Titan Connection Problem

[AstroRick]

I use my Titan for capturing solar images through a Coronado SolarMax 60 and for autoguiding with PHD through an AstroTech 72.

When directly connected to my PC with a short USB cable it works fine.  I have purchased a USB 2.0 Cat5 Extender made by Black Box to allow me to remote my PC from the observing gear.  All of my other devices (mount, focuser, temperature monitor, Canon camera, SBIG camera, QSI camera) are able to connect with the PC through the extender. When I plug in the Titan into the remote hub, Win7 recognizes it and it shows as "working properly" in the Device Manager.  However Artemis will not connect.  I downloaded the driver from your web site and went through the Device Manager's procedure for upgrading.  It did not make a difference.

Any thoughts on how to make this work?

Thanks,

Rick Burke

[NickK]

Although this is probably long sorted - I just wanted to say that I solved a similar problem when using repeaters.

I frequently use two 5 meter active repeaters. However what happens is that each repeater (and the length of the cable) causes the USB power to drop. This caused the Titan a problem which I fixed by using a powered 5V hub on the end of the repeater.

Nick

[AstroRick]

The Cat5 USB extender that I have is powered on the remote end, where all the telescope/cameras/focuser are connected.  All the other equipment works.

The answer that I got from Atik is long gone from my inbox, but was to the effect that they did not support that configuration and had no plans to address my problem.  Basically, I use the camera as a door stop/paperweight!

Thanks,

Rick

[NickK]

Interesting - I don't work for ATIK but I would be interested in hearing of your experience. What TCP/IP network latency do you get?

The reason I ask is, for the OSX drivers, I could add a long-run mode to help cope with long latency.

[AstroRick]

I never tried to measure how the timing changes.  I am not even sure that the protocol between the remote and local ends of the extender is TCP/IP, just that it uses a Cat5 cable.