Topics

1

QHYCCD Standard Software Q&A / Win7x64 + QHY11 ascom = crash!

« on: August 12, 2013, 05:03:20 PM »

Hi!

I'm trying to setup my new laptop (acer v3 571g with windows 7 prof x64 ) to work with cameras and telescope.

MaximDL 5.24 + QHY 5L-II seems to work fine, but when I connect MaximDL to QHY11 with the latest driver - maxim imediately and silently crashes.

I can avoid crash if I run maxim with right mouse click and choose 'run as administrator', but I'm sure this crash should be fixed.

2

New Camera Information / QHY11 cooling problems.

« on: May 10, 2013, 05:12:33 PM »

1. I connect 12V power to DC201, and I see TEC power is 0%. It's ok. But when I connect usb to computer, TEC power jumps to 100%. It should not do that!
Then I start software (maxim DL, connect to camera via ascom), TEC power jumps back to 0% and then very slowly increases its power.

Why it does so ridiculous things? I mean jump from 0 to 100%, and then again from 100% to 0%.

2. I'm sure TEC regulation parameters are far from being optimal in ascom driver. When ambient T=10C, and I set target T=-20C, camera too slowly increases power, in 20 minutes it cools CCD to -27 (it's too big overshoot), and then very slowly return to -20. It takes about an hour to stabilize temperature. I'm sure with correct PID parameters camera can reach target T much faster and with no or very little overshoot.

3

QHYCCD Standard Software Q&A / QHY5L-II ASCOM speed

« on: April 30, 2013, 03:11:31 AM »

Hello

I'm trying this camera as a guider, and I do like it.
It's a very sensitive camera. But what disappoints me a lot is ascom plugin speed.

For example with 0.2sec exposure I get full image every 500msec. I know that transfering image through ascom is a long process, but when I choose small subframe the speed doesn't change at all.
Why it waste so much time?

I compare this with my own ascom plugin for Basler camera, wich gives 0.2sec full image every 270msec.

With old QHY5 and a small subframe I could get refresh rate up to 10 images per second.

4

Astronomical Photography / First light with my new QHY11

« on: April 30, 2013, 02:19:51 AM »

Taken 12 april 2013, near Moscow Russia

55x40sec in every RGB filter, unguided
QHY11 + Televue NP101is on HEQ5Pro

stars and comet have been processed separately to remove comet motion

full image resized to 50%
and 100% crop of center

5

New Camera Information / Impossible to make exposure < 3sec on QHY11

« on: February 04, 2013, 02:47:41 AM »

Hi QHY.

Yesterday I've got new QHY11 from our russian dealer for testing.

Trying to make some flats, I've got a strange thing, see picture. First column in the table is exposure, second - average light value of an image. Bias images average light was 1600 (forgot to substract it from images). Chart shows that at least 3sec of exposure is added to every exposure time.

I thought KAI11002 has electronic shutter and can make short exposures down to 1ms, at least 1sec image shouldn't be a problem for it.

Can this issue be solved in driver? Now it's very hard to make flats on this camera, because it require too dark flatbox.

6

Astronomical Photography / M8 Lagoon Nebula with QHY9 and QHY 2" RGB filters

« on: July 13, 2010, 10:45:19 AM »

Newton 150/620 + Paracorr on EQ6Pro

RGB (70:70:70) minutes

QHY LRGB filters work very well, the single disadvantage is - my narrowband baader filters aren't parfocal with it.

Shot on Ukraine, Crimea, near Crimea observatory, 7 july 2010.

50% resized

7

New Camera Information / When exactly the QHY9 camera LED turns on?

« on: December 11, 2009, 04:11:52 AM »

When making flats I have noticable gradient on short exposures due to mecanical shutter.

I'm thinking of flat box that eliminates this problem, it must be off during shutter is opening, then box must turn on the light after the shutter has opened. And it must turn the light off just before shutter begin to close.

I see 3 possible ways to do that -

1. Make custom software that works with camera on a low level (where I can control sutter and exposure independently), with custom flat box controller. It's a rather long task.

2. Add shutter position detector into the camera. A bit easier task, but it requires camera modification.

3. Add to flatbox external optodetector and place it on camera LED, so that it turns on flatbox when led in on. And ask QUI to implement in firmware the required behaviour of this led. I think it's a very simple modification to firmware (or may be no modification is required). Adding optodetector to flatbox is rather simple task. So this can be useful for many users.

8

New Camera Information / QHY5 is so wide, that I have to...

