New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

Post Reply
iborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:12 am

New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#1

Post by iborg »

Hi

I have used Sharpcap with a planetary video camera before, but, am new to OSC photography.

I have just bought a new QHY 8L. The camera seems to be work fine with the Ezcap_qt software. I have searched the forum, but, did not find anything that appeared to be useful.

When I try to connect it to Sharpcap 4.0, the software tends to crash. It appears to be working fine with v3.2. I have tried using both the 32 and 64 bit versions.

I have added bug reports for Sharpcap 4.0, and log files for 3.2. As you will see, I have stopped the sensor analysis part way to generate the v3.2 log files.

I am using Windows 11 Home, version 10.0.22000.

Thank you for any help you are to provide, and of course, feel free to ask any for any further information.

Philip
Attachments
CameraException at SharpCap.Cameras.QHY.QHYSDK+Camera.BeginExposure()_line 1739#21514.error.2.zip
(20.47 KiB) Downloaded 35 times
CameraException at SharpCap.Cameras.QHY.QHYSDK+Camera.BeginExposure()_line 1739#58732.error.1.zip
(19.86 KiB) Downloaded 36 times
Sharpcap3.2-64bit log file.txt
(41.39 KiB) Downloaded 35 times
Sharpcap3.2-32bit log file.txt
(59.4 KiB) Downloaded 33 times
iborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:12 am

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#2

Post by iborg »

Hi Again

Still trying trying to do a sensor analysis, but, this time v3.2 crashed part way.

Log file attached.

Philip
Attachments
Log_2022-01-25T19_11_07-7820.log
(128.65 KiB) Downloaded 36 times
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 13173
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
Contact:

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#3

Post by admin »

Hi,

so your last log is the easiest to interpret - that is the result of a bug in SharpCap 3.2. Under some circumstances it can try to build an inifinitely long list of gain values it wants to investigate, and runs out of memory while doing so :( That bug is fixed in SharpCap 4, but it looks like the QHY SDK in SharpCap 4 is not working at all well with your camera.

One thing you can try is to copy the qhyccd.dll file from the SharpCap 3.2 folder over the one in the SharpCap 4 folder (remember, 32 bit over 32 bit or 64 bit over 64 bit). Then run SharpCap.exe (4.0, from the folder, not the desktop shortcut since the desktop shortcut might trigger a repair of the install to put the 'right' qhyccd.dll back). That might work. Unfortunately there isn't much else I can suggest - with SC 4, the logs are showing that the first request to start an exposure is failing with a generic error code. I have to use the latest QHYCCD.dll to support the latest models, but in some cases there are issues like this where it will fail to work well with older cameras :(

cheers,

Robin
iborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:12 am

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#4

Post by iborg »

Hi Robin

I will try your idea this morning, still trying to complete the sensor analysis.

Just in case it is relevant, before copying the qhyccd.dll file across, I checked the details, both are version 21.10.23.19.

This is probably explained because Sharpcap 32 was installed while I was installing the QHY software. I assume it had the latest SDK.

I have just downloaded, and will install the latest version of Sharpcap 32 from you.

I'll let you know what happens.

Philip
iborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:12 am

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#5

Post by iborg »

Hi

Just ran Sharpcap 4.0 with SDK from v3.2, QHYCCD.DLL version 21.2.1.10. I checked that the version did not change after running the program.

Result - v4.0 appears to run, but, did not produce anything other than an all black image.

Log file attached, may be it can give a clue.
Attachments
Sharpcap40-32bit log file.txt
(57.01 KiB) Downloaded 39 times
iborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:12 am

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#6

Post by iborg »

A slightly different, but, I think related query - how long should sensor analysis take?

So far, it has previewed ~740 frames and taken 6h! Still going, and it has not yet asked for the lens cap to be put on.

Latest 3.2 version downloaded and installed this morning

Philip
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 13173
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
Contact:

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#7

Post by admin »

Hi Philip,

nothing bad in that last log - it looks as though frames are coming from the camera, but of course it is hard to tell what is going wrong if the camera is almost doing what it is supposed to except for sending through all black images :(

Sensor analysis should be relatively quick (5 minutes). In particular I would have thought that the QHY8L had no variable gain control, which would usually reduce the amount of time needed. If the exposure time for any exposure taken during sensor analysis goes over about 2s then something is not right and it's probably not worth continuing.

cheers,

Robin
iborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:12 am

Re: New QHY 8L and Sharpcap 4.0

#8

Post by iborg »

Hi Robin

Thank you for your reply. I wish I know more about what I was trying to do.

Philip
Post Reply