ToupTek Guide cameras

[deathtical]

I recently got ToupTek's IMX225C and IMX662C sensor guide cameras. I have installed both the ASCOM and Windows system drivers. I normally use the PA feature in SharpCap as it is much faster and usually more reliable than the PA in NINA or PHD2. However, when I open the cameras in SharpCap the live view is black. Even is I max out gain and exposure time I may get 1 or 2 stars and a very black (not dark) background. When connecting to the cameras, I am selecting these settings:

Bit Depth: 16bits
Format: RAW
Conversion Gain: LCG
Frame Rate: High
Gain: 100
Black Level: 0
Heating: Off

Then once the camera is connected I see nothing. Crank everything up. Still see almost nothing and certainly not enough to do a PA. Anyone else run into this? When I used my ZWO 120 guide cameras I had no issues.

On a side note, when I open these cameras in PHD2, I see exactly what I would expect to see and I only had to set gain to 100, which makes me think this is a SharpCap issue rather than a camera/driver issue.

Though, I should also add that when testing during the day, I am able to see what I'm pointed at just fine with normal gain and fast exposure (about 8ms). This is very frustrating. Also, when will there be native driver support implemented for ToupTek? NINA has had it for a while and it's free. I have a lifetime license for SharpCap. Bit disappointing really.

[admin]

Hi,

I wonder if the ToupTek ASCOM driver is giving SharpCap incorrect information for the Maximum ADU of the image (for instance saying that the Maximum ADU is 65535 but then returning pixel values up to 4095 for a 12 bit camera) - that would cause the image to appear too dark in SharpCap.

To be honest, that's now a moot point, since SharpCap 4.1 has had native support for ToupTek cameras since about November of last year - please give the latest SharpCap 4.1 from our downloads page a try - you should be able to use the camera without the ASCOM driver and get around this problem.

thanks,

Robin

[deathtical]

Oh. Well shoot. Can't believe I didn't think to look for a SharpCap update. I updated everything else. Am I currently running 4.0. I will get 4.1 installed and try again. Thanks

[deathtical]

OK. So I got 4.1 installed and finally got some clear skies last night. With some tweaking, it looks like it works fine now. With exposure set to 1sec, I had to max out gain and set black level to the mid point. But I was able to see stars clearly and do a PA on both of my rigs, which based on guiding, appeared to be spot on again.

Thanks

[admin]

Hi,

good to hear that it worked! A high gain is pretty typical when doing polar alignment at 1s exposures, and the ToupTek cameras tend to have a more restricted gain range than some other brands, so not surprising that you needed to go all the way to the top.

cheers,

Robin