QHY PoleMaster Issues - Forums

Topic starter

Nov 21, 2019 · Edited: Nov 21, 2019

My QHY PoleMaster is awesome… when it works. A couple of times it has worked flawlessly, but most of the time the stream of images from the camera freezes before I can get the polar alignment done. I've tried alternate cables with no luck. Rebooting my laptop seems to help for a few seconds, but then freezes again. It seems others have reported this same problem, and have suggested running a video in the background while using the camera. I tried this, but it usually doesn't help at all.

There must be hundreds of people on here with PoleMasters… has anyone else faced this issue? Has anyone found a sure-fire solution for getting it to work consistantly?

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Gary Imm

Nov 21, 2019

No, once I replaced the cable, it has never crashed for me in 2 years.

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xordi

Nov 21, 2019 · Edited: Nov 21, 2019

No issue with Polemaster.

I had similar issue in other application when the USB cable was too long or there was a hub in between camera and computer. Probably the camera did not get the necessary current or so…. The stream has started for a sec than it has been frozen.

Anyway it was solved when the connection to the computer was shortened.

Concise

Carastro

Nov 21, 2019

I haven't had a problem personally but I read about people on a different forum having similar problems. The video option seems to have worked for some of them, (but that would be no good for me if I am at astro camp with no Wifi on the laptop).

Others have said changing USB ports had helped and one person said "I solved the problem by using a powered usb hub".

Carole

Corey Rueckheim

Topic starter

Nov 21, 2019

I've tried changing USB ports, and I tried connecting through my Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox v2, and I tried a direct cable to the camera from my PC. There seems to be no difference. However, the act of "resetting" by doing one of those things, or rebooting, can sometimes get it working long enough to use it. It seems like only certain PCs have issues, so perhaps its a specific hardware issue or conflict with those PCs, or perhaps a software setting?

For the record, my PC is a new Dell Inspiron 15.6" 2-in-1 with Core i5, 8GB memory, and 256 GB SSD, running Windows 10.

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Carastro

Nov 21, 2019

OK, if this helps to narrow it down.
Mine is a Lenovo running W7 and not had any problems so far fingers crossed.

Carole

Andy 01

IOTD Staff

Nov 21, 2019

I use a mac and have to freshly install polemaster every time I want to use it. If I don’t, it gets half way through the procedure but the rotating circle doesn’t appear.
A fresh install seems to work but for one use only.

Steve Clark

Nov 22, 2019 · Edited: Nov 22, 2019

I've never had a problem with my PoleMaster but have with a USB port (standard not the mini) and by bending up the connection pins inside the port with a needle (Laptop off) it fixed the problem. The tech's claim was the socket connections can fatigue and not keep contact. It worked in this case.

Concise

jonkjon

Nov 22, 2019

I had the same issue running it on a Windows 10 pro Lenovo laptop. I wound up using an older laptop with Windows 7 installed and it ran fine. A few weeks later I tried it again with the newer Lenovo laptop and it worked fine. Maybe it was one of the Windows updates?

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Tam Rich

Nov 23, 2019

Corey Rueckheim:
My QHY PoleMaster is awesome... when it works. A couple of times it has worked flawlessly, but most of the time the stream of images from the camera freezes before I can get the polar alignment done. I've tried alternate cables with no luck. Rebooting my laptop seems to help for a few seconds, but then freezes again. It seems others have reported this same problem, and have suggested running a video in the background while using the camera. I tried this, but it usually doesn't help at all.There must be hundreds of people on here with PoleMasters... has anyone else faced this issue? Has anyone found a sure-fire solution for getting it to work consistantly?

I had the same issue running it on a Windows 10 pro Lenovo laptop. I wound up using an older laptop with Windows 7 installed and it ran fine. A few weeks later I tried it again with the newer Lenovo laptop and it worked fine. Maybe it was one of the Windows updates?

I have the same problem,worked perfectly on my windows 10 laptop,then started to freeze,reinstalled,changed cable,run video in background,I've tried everything still no luck ,my solution was to use a older laptop running windows 7.
ps must be windows 10 updates,no need to change cables .

urmymuse

Nov 24, 2019

I have the orion labelled version of the pole master which works great on my windows seven pc. I shortly having to upgrade to windows ten so now worried re problems when I do

Tam Rich

Nov 24, 2019

I have the orion labelled version of the pole master which works great on my windows seven pc. I shortly having to upgrade to windows ten so now worried re problems when I do

Fingers crossed it will be ok, I still can't get the polemaster to work on my Acer Aspire 3 starts up them starts to lag,when I first got the polemaster worked perfectly, I'm sure it's when windows 10 updates, when I set up my rig I use my windows 7 laptop to get my PolarAlign using the polemaster,then use my windows 10 to image ,sorry I wish I had an answer for you,the best of luck.

