Bayer-like grid pattern with mono camera

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

I stumbled upon a strange phenomenon - with mono QHY camera, there's a grid pattern, similar to non-debayered color images. It looks like this (400% zoom and stretched histogram):

Untitled.png (51.91 KiB) Viewed 3299 times

Strange thing is, when I first started the camera, everything was OK, it suddenly changed to this, I've seen this in live view. This is from the lates SC 4.1, but the same is with some older SC 3; reconnecting the camera or restarting SC doesn't help, it stays this way. In other software (eg. QHY's EasyCap) everything is OK.

[admin]

Hi,

is it possible that you have selected a dark or flat frame in SharpCap that was created with a colour camera? That processing could imprint a grid like the one you are seeing into the images...

I think the first thing to try regardless is to open the camera with the <CTRL> key pressed, which prevents SharpCap from reloading the last used camera settings. If you have set the dark or flat, or adjusted any other camera setting in a way that is causing the problem, this should clear it.

cheers,

Robin

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

Thank you for your answer!
There's no other camera installed in that system, and never has been, so I guess there's no way for some stray color dark to mess with anything.
I played with pretty much all the settings after that effect appeared and it just didn't want to go away. Only thing I didn't do was power cycling the camera and PC - but I'm using it remotely and it's not mine, so I didn't want to do that without owners knowledge - especially that the software that normally runs the setup doesn't show anything like that, so I gues it's something within SC; I probably just clicked on something or pressed some button and didn't realise that - I'll check your suggestion with CTRL and we'll see what happens.

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

Well, I tried to connect to the camera with CTRL, it didn't change anythig; power cycling it also didn't help. I literally went through all the options and controls in SC and fiddled with them one by one to see what will happen - but nothing has changed. I think I was wrong previously, EZcap seems to have problems too, in live mode it just outputs entirely white frames, but in single it's OK. SC shows this grid both in live and in single - I'm starting to think there's actually something wrong with the camera itself.

Custom software that is normally used there captures data in bin2 and that looks good, but in bin2 what SC shows also looks OK.

[admin]

Hi,

that does seem odd. I think I would suggest trying a different PC, ideally with a different USB cable and a different 12V power supply (if the camera takes 12V power). If you do that test and you still see the same issues, then the common thing is really just the camera and some sort of weird hardware glitch or firmware problem may be the cause. It may also be worth sending the problem to QHY to see if they recognize the issue.

cheers,

Robin

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

I just checked that custom software and it doesn't seem to have that problem in bin1 - I'll relay all the information I have to the owners and they will decide what to do with that camera, but since during normal operation it works OK, I guess they will just leave it like this.
Thanks fory your time, Robin!

[Craigar]

A guy on CN had a minicam8 imx585 mono 4 sale and had this experience.

I bought this from Agena in May when my APS-C rig was out of commission. However, it was only use a couple of nights and I realized my files were coming out as OSC. I found out this was not an unusual problem ( I think it is still happening with these units) and the firmware had been incorrectly flashed as a Bayer Color sensor. I sent it back to QHY and they replaced it with a brand new unit.

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

Well, the issue seems to resolved itself - today I was working with this setup and there was no grid pattern visible. I have no idea what happened that it appeared before and why it's gone now, there were no changes to the system whatsoever. Magic.

[admin]

Hi,

glad to hear that all is well, but I do tend to worry about problems that go away on their own... There's always a chance that they will also come back on their own. Let's hope that doesn't happen to you!

cheers,

Robin