Touptek 585M-GPS

[nevets3131]

I got a new camera Touptek 585M-GPS, primarily for occultation observation.
Unfortunately, there is very little support information about this product.

I can use Sharpcap to connect this camera, but unlike QHY 174M-GPS, seems that no GPS control options.
Does anyone have experience using this camera? How to use its GPS module for time synchronization.

By the way, I also download Touptek's software ToupSky and ToupView, no GPS control options, too.

[admin]

Hi,

you will need to download and use an up-to-date version of SharpCap to get the GPS functionality - if your version is more than a couple of months old then the functionality will be missing. There have also been some firmware updates for the GPS cameras during the development process, but I should imagine that the retail versions already have the required up-to-date firmware.

Note that there are no adjustments for the ToupTek GPS camera (no calibration, etc), just a button to re-show the GPS information window. It's also important to be aware that the IMX585 is a progressive scan sensor (unlike the global scan of the IMX174 in the QHY camera). This means that the scan lines are not all captured at the same time. The information I have is that the GPS timestamp is for the start of the exposure of the top-most line of the image. If you look in the GPS information window for this camera then you will see one of the data points is the line time (in nanoseconds). This is the delay between the start of exposure on one line of the image and the start on the line below - from this you can work out precise timings for any line in the image.

cheers,

Robin

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

If you are using my last version Occultation script for the preparation and capture with SharpCap, then you can use the ToupTek 585 GPS camera too.
That is correct, you need one recent version of SharpCap for the GPS functions and no additional "LED" calibration is necessary.

Regards,
Jean-Francois

[procyon12]

Hi,

Very interesting. Some questions (occultation work):
What is the exact model name of the camera and where can I find the specifications? Above all, how sensitive is the camera, e.g. in comparison to the QHY174 GPS? What is the fastest readout speed (without dropped frames)?

Many thanks

Christian

[nevets3131]

Deer Robin,
Thanks! I saw the GPS status after update the latest version Sharpcap.
I found that's not mention in the documentation. (Camera Specific Controls) So I was confused for a long time.


Deer Christian,
It's basically same as ATR585M, I got it because I noticed a sentence on the official website saying it could be used to add a GPS module.
I just received it and need to do more testing. But to my surprise, the sensitivity seems to be 3-4 times higher than my older QHY 5III-174M.
Not a rigorous comparison, in my experience that I need 1s exposure to get the magnitude 14 before, but 1/4s for new camera!

[admin]

Hi,

to be honest I can't find the GPS model referenced anywhere for sale, but it's basically the ATR585M with a GPS antenna socket on the back and presumably some GPS receiver circuit and firmware mods to read the GPS data.

The IMX585 sensor is a couple of generations newer than the IMX174 that has been used in previous GPS cameras, giving it the benefit from both higher sensitivity and significantly lower read noise, both of which boost overall ability to detect faint stuff. Of course, on the flip side it is progressive scan and has significantly smaller pixels (good for some applications, less good for other).

cheers,

Robin

[procyon12]

Hi,

Many thanks to nevets3131 and Robin for the information.

Christian

[Jean-Francois]

Hello Christian,

I did last year some comparison imaging with the QHY174-GPS and ATR585M-GPS cameras.
It is not easy to compare both cameras while the pixel sizes are very different. And the ATR585 has 3 different ways to perform the binning.
But in short ... the ATR585M-GPS is with the new chip more sensitive as the old chip of the "174" (the UV and IR regions have higher QE response).

I will use the ATR585M-GPS camera for the occultation of Menoetius this evening.
Now the QHY174-GPS is mounted on my telescope. So I will do some images of the field with it before changing the camera.
I can send you the images for additional analysis.

Regards,
Jean-Francois

[procyon12]

Thanks Jean-Francois.

Yes, please make some tests if possible - will be interesting for the occultation community.

And good luck for the upcoming Patroclus/Menoetius event (I'll be clouded out).

Christian

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

here the success of yesterday evening with Menoetius and ToupTek ATR585GPS.
Around 35 sec later as expected ... but good visible

Menoetius_ATR585GPS.jpg (170.47 KiB) Viewed 763 times

Robin ... is it possible to have the camera status "Line Time" in the script too ?

Regards,
Jean-Francois