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Re: QHY183c TEC problems with Sharpcap 3.2

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 2:44 am
by GregL
OK, Robin. Here are the logs from this. My normal approach is to bin2, high gain, short exposure for focusing (temp ok).
Then change settings in order, top to bottom. Bin1, longer exposure, reduce gain. Somewhere in here the TEC has an issue -- the setpoint field goes to -100 but the temperature rises. Change that value and toggle it off and on a few times until it goes. Hope this helps.

greg

Re: QHY183c TEC problems with Sharpcap 3.2

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 8:43 am
by admin
Hi Greg,

Thanks for those logs. I can see in the second one that after you change back to one by one binning, SharpCap asks the camera for the current values of various properties and the camera responds with the cooler power being zero and the target temperature being -100, both of which are rubbish. I think the conclusion is is that I need to stop trusting the camera to tell me the truth about the values of those two properties it least under some circumstances (working out the right circumstances might be the interesting part).

Cheers, Robin

Re: QHY183c TEC problems with Sharpcap 3.2

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:29 pm
by GregL
Thanks, Robin.

I assume you will inform QHY of this little feature. Sounds like a bug in their camera firmware.

greg

Re: QHY183c TEC problems with Sharpcap 3.2

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 1:09 am
by GregL
Installed new version, looked promising and then got a response while focusing my 183m -- temp -5010.3C. And the program hung... sigh.

greg

Am attaching the logs from the session. Abended the program doing an exposure calc -- shifted to 100 second exposure and nothing happened after that .

Re: QHY183c TEC problems with Sharpcap 3.2

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 1:31 pm
by admin
Hi Greg,

Sadly the log files that you attach to your last post don't seem to have the extra diagnostic information in them (that option must of been switched off in the settings or via the pop-up that occurs when you start the program with it switched on) meaning that I can't really tell a great deal from those log files. The fact that you are getting bad values for the camera temperature strongly indicates that there is a problem in communication between the camera hardware and the SDK or alternatively a bug in the SDK. SharpCap simply shows the value that it receives when it asks the SDK for the current temperature.

Cheers, Robin

Re: QHY183c TEC problems with Sharpcap 3.2

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 5:41 pm
by GregL
Sorry about that. I should probably just run with the extra diagnostics enabled until all this settles out. Clouding up and rain in the forecast -- again.

greg