SharpCap Forums

After upgrading my Celestron Origin camera I would like to use the QHY 178C camera with Sharpcap as suggested by Celestron instructions provided with the upgrade camera.

After installing the QHYCCD Allinone software package with QHY5III driver and Sharpcap from the QHYCCD website per such instructions, upon opening Sharpcap there are 3 QHYCCD camera choices under the drop down Camera menu to connect to: QHYCCD Cameras-Capture, QHYCCD Cameras2-Capture, and QHYCCD Cameras-Guider. After selecting any of those 3 the following error message appears:

! Opening this camera via ASCOM may reduce performance and flexibility, etc.

The error message also states that to open this camera using direct control, look for the camera in the 'QHY Cameras' section of the camera menus. Celestron instructions state that "Origin 178" should appear in the Cameras menu but I do not see that choice, only the 3 choices referenced above, and I am at a loss as to how to proceed.

Any guidance on resolving this issue would be very appreciated!

Hi,

I was aware that the Celestron Origin had an IMX178 sensor (always thought it was an odd choice as it is quite an old sensor), but I didn't know that it was a QHY camera that was built into it...

The entries that you are currently seeing are the ASCOM drivers for QHY cameras. ASCOM drivers show up in the list in SharpCap regardless of whether the device is actually plugged into the computer - simply installing the relevant software will then mean they show up in SharpCap and other applications. So, the fact that you are seeing those is no guarantee that your camera is being properly detected by Windows.

Anyway, if it is effectively a QHY178C then there are two steps to getting it to show up properly in SharpCap

1) Get the QHY system drivers installed and check they are working. These should be installed by the all-in-one, but it is just possible that the system drivers option didn't get ticked during the install, so go back and check that. The very top item in the all-in-one list 'QHY Device Driver' is the important one here.

To check, plug in the camera and open 'Windows Device Manager'. You should see an 'AstroImaging Equipment' section right at the top of the list of devices, and inside that the camera will show up as something like 'QHY5IIISeries_IO'.

If you are not seeing the camera in windows device manager then there is no way for SharpCap to talk to it, so it's key to get this part sorted first.

2) Make sure you have an up-to-date version of SharpCap from our downloads page. If you have an old version, it may contain an older QHY SDK that does not recognize the camera from the Origin.

Once you have both of these sorted out, you should see the camera show up in the 'QHY Cameras' section of the SharpCap menu (QHY cameras can take 10s or so to be properly detected after plugging in, so you may need to try 'Rescan for Cameras' at the top if you have just plugged the camera in.

Hope this helps,

Robin