Rob_Jn

Thanks Stuart, I had this nagging doubt despite reading the specs, glad you confirm 👍

Just a thought, ZWO lists their optical window as IR rejecting D60-2 IR cut, I’d always assumed the QHY268M was a plain window, specs indicate the same on their website, AR+AR High Quality Multi-Layer Anti-Reflection Coating but any reason to doubt this? I just had a nagging thought that I might have been using an IR reject filter for the past 2 years for no reason!

Seems now it has connected once it works on all the other ports too, very strange but glad to have the camera working.

I had a reply from QHY who sent me the same all in one file to download...tried and failed

Went through all of your ideas @Oddsocks and sfc did find a corrupt file which it repaired, dism didn't find any errors.

ran the installer again and no luck...

BUT on a bit of a whim I tried different USB ports on the Mele 3 and guess what the camera connected straight away!! The port I connected to is the single one on the side with HDMI and not the side with 3 USB ports on. I couldn't believe it, so what is different about that port?

I want to thank everyone especially @Oddsocks for helping me with so many ideas, thanks guys!

Tried installing all 8 cameras available but no difference I’m afraid.

I’ve raised a ticket with QHY but not sure if they will keep to their 24h reply promise.

The beta version was what I installed originally but anyway went ahead again with admin this time and I was very hopeful because for the first time oddly the QHY5III appeared with the QHY5II, so ticked both boxes, restarted and alas again no drivers installed and camera wouldn’t work. In device manager this time ‘Wireless game pad F710 appeared stays up when camera disconnected no WestBridge. Time to roll back 🤔

Ok thanks for all the helpful information. So I did an imaging run with the camera on Friday and all good on the old PC, checked camera again yesterday and all working fine on Win 10 so I’m confident about the camera.

Looked in the drivers folder on Win 11 and nothing at all there for QHY so the installer hasn’t worked correctly.

A lot of effort but I’m thinking to set Windows back to factory settings and start again as I’ve installed the all in one about 3 times so something is messed up somewhere.

Ive only ticked drivers on the install nothing else apart from the EZCAP, no NINA etc.

re fresh start ASCOM first then all in one?

That’s very helpful thanks. Of the files you mention none are familiar to me when I browsed through all the usual folders for a driver so I suspect the all in one package isn’t installing correctly. I’ll give it a go tomorrow and see if I can connect it to the driver if it’s there on my system.

The odd WestBridge entry does disappear when I disconnect the camera.

Thanks Stuart, I loaded the previous version on the website but no joy, Window insists it is a WestBridge device but I can find the appropriate place to point to for the correct driver.

Just now, Stuart1971 said:

I use a Mele mini PC with windows 11 and all runs fine with my QHY268, but I do use an older QHY all in one driver, as I heard the latest one is buggy…

What version is it, I could try that…

Sorry using Nina

Tried Ezcap but nothing there either, in device manager there is an unrecognised device called WestBridge with another WestBridge game controller, tried pointing this to the QHY folder for drivers but no inf file

Anyone had problems with Windows  11 and the 268M camera? Running fine on my old Win 10 machine, switched to a new Miele mini PC and everything installs fine apart from the camera. Ran Qhy all in one drivers and my guide camera is recognised ok but not the main camera. Driving me nuts at this stage!
 

Rob

40 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Wouldnt the cotton wool get saturated before the desiccant, which would then get back in the chamber….??

The cotton wool is just stop any dust getting into the chamber from the mol sieve. The sieve I use came from a lab I used to work in and is a high quality grade, I can’t vouch for the dustiness of what’s available now but I think the dust risk with a cotton wool plug is low. I’ve used mol sieve on all my cameras for the past few years, lasts longer than silica gel and just as easy to regenerate.

Yeah, you have to make sure you have a decent plug of cotton wool in the tube first.

If you’re still using the pale pink silica gel desiccant supplied with the camera then ditch it. As mentioned in one of the messages  use molecular sieve 4A. After a couple of days my RH dropped to 24% a bit extreme but it would ensure your chamber was thoroughly dried out. After a week or two the RH increased to 60% which says the chamber is not sealed effectively. I run it at about 65% at -10C and never had the dark spot problem.

I’ll give it a go and see what comes out …..

Just wondering if anyone else sees these specs in their cooler fins, is it dirt or surface mount components ☺️ if it’s dirt should I carefully clean out? Could be something from a nearby conifer. Never noticed them before.

I’ve been working on images of M81 and M100 LRGB mode 0, gain 26 offset 30 with 60s subs at f5 and neither show the cores burned out. Hope it’s clear for you 😉

Rob

Molecular sieve is capable of reducing the humidity to ~20% whereas silica gel is higher, from memory around 40%. The Atik cameras use mol sieve tablets and I think some ZWO cameras too. 4A sieve is usually recommended for moisture absorption but 3A will work.

(not that you need to go down to 20% in this camera 😊)

Looks like a comms  issue to me, have you tried connecting the camera directly to a pc with a short usb lead? It works fine on usb 2.0 with downloads of about 2s. The other thing you could try is using the QHY app, very basic but it might reveal something if the images are ok. I received mine in June and didn’t have any problems with driver installation.

The Ha filter should centre up with the electronics on the filter wheel so I’m a bit puzzled why it should appear to be out of centre. Perhaps try the reproducibility of the centering a few times and see what you get, applies to all the filters as well.

The masks look good either option, I was thinking just knock one up out of black card to test the concept before you spend the money. 

Congratulations on the new camera 😊 I would try and get a few images to calibrate and see how they work out, but the SHO flats do look unusual, the Ha appears to be off centre. You could try making a mask for one filter and see if it has an effect before you invest in a full mask.

Thanks Steve, I would think if you can use ROI for planetary etc. it should work for longer exposures, I’ll dig a bit more to see if I can find out.

Hope I’m not off topic here but I’m considering buying the QHY268M and would like to know if I can hardware bin 2x2 and also does the camera support ROI for deep sky imaging? The ASI2600MM supports both in their specs.

thanks,

Rob