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Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:35 am
by cytan299
I exited Sharpcap so that it remembers that the gain setting is at 1.
Restarted Sharpcap and did this:
Experiment 2:
Reset
Gain is already at 1. Notice that there are NO frames that get collected! Black screen (because the cap on the PoleMaster is on)
- track1.jpg (402.5 KiB) Viewed 3132 times
This is weird!
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:36 am
by cytan299
Finally, I upped the gain from the above and frames are being collected. And I get a white screen again.
- track2.jpg (405.34 KiB) Viewed 3132 times
Note: I tried changing the gain and the frame rate changes. Higher gain gives higher frame rate. Very strange!
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:14 am
by turfpit
Cytan
Looking at your image and the USB settings - these might not be optimum. I have a QHY5LII-M running on SC 3.2.6062, using an i3 laptop and connected to a USB2 port. For the USB rate settings - Speed and USB Traffic - I am using 2 (Speed) & 0 (USB Traffic) and running with 30% gain. The USB Traffic slider is non-intuitive as
0 is fastest and 255 is slowest. I have had situations where the frames per second seems stuck at < 1 fps. Disconnecting/Re-connecting the camera in SC has no effect. Removing the USB cable (reset the bus) and restarting SC seems to work (mostly). However, I have had instances where a complete power off/on of the laptop has been needed to kick-start the fps. With a Capture Area of 320x240 and MONO8 I have managed > 100 fps. Once I have the expected fps, I have had no issues capturing 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 frame SER videos.
I suggest you try different USB ports as an experiment. Also note I am using SER Output Format.
I think the QHY SDK is bugged but I have not been able to document a systematic failure to report back to Robin as the problem manifests itself in an erratic way. I have noticed that if USB settings are not optimal the fps is abysmal.
Dave
- QHY-optimum-USB-settings.jpg (149.14 KiB) Viewed 3127 times
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:43 pm
by cytan299
turfpit wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:14 am
Cytan
Looking at your image and the USB settings - these might not be optimum. I have a QHY5LII-M running on SC 3.2.6062, using an i3 laptop and connected to a USB2 port. For the USB rate settings - Speed and USB Traffic - I am using 2 (Speed) & 0 (USB Traffic) and running with 30% gain. The USB Traffic slider is non-intuitive as
0 is fastest and 255 is slowest. I have had situations where the frames per second seems stuck at < 1 fps. Disconnecting/Re-connecting the camera in SC has no effect. Removing the USB cable (reset the bus) and restarting SC seems to work (mostly). However, I have had instances where a complete power off/on of the laptop has been needed to kick-start the fps. With a Capture Area of 320x240 and MONO8 I have managed > 100 fps. Once I have the expected fps, I have had no issues capturing 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 frame SER videos.
I suggest you try different USB ports as an experiment. Also note I am using SER Output Format.
I think the QHY SDK is bugged but I have not been able to document a systematic failure to report back to Robin as the problem manifests itself in an erratic way. I have noticed that if USB settings are not optimal the fps is abysmal.
Dave
Hi Dave,
I tried your suggestions and the frame rate still is ridiculously slow with the new qhyccd.dll. It's also interesting that the new version has the USB control when the new qhyccd.dll is used. I still get a white screen.
I reverted back to the old qhyccd.dll and it does not have USB control. And frame rate is reasonable. And I don't get the white screen.
Looking at the above experiments, it might indicate that the new qhyccd.dll is integrating for too long and that's why the bits overflow and I get the white screen.
cytan
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 7:00 pm
by admin
Hi,
Even with longer exposures the whole image should really go white like that. I will keep pushing qhy to try to find a fix for this problem, but they say that in their tests with the latest SDK everything seems to be fine. We are expecting a new SDK soon which may just have an improvement in it, but I would like to promise that.
Cheers, Robin
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:08 pm
by cytan299
Hi Robin,
Is it possible for you to get or borrow a PoleMaster? I think this will speed up debugging and convince the qhy developers that something is wrong. A previous post by mwg3656 says that SharpCap 3.2.5986 (but not the latest version 3.2.6062) works with the latest version of qhyccd.dll also needs to be investigated, I think.
cytan
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:42 pm
by admin
Hi, unfortunately me having a pole master camera is really going to help much – I can't fix this issue myself anyway because it's obviously something that has changed in the code that is written by qhy. When you copy the older qhy DLL onto the later SharpCap then everything works fine.
So far qhy seem to have been unable to make the problem happen themselves – I would think that the best choice at this point would be for you guys to both report the issue via the qhy forums as the report has less impact with me being the man in the middle each time passing on your findings.
Cheers, Robin
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:31 am
by cytan299
Hi Robin
Which qhy forum? Please send me a link and I’ll post.
cytan
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:20 pm
by admin
Re: Problems with PoleMaster
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:24 am
by cytan299
Hi Robin,
It seems that QHY has disabled any new users from joining the groups! See screen capture:
- track.jpg (316.16 KiB) Viewed 3070 times
So, it seems that I cannot report the bug.
cytan