Steve Clark

Nov 24, 2019 · Edited: Nov 24, 2019

Just ran across a problem last night using a new Levono think pad. If I connected the PM usb cable to the left side usb port on the laptop intermittent problems. Same thing for the camera. Now this may be a bad usb port on a new laptop though. Connecting to the usb on the right side port the problems went away.

I think I'll send the Levono back… BTW - It's not the same Laptop as in my first post.

G400

Nov 24, 2019

I have the same issues with my Asus GL730G with Win10. If Polemaster runs (which seldom was the case) then everything else thereafter was lagging or frozen, APT or BYEOS, CdC, PHD2, EQASCOM/EQMOD. Or it was vice versa. Sometimes I got 2 pings when I connected the Polemaster USB cable, most probably a connect with a subsequent disconnect? I now do astrophotography with my old laptop under Win7.

Roger Redcat

Nov 25, 2019 · Edited: Nov 25, 2019

Gary Imm:
No, once I replaced the cable, it has never crashed for me in 2 years.

Same for me and i update windows with every update and always update polemaster, what is the hardware specs on you system?
Roger

PS although still using original cable.

Roger Redcat

Nov 25, 2019

Steve Clark:
Just ran across a problem last night using a new Levono think pad. If I connected the PM usb cable to the left side usb port on the laptop intermittent problems. Same thing for the camera. Now this may be a bad usb port on a new laptop though. Connecting to the usb on the right side port the problems went away.I think I'll send the Levono back... BTW - It's not the same Laptop as in my first post.

On my laptop the left usbs are usb3 and right one usb2 so that may be why,#
Roger

Brian Littlejohn

Nov 25, 2019

I'm having a similar issue, except if I move my mouse over the image it updates for another couple of seconds… pretty annoying getting it polar aligned, luckily it is still doable, just takes longer than it should.

Corey Rueckheim

Topic starter

Nov 25, 2019 · Edited: Nov 25, 2019

Sometimes moving the mouse seems to help me too, but usually not enough to complete the polar alignment process.

Friday night I used my PoleMaster, and it worked perfectly! I wish I could rely on it to work every time! Using a laptop with Windows 7 instead of Windows 10 seems to be to only reliable solution, but that's not a option for me right now. When I get a chance, I plan on experimenting extensively with it in order to come up with a definitive solution on Windows 10. Maybe using compatibility mode will work?

By the way, check out my photos from Friday night: 2019-11-22. I learned a lot that night, and I think it shows in the quality of my images!

Engaging

Steve Clark

Nov 25, 2019

Steve Clark:
Just ran across a problem last night using a new Levono think pad. If I connected the PM usb cable to the left side usb port on the laptop intermittent problems. Same thing for the camera. Now this may be a bad usb port on a new laptop though. Connecting to the usb on the right side port the problems went away.I think I'll send the Levono back... BTW - It's not the same Laptop as in my first post.
On my laptop the left usbs are usb3 and right one usb2 so that may be why,#
Roger

This little think pad was really cheap (230 us) I don't think it has usb 3.0 ports at least they are not marked as such.

Corey Rueckheim

Topic starter

Nov 25, 2019

From what I understand, the PoleMaster specifications are USB 2.0.

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jonkjon

Nov 25, 2019

Another piece of the puzzle… I use my laptop only for PoleMaster and polar alignment. I use a desktop PC (Windows 10) in my home (connected via USB active repeater cable) to remotely control my scope during imaging. As a test, I installed PoleMaster on my Desktop machine and connected the PoleMaster camera to the USB hub on my mount. I then took the laptop outside and used remote desktop to access PoleMaster on the desktop machine (which is now where the PoleMaster camera is connected) and it worked perfectly. Talk about going around your elbow to get to your thumb! lol

Regardless, this appears to be mostly affecting laptops for some reason.

–Jon

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Carastro

Nov 25, 2019

Crikey, but so long as it works.

Carole

James Schellenberg

Nov 30, 2019

I had the same problem, but it went away when I started using a powered USB hub.

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Steve Clark

Nov 30, 2019

I just added powered hubs to my mount but haven't tried using the left usb on the laptop as it's on it's way back to the dealer…

jonkjon

Nov 30, 2019

I've been working with QHY to troubleshoot this. At the moment, it appears to be a USB traffic problem. They are working on adding a slider, similar in functionality to SharpCap's USB traffic adjustment. In testing, this worked for me.

–Jon

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