It's always SOMETHING. Spent most of the weekend fighting WiFi issues (and solving them, yay!!!) but now I have camera issues!

[2024-04-21T19:27:50.224 MST INFO ][ org.kde.kstars.ekos] - "Failed to connect to ZWO CCD ASI533MC Pro. Please ensure device is connected and powered on."

Well, my camera is connected and powered on. The light is on, so that's the power. As for connection lsusb shows me the camera.

and nothing in dmesg.

So what to check next?

when you say nothing in dmesg, have you tried to pull the cable off and reconnect to see if anything happens on the usb bus? can you also post the output of lsusb?

Mattia; did not try unplugging and plugging back in, will do that today. As for the lsusb output suffice it to say that the output included an entry for the camera. I will also try removing the dongle for GPS to see if that changes anything.

Verdict: loose/flaky cable.

I tried a test this morning, and the camera did not even show up in lsusb.



I made sure to plug it in real tight and this time it did come up in lsusb.

Started Kstars/Ekos/INDI and the problem went away, camera connected.

Guess my cable is flaky? This surprises me. This cable looks well made and wasn't cheap.

That was my first guess Steve, yes.

ZWO (but more generically all dedicated cameras) do not use serial ports for communication but rather their own SDKs and some libusb magic to find them.

If you have a contact cleaner spray, it can help: It the WD-40 Contact cleaner has saved some HDMI and USB connectors in past. Now, if I find them, I’m trying to buy golden plated cables for astrophotography because the humidity of the night is a big issue.

Hmmm.

Humidity is NOT a problem at this time of year in Arizona. But I don’t have a better explanation for why this might be failing. I suppose this contact spray might be worth a try.