable voltage and when all is connected the voltage should be 12.0 to 12.5V

You should use either the original power bricks supplied from the astronomy equipment producers or get something like this https://tinyurl.com/PowerSupply12V10A and make your own cables to all the devices.

Concise
Ali Alhawas avatar
Ali Alhawas avatar

Looks like a power issue..

These cameras are sensitive to voltage..

Get a good 12V DC power adapter with the following spec:

Not less than 5A, AND its D5.5 × 2.1mm NOT D5.5 × 2.5mm

because sometimes you can get a good 12V power adapter but its not 5A !! OR its not 2.1mm !!

Test your camera with the new adapter ONLY and take some exposures using deferent app. ASIStudio or NINA, then you can decide if the camera is affected or not

Helpful Concise
Armin Lukas avatar
Armin Lukas avatar

One thing to add: Connect a seperate power supply to the cam. Dont use one power supply for all the equipment.

ScottF avatar
ScottF avatar

An adjustable power supply is important too, especially if your line voltage is low. Mine is a bit iffy at times due to the long run of cable to my observatory.

Well Written Concise
Mike Senn avatar
Mike Senn avatar

When I had similar issues, they resolved when I began using a dedicated 12V power supply directly from the AC outlet to the camera itself. Then I use another 12V power adapter for everything else, and that seems to work fine. The ASI2600 seems to be picky on voltage.

Well Written Concise
Andrew Murrell avatar
Andrew Murrell avatar

My original ASI2600MC recently began failing on every exposure, so I arranged to send it back to ZWO. I purchased a new camera at the same time — the updated model. I’ve had the random exposure failure occur a couple of times now, and I followed the advice here by giving the camera its own dedicated power supply. However, it happened again last night, regardless. It’s extremely frustrating, as each time the exposure fails, it terminates the Autorun sequence and stops shooting altogether.

Well Written Concise
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar

Thank you all for the replies.

I got an answer from zwo saying that they’re going to substitute the camera with a new one but since, as several you said, the voltages output were low, I’m going to buy a dedicated power manager (like for example the WandererBox PLUS V3) also as a step towards switching to a mini pc with nina in the future.

Armin Lukas · Dec 2, 2025, 09:42 AM

One thing to add: Connect a seperate power supply to the cam. Dont use one power supply for all the equipment.

I tried it but it did not change anything.

Andrew Murrell · Dec 3, 2025, 07:22 PM

My original ASI2600MC recently began failing on every exposure, so I arranged to send it back to ZWO. I purchased a new camera at the same time — the updated model. I’ve had the random exposure failure occur a couple of times now, and I followed the advice here by giving the camera its own dedicated power supply. However, it happened again last night, regardless. It’s extremely frustrating, as each time the exposure fails, it terminates the Autorun sequence and stops shooting altogether.

Its very frustrating when it happens since the autorun stops and you could loose a lot of exposure time if you haven’t checked the asi air for a while.

John Walsh avatar
John Walsh avatar

I’ve had a myriad of issues with the 2600MC (2025 version) since I got it a few weeks ago.

Disconnections and the cooling stopping. Swapping out the red usb cable with a Lindy one seemed to address that but now I also get the ‘loading’ problem with exposures being lost and not saving to either a flash drive or emmc (on the ASIAIR).

Changed to a usb 2.0 cable and got one night of imaging without the issues but since the problems are intermittent and random in nature, I don’t know has this solved anything.

Helpful
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar

John Walsh · Dec 4, 2025, 08:14 PM

I’ve had a myriad of issues with the 2600MC (2025 version) since I got it a few weeks ago.

Disconnections and the cooling stopping. Swapping out the red usb cable with a Lindy one seemed to address that but now I also get the ‘loading’ problem with exposures being lost and not saving to either a flash drive or emmc (on the ASIAIR).

Changed to a usb 2.0 cable and got one night of imaging without the issues but since the problems are intermittent and random in nature, I don’t know has this solved anything.

Fortunately I have not experienced issues related to cooling or the stability of the connection but I always got the problem of the looping exposures during the 3 session that I managed to use it.

What do you mean by saying that you changed to a USB 2.0 cable? Does it mean that you used a usb 2.0 b male cable in the USB 3.0 type B port of the camera? I could test this solution if the problem happens again with the new camera as soon as I get it back. Thank you

RvB avatar
RvB avatar

My recommendation:

Contact ZWO support, explain your problem, and ask for a new firmware update. This can be installed via TeamViewer.

Another possibility:
Do you still have an old ZWO USB-3 ribbon cable? If so, try that.