« on: December 02, 2009, 04:01:34 AM »

I have very little space between coma-corrector and camera to fit in it off-axis guider with QHY5 and a filter wheel.

So I had to make a hard modification of it.

QiuHY
There's not so many elements on the board, I think it can be optimized to reduce camera size.

9

New Camera Information / Voltage limitation for QHY9 power?

« on: November 30, 2009, 06:06:40 PM »

I powered QHY2Pro from stabilized 14V 5A power source without problems. Can I power QHY9 from it?

Can I power it directly from car battery? Normally it has 12.8V, but fully charged the voltage can be up to 14V.

Where exactly the upper limit is?

10

QHYCCD Standard Software Q&A / QHY9 ASCOM plugin proposals

« on: November 27, 2009, 01:13:19 AM »

Hi, Tweede!

I've started using your ascom plugin, it works well! But there are always some things that can make our life easier.

1. It would be good if you make camera settings window visible when camera is connected to software (to Maxim). As I remember, you did that for QHY5.
Currently to switch download mode from slow to fast I need too many mouse clicks (disconnect camera, go deep inside through windows and buttons to change settings, reconnect, switch on cooling).

2. As I see, every binning mode require its own offset and gain adjustment to fit all dynamic range in 16bit. Can the offset and gain be remembered as presets in your ASCOM plugin? So when MaximDL switch binning, plugin will automatically change offset to the stored optimum value.

3. I still don't understand, what Clamp option means? I see no difference in images.

4. Is AntiAmp feature always on? Or it automatically turns on for long exposures and turns off for short one (< 3sec)?

11

New Camera Information / QHY9: How to adjust sensor tilt?

« on: November 26, 2009, 03:23:51 AM »

Hi QHY!

I've made a simple test how parallel are the sensor and the front cover. Depth indicator (with plastic pin, it can't scratch the glass) was set to zero on one sensor corner, and shows me 0.13mm difference on opposite corner.

On fast optics (I own newton f/4 + televue paracorr) that means, if I perfectly focus stars on one sensor corner, the stars on opposite corner become 130/4 = 32mkm wider, it is approximately 6pixels, that's very large.

Any ideas how to adjust sensor tilt?

I can tilt the front cover by loosening one screws and tightening another one, but it would require 0.5mm tilt on cover edge.

I think it would be good if QHY make something adjustable, may be small screws inside camera to adjust sensor, or something else. For example QHY2Pro has 2 plastic screws that allowed me to adjust it, but small sensor is less sensitive to the tilt.

12

QHYCCD Standard Software Q&A / QHY2Pro timing issue

« on: January 29, 2008, 04:56:25 PM »

I've made a "time-exposure" test.

Camera shoots in moderately dark room, without any optics attached.

See picture,
1-st column is exposure time in milliseconds.
2-nd column = average picture value (L).
3-rd column = L - bias value (measured with cover closed).

Plot trend shows, that I have 330ms addition to every exposure value.
I.e. when I think I do 10ms shot, I get 340ms real exposure.

It's not a big problem for long exposures, but it makes impossible to shoot in bright conditions.
As a result, can't make "flats" in daylight.

PS.
I use QHY drivers and QHY2Pro SDK (to automate shooting and measuring).
But the same problem I see with MaximDL plugin, so I think the problem is in drivers or firmware.

Can it be fixed somehow?

13

Astronomical Photography / First light of QHY2pro - Crab Nebula

« on: January 04, 2008, 03:20:49 PM »

Newton 250/1200mm
mount EQ6pro autoguided
Baader narrowband filters.

R: SII 10x300sec
G: H-alpha 8x300sec
B: OIII 8x300sec

Stacked in MaximDL
No noise reduction applied, only deconvolution in Iris.

14

New Camera Information / QHY6 has locked in USB1.1

« on: August 28, 2007, 02:56:00 AM »

My QHY6 worked fine for several months.

But 3 days ago it started to show this message (see picture) every time I'm connecting the camera to computer.
As a result no software can see the camera.

I've checked 4 usb cabels (realy good cabels with hi-speed mark - all theese cabels worked well with the camera 5 days ago),
I've tryed 5 different computers (all with intel or nec usb2.0 chipsets). Nothing helps now.

Can I do something? or I need to send camera via my dealer for repair?

15

QHYCCD Standard Software Q&A / QHY2 Pro - software?

« on: July 31, 2007, 11:10:04 AM »

I'm buying QHY2 Pro from our russian dealer.

What about software and drivers for that camera? Is new QHY2 Pro fully compatible with old QHY2 ?

I'm highly interested in library (dll ) to write the software for it.