New Netbook

[Carole]

I have bought myself a small netbook so I can use it for holidays etc.
I bought it off Amazon from Acer-Periferals and it's an Acer Aspire with Windows XP - yippee.

Things I want to use it for are as follows:

1. Wifi (on hols and elsewhere).
2. To control my DSLR in Iceland and other holidays as I don't fancy using the remote cable timer as it's really fiddly, small and difficult to read in the dark and with icey cold fingers, say no more ............and because I don't fancy taking the full size laptop with me.  
3. It has a webcam so I can use it for video calls when not at home (my laptop does not have a webcam)
4.  To network the observatory sometimes.
5. Back up for Vista laptop should it ever be required (so installed QHY5 drivers and PHD).

Phil kindly came round with his external DVD player so I could install Canon Utility (to drive the DSLR) and with the use of an external monitor (wrong resolution) we managed to trick the Netbook into installing the software I needed and it works - yippee.  I need to capture in Raw and Jpeg as it can't read the RAW files (due to the resolution problem and DPP).  

The only thing we had a problem with was QHY5 drivers and PHD.  We followed the (less than straight forward) instructions, and it connects, and loops but the PHD button will not depress, so it doesn't actually calibrate and guide.
I am wondering whether we did something wrong on the installation of the drivers for QHY5, but as Phil has taken the DVD player away again I can't try to re-install it.

Any ideas why PHD button will not press?
By the way, this isn't urgent, just thought we would install it while we were at it, just in case I ever needed it.

Might need to borrow the external DVD player again Phil but I think we got distracted by my neighbours looking through the telescope with great excitement.  

Carole

[MarkS]

Any ideas why PHD button will not press?

Biscuit crumbs under the key could stop it being pressed.

[mickw]

Very likely the wrong QHY driver installed.

I can never remember which is the right one so try each one until it works 

[Carole]

Very likely the wrong QHY driver installed.

That's what i was thinking, I'll have to wait until I get the DVD recorder back off Phil to try again.

Biscuit crumbs under the key could stop it being pressed.

I mean the button on the screen Mark.

Carole

[mickw]

You can download the drivers from Modern Astronomy website

[The Thing]

Maybe better from the horses mouth as it were http://qhyccd.com/download.html.

[Carole]

The drivers are OK (came from Bern in the first place), I previously installed them on my Vista laptop.  

I didn't install them on this occasion, Phil did it with me reading out the instructions, but he did it too quickly for me to see what he was doing, so not totally sure what was done.  These drivers are a bit of a palaver and you have to do everything exactly how it says on the instruction sheet.   11 steps to the procedure!!!!

Anyway it looks like I need to re-install them, but need an external CD drive, so it will have to wait.

Thanks anyway every-one.
Otherwise I am very pleased with my purchase.

Carole

[mickw]

but need an external CD drive

Not if you download them

[Mike]

The QHY drivers are a bit of a pain. You will need to ensure that the device is completely deleted from your system before reinstalling the drviers otherwise you may have issues. Delete it in the Hardware Manager.

[Carole]

The QHY drivers are a bit of a pain. You will need to ensure that the device is completely deleted from your system before reinstalling the drviers otherwise you may have issues. Delete it in the Hardware Manager.

Thanks Mike, I know there are two iterations of drivers that need installing, one is done automatically at one stage and you have to prevent the internet from doing it automatically which I am sure we did, so will have to watch it.

Carole

[Carole]

Not if you download them

Good point Mick, that's just reminded me that I think I plopped the drivers into Dropbox at one point to help some-one else who couldn't obtain them, if I haven't deleted them I could use Dropbox, or if not load them into it again from my desktop or something.

Yup, good thinking batman.

Carole

[mickw]

load them into it again from my desktop or something

You've got a new netbook to connect to the internet