ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

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madman
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ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

Post by madman »

Been using this camera for some months now and yesterday ran a dual setup with my Mod 6D in a Tak106 and then my quark, ASI174mm in my Explore Scientific ED80.

Ever since I've owned it, the 174 regularly disconnects from Firecapture and often won't let me back in or when it does, it does so at some very low fps (e.g. 40 vs. the 200+ I get when it runs right - which is never). When it is stable, God forbid you want to exit and comeback in again as anything higher than the 2.5 beta version of Firecapture leaves itself planted in memory and even task manager can't kill the process, meaning complete re-boots.

What I have tried: Dedicated USB 3.0 port, multiple cables (active and not active), multiple USB traffic settings, multiple versions of firecapture (beta and non-beta), multiple versions old and new of 174 drivers, etc...

No support from ZWO available at all.

If it weren't for my Canon 6D in the Tak with a simple Baader film filter, I would have gotten nothing yesterday - and I'm fed up. I'm not sure which to blame - but I'm seriously thinking about taking the camera outback and shooting it with a 12 gauge. Can't figure out how to shoot firecapture, but will have to find a virtual way to do that as well.

Any suggestions on a better camera with some responsive support? I like the chip (174) but I would prefer a camera that contained it from folks that can write a driver and respond to support inquiries. I miss my Flea3 and even the Flycapture software that I used to use. Horrible stuff but at least it didn't crash incessantly.

Looking for recommendation on a 174MM chip in a well supported body (or a better chip if you all can find one that suffices for planetary and solar like the 174 seems to have speced out to) and an alternative to Firecapture (other than SharpCap which I cannot get a decent frame rate out of).

Maybe it's time for a new computer but any advice welcome.

Thanks in advance for suggestions!

Mike


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Re: ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

Post by Randy Shivak »

I would check on your computer.


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Re: ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

Post by marktownley »

What specs are the PC you are using?


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Re: ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

Post by pedro »

I guess it's a problem with your PC, my ASI174MM works like a charm


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Re: ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

Post by Merlin66 »

+1 from me.
I’m running an ASI 174mm using FireCapture on a Win10 MSI laptop - USB3, SSD drive
No issues, no drama.


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Re: ASI 174MM and Firecapture - endless issues - looking for alternatives!

Post by _Zakalwe »

+1 for me. I've been using an ASI174 for a few years and it just works. i've alsways used Firecapture too.

USB3 can be sensitive to cabling issues, do I'd start there. Do you have any hubs in the system?


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