Sensor Analysis hangs for QHY294C

[saublestarman]

Robin,
The sensor analysis performs very well until it finishes the read noise testing and asks the user to remove the lens cap. I believe that the sensor analysis configures the camera for the next test and then waits for the exposure time to come back to a reasonable value. The time-out delay is not long and is further complicated by the buffering of the images in the QHY294C DDR memory. I end up having to be extremely quick to remove the lens cap because my reaction time and the time for sharpcap to empty the DDR buffer of dark images leaves very little margin for error.

My suggestion is to have the sensor analysis put up a message asking for the lens cap to be removed and "wait forever" for the user to confirm this is done. Once the user confirms then the sensor analysis should reconfigure the camera for the next test and begin its wait for the data to settle. The main benefit of doing this is that the reconfiguration of the camera clears the DDR buffer which eliminates the buffering time delay.

Peter

[admin]

Hi Peter,

that's odd… SharpCap should wait at that point you to press the proceed button. Below is a screenshot from the latest version of SharpCap showing that stage.

Capture.JPG (38.53 KiB) Viewed 823 times

Before we dig any further, can you check that you are using either the very latest SharpCap 3.2 version or the new SharpCap 4.0 beta?

Cheers, Robin

[saublestarman]

Robin,
It's possible that I was not using the latest version. Let me make sure. I will get back to you.

Will Sharpcap wait forever for the user to remove the lens cap?

Peter

[admin]

Hi Peter,

yes, it should. I have actually had a QHY294C arrive today (not had time to open the box yet), but I will be testing all sorts of things with it over the next day or two to see if there are any glitches.

cheers,

Robin

[saublestarman]

Robin,
I uninstalled 32b and 64b Sharpcap and then re-installed the latest versions. The sensor analysis had no problem completing. The resulting report is a little hit and miss. The Sharpcap 32b attempt gave bogus results. The Sharpcap 64b attempt gave good results. I suspect that repeating the test may yield different results with a high probability of getting good results.

Peter

[saublestarman]

Robin,
You probably already know this but QHY release a version of their all-in-0ne driver installation within the last two weeks that contains important updates for the QHY294C firmware and SDK updates for Sharpcap.
https://www.qhyccd.com/file/repository/ ... .26.18.exe

That's why I have been using the Sharpcap sensor analysis

Peter

[admin]

Hi Peter,

yes, I picked up the latest version because the camera I have is the 'pro' and need the very latest update.

I did a sensor analysis and it looked reasonable - a big drop in the read noise at gain ~1600 due to the switch from LCG to HCG mode (which is expected on this sensor)

cheers,

Robin