CS Reiner

Helpful Concise
John Walsh avatar
John Walsh avatar

AdAstraAnimadverto · Dec 5, 2025, 06:24 PM

John Walsh · Dec 4, 2025, 08:14 PM

I’ve had a myriad of issues with the 2600MC (2025 version) since I got it a few weeks ago.

Disconnections and the cooling stopping. Swapping out the red usb cable with a Lindy one seemed to address that but now I also get the ‘loading’ problem with exposures being lost and not saving to either a flash drive or emmc (on the ASIAIR).

Changed to a usb 2.0 cable and got one night of imaging without the issues but since the problems are intermittent and random in nature, I don’t know has this solved anything.

Fortunately I have not experienced issues related to cooling or the stability of the connection but I always got the problem of the looping exposures during the 3 session that I managed to use it.

What do you mean by saying that you changed to a USB 2.0 cable? Does it mean that you used a usb 2.0 b male cable in the USB 3.0 type B port of the camera? I could test this solution if the problem happens again with the new camera as soon as I get it back. Thank you

Sorry i missed your message. Just seeing it now.

Yes I swapped over to a USB2.0 cable A to B from the USB 3.0 port on the camera into the USB2.0 port of the asiair.

ScottF avatar
ScottF avatar

AdAstraAnimadverto · Dec 5, 2025 at 06:24 PM

John Walsh · Dec 4, 2025, 08:14 PM

I’ve had a myriad of issues with the 2600MC (2025 version) since I got it a few weeks ago.

Disconnections and the cooling stopping. Swapping out the red usb cable with a Lindy one seemed to address that but now I also get the ‘loading’ problem with exposures being lost and not saving to either a flash drive or emmc (on the ASIAIR).

Changed to a usb 2.0 cable and got one night of imaging without the issues but since the problems are intermittent and random in nature, I don’t know has this solved anything.

Fortunately I have not experienced issues related to cooling or the stability of the connection but I always got the problem of the looping exposures during the 3 session that I managed to use it.

What do you mean by saying that you changed to a USB 2.0 cable? Does it mean that you used a usb 2.0 b male cable in the USB 3.0 type B port of the camera? I could test this solution if the problem happens again with the new camera as soon as I get it back. Thank you

Yes, to the cable, I mentioned it here to try that, it worked for me.

AdAstraAnimadverto avatar
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar

John Walsh · Dec 10, 2025, 06:20 PM

AdAstraAnimadverto · Dec 5, 2025, 06:24 PM

John Walsh · Dec 4, 2025, 08:14 PM

I’ve had a myriad of issues with the 2600MC (2025 version) since I got it a few weeks ago.

Disconnections and the cooling stopping. Swapping out the red usb cable with a Lindy one seemed to address that but now I also get the ‘loading’ problem with exposures being lost and not saving to either a flash drive or emmc (on the ASIAIR).

Changed to a usb 2.0 cable and got one night of imaging without the issues but since the problems are intermittent and random in nature, I don’t know has this solved anything.

Fortunately I have not experienced issues related to cooling or the stability of the connection but I always got the problem of the looping exposures during the 3 session that I managed to use it.

What do you mean by saying that you changed to a USB 2.0 cable? Does it mean that you used a usb 2.0 b male cable in the USB 3.0 type B port of the camera? I could test this solution if the problem happens again with the new camera as soon as I get it back. Thank you

Sorry i missed your message. Just seeing it now.

Yes I swapped over to a USB2.0 cable A to B from the USB 3.0 port on the camera into the USB2.0 port of the asiair.

no problem.

I should get back the camera for zwo soon and I’ll start with a normal config but, should the problem reappear, I’ll try this solution.

thank you gain for the tip.

BlackStarsAstro avatar
BlackStarsAstro avatar

Would a power box be a solution. Power boxes regulate voltages. No equipment, analog or digital, draws a steady voltage. The power demand can change several times in a few hours. I have had power bricks function kinda normal, but after I got the power box and saw the realtime voltage input/output, I realized they were garbage and had to replace with high quality ones.

AdAstraAnimadverto avatar
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar

I got the new camera back and yesterday evening I managed to test it: I shot 360x60s subs plus all the calibrations for the focus once an hour, did a meridian flip etc and I did not have a single problem. I’ll keep testing but with the old camera I got immediately problems starting from the EAF autofocus procedure so I’m positive.

BlackStarsAstro · Dec 11, 2025, 09:13 PM

Would a power box be a solution. Power boxes regulate voltages. No equipment, analog or digital, draws a steady voltage. The power demand can change several times in a few hours. I have had power bricks function kinda normal, but after I got the power box and saw the realtime voltage input/output, I realized they were garbage and had to replace with high quality ones.

Even though it seems that the problem is solved, I was already thinking to switch to a mele pc with NINA and a powerbox to manage everything more in depth and also add flexibility with the setup.