QHY533M and filter wheel

[GregL]

Just received my new QHY533M amd filter wheel, installed the indicated AllinOneWIN software that allegedlt contains drivers for the 533M.

Checked the configuration of the camera with EZ_, it found the correct camera and toggled the TEC, etc.
Connect to Sharpcap Pro v4 x64, rescanning for cameras identifed my guide camera and something called '533C'... connection attempt failed, unable to get past 'power cycle the camera or disconnect/reconnect'. I was able to connect via Ascom 6.5, though. Since it doesn't install a native driver I am assuming that using it native will be a future feature.

Also, the QHY installer seems to know nothing of Sharpcap 4, wanted me to give a path to 3.2x64.

Sigh...

greg latiak

[GregL]

I was able to complete a sensor analysis on the qhy533m -- measured full well depth 52k, not the marketing 56k. Still, not bad.

Sharpcap 4 x64, latest version. OS is win 10 pro x64

Did notice that the indicated temperature in Sharpcap with TEC on and target temperature of -10C (my usual), indicated temperature drifted between a low of -10.2C and a high of -8.6C. And cooling power was always shown at 100%, something I do not see with my 183s. Ambient was around 16c, by the way.

Got some very odd displays while finishing off the first 3rd of the analysis -- vertical lines and blocks. No idea what they were and did not reappear in the final gain checking.

greg

[admin]

Hi Greg,

good to hear that you made progress with this camera.

My usual estimate of the accuracy of the sensor analysis is 'within 10%' - probably mostly more accurate than that, but there are enough causes of variability in the measurements that it is never going to be precise.

The strange blocks/lines sounds like USB data transfer issues - try turning *up* the USB traffic control which reduces the throughput and can help. Paradoxically I've also seen some QHY cameras run better with it turned down too...

The cooler power management is handled by the QHY SDK and the camera firmware - SharpCap just sends the target temperature through and the QHY code is supposed to do the rest. The one thing I can think of that might impact performance is if you are running the camera at high frame rate with short frames - for instance 100ms @10fps. That generates more heat on the sensor than taking frames of 60s exposure, which means that the cooling would have to work harder.

cheers,

Robin

[GregL]

Thanks, Robin.

I noticed that the camera control panel is different than what I normally see when using the native drivers. I rather liked the TEC off/on change. I thought about the USB but could not find a setting on the displayed panel for this as an ascom camera -- is it somewhere else? ANyhow, the frame rate defaulted to maximum possible, which I never use ordinarily.

And has QHY given any hint of when drivers might actually be available? I am curious as to why Sharpcap thought it was a 533C.

greg

[Rickl]

I had the same issue with the camera being mistaken for the colour version. I believe the problem was fixed by installing the latest build of Sharpcap ( I think that is what did it!). My camera and filter wheel are working fine. I think I may also have installed some ASCOM drivers too. It is a bit of a blur... Hope that helps. I love the camera, but...
The autoexposure in Sharpcap is not functioning.

[GregL]

Thanks.

By autoexposure, do you mean the sky brightness measure that computes optimum exposure settings? Thats what I use with my other QHY cameras and why I did the sensor analysis with the 533m. I had rolled back to ascom 6.5 when I noticed the allinone install didnt show any updates for 6.6. Otherwise I was already current.

greg

[admin]

Hi,

sorry, I missed the ASCOM bit - the ASCOM camera specification gives a rather more limited set of controls over the camera when compared to directly using the camera SDK, so with ASCOM you get as much as is possible (with other advanced functionality hidden in the ASCOM driver setup window).

I see that there is a new version of the QHY SDK tucked away on their web site dated 6th July - see https://www.qhyccd.com/html/prepub/log_ ... !log_en.md - the actualy download is this one : https://www.qhyccd.com/file/repository/ ... .07.06.zip

Any chance someone can try copying the qhyccd.dll (32 or 64 bit as appropriate) over the one in the SharpCap folder to see if that helps with detecting the 533M correctly (in non-ASCOM mode). There is no change list for the new version, so I can't be sure it will help.

cheers,

Robin

[Rickl]

I was not as clear as I could have been. I was setting up three computers at the same time. A new machine(that was where the ascom stuff was loaded) and updating two other laptops. Checking my notes, I had installed the latest stable version of the QHY all in one driver, but that was the wrong one. That was where the camera was recognized as a colour cam. I then installed the correct driver ( which was a beta version) but that was the one that then worked correctly. At the same time I had installed the latest build of Sharpcap. Things worked fine after that using the QHY driver, except for having the autoexposure option. Perhaps this latest version of the QHY driver addresses that?
Hope that is a bit more clear.

[Rickl]

Would doing the sensor analysis be necessary before being able to use the autoexposure?

[admin]

Hi,

no, the sensor analysis has nothing to do with autoexposure. The last time I checked there was no autoexposure functionality in the QHY SDK (although there was some talk of adding it a few months back). Either it didn't happen, or it happened and I didn't spot the change. Either way there is no support for autoexposure on QHY cameras at the moment.

cheers,

Robin