tomato
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Everything posted by tomato
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The general view is it would be almost impossible to reverse the polarity when trying to plug in the power. However, I managed to do something to cause the damage, the camera will be on @Tomatobro’s work bench on Friday and we will see what we find. To all you camera owners out there, if possible, plug in first then switch on the power.
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Back on the QHY 268c cooling topic, QHY have asked what happens when the camera is allowed to warm up indoors (ambient temp ~15 deg C) and outdoors (ambient temp ~ 0 deg C). Indoors I cooled the sensor to -10 deg C, cooler power at 13% to maintain this temperature. With the cooler off, the sensor temp rose uniformly back up to 0 deg C, at this point I terminated the test: Outdoors I cooled to -10 deg C, the camera reached this temperature and continued to cool but with 0% cooler power displayed. When it reached -14 deg C I switched to manual and turn the cooler off. The camera cooled a bit quicker to -20 deg C and then slowly warmed up but seemed to stabilise at -19 deg 😄 I'll send this info to QHY, to see what they make of it.
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When discussing if the money saved buying a cheap camera from China is worth it, the issue of what happens when it goes wrong is rightly raised as a concern. Well, I could be in that boat now as I somehow applied a short to my RCIMX571 when plugging in the power, resulting in a burning odour and a whiff of smoke. Looking on CN the general view is don’t bother trying to send it back, and my view was if it lasted a few years it won’t owe me anything, although I’m obviously a bit miffed that my actions have broke it. I’m just wondering if anybody has sent one back for repair and what were your experiences.
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Thanks, I’m still not sure what I did to cause a short when plugging in the power, TBH I can’t really see how the plug could have put reverse polarity into the socket on the camera, but something has happened, that’s for sure.
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Astro pixel processor weird final stacked image.
tomato replied to LaurenceT's topic in Getting Started With Imaging
APP LP removal tool works well when you have 'clear' background sky surrounding your target, not so good when the nebulosity fills the entire FOV as in your image. -
I used a short cable direct to the laptop in the dome, this made no difference. It’s almost as if the camera cooling set pt is being offset by the ambient temperature. I understand on start up the camera auto cools to 0 deg C but what if the camera is already at this temperature, does the camera cool down further by the same amount? QHY might be thinking along the same lines as they are asking me to check what happens when the cooler is turned off both indoors and outdoors. Oh, and it looks like last night I managed to fry my Rising Cam IMX571 camera, I was a bit shaky plugging the power lead in at it looks like I somehow momentarily put a reverse polarity 12v into the camera!😱An odour of burning and a whiff of smoke followed, and it won’t connect anymore. Lesson learned, plug in then switch on. At this rate I’ll have to dig out my G2-8300.😊
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Thanks for the tip. Since installation in 2019, I have had to replace one of the long run USB cables, although this failed totally, thankfully it didn’t slowly degrade. The problem camera is currently connected via the other old, original cable.🤔
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I used the same laptop and hence NINA version for the bench test as I use in dome, so no change there. I did however use a different USB cable to plug the camera directly into the laptop for the test, when in use the cable goes through a powered hub and a 5 metre powered USB lead before connecting to the laptop. Could a deterioration in the USB connectivity cause the kind of issues I have been experiencing? Easy to test by plugging the laptop directly into camera in the dome, the promised clear skies have not yet appeared in my location so I could give this a try.
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NINA Version 2.3. I tried it out in the field with EZCAP, it displayed the same behaviour as with NINA. With the dual rig it would get a bit messy if the scopes were running different software, and I'd be curious to know why it has stopped working when I didn't change anything apart from putting it out in the cold again.
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Sorry to hear about the problem. Astro mounts are not really severely stressed mechanically so if it was working fine on your previous session it is more likely to be the control electronics. There are some very adept SW mount trouble shooters here on SGL who hopefully will see your post and point you in the right direction. Given the up front cost of a like for like replacement and the ready availability of critical spares, I would have thought a repair is a viable option.
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Still not out of the woods yet... With the camera back on the scope and in the dome (ambient temp +5 deg C) I set it to cool to -10 deg C through NINA. This it did but without apparently any cooler power being required? I set it looping on 10 sec exposures, the cooler kicked in at 1-2% to keep it at -10 deg C with this additional thermal load. I then set the camera to warm up, but with the cooler already apparently at 0%, the temp stayed constant at -10 deg C. Assuming the supply voltages are the same (and I adjusted the dome supply to match the QHY PS output) then the only change from when it was working on the bench is the 10 degree difference in ambient temperature? I've relayed all of this to QHY to see what they make of it.
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Maybe, the only other condition that is new is that the current spell of cold weather is probably the longest my set up has experienced since the dome was constructed. Not sure why that should be an issue, but it is an observation. I sincerely hope the camera now behaves, I could have two good nights before the moon gets in the way.
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Yes, +1 for Bern at Modern Astronomy, he selflessly pointed me in the right direction 10 years ago when I had a wad of cash and not much idea. As for the errant temp control on my camera, I took it off the scope, brought it in the house this morning and let it warm up to ambient as it was still 0 deg C in the dome. I powered it up with the QHY supplied 12V power supply, connected to EZCAP and wouldn't you know it, the temp control is working fine! It cooled to the set point, would warm back up when I raised the set point and then cool back down when I lowered it, all the values making sense. I warmed it back up to+5 deg C then connected to NINA, all good except for this short lived spike in cooler power: It quickly recovered, and continued cooling to the set pt and is controlling rock steady from then on. I have seen a couple of these spikes in the past, anybody else seen them? So, is it my dome PS? I doubt it, all the other kit runs off it OK and I've never seen a problem with this camera before or the QHY268M for that matter. OK the camera started off at a positive temperature this morning, rather then -1 or 0 deg C in the dome, but the camera has seen these conditions several times in the past without a problem. I'll put it back on the scope now and see how it behaves...
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I have received a prompt reply from QHY, they suspect a fault with the temperature control system, but have asked for more information (screenshot of the temperature interface) which I will sort out this morning. I’ll contact Bern at Modern Astronomy (where I purchased the camera) to see if they can assist with returning it to China, as that looks like where this is going.
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I’ve been there and done that, I could cope with the setting up and operating the kit outside, it was the taking down a frost covered scope when cold induced fatigue had set in that got to me. I’m fortunate to have a permanent set up now with a warm room shed, but last night this brought another unexpected annoyance. The rise in temperature in the shed woke up 4 huge bluebottles that were constantly buzzing around my head, I was rather cruel and persuaded them to fly out into the freezing night.
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Could be, the issue has arisen in the recent cold snap but I use a regulated 12v power supply, with 13.1 V displayed locally at the scope. I don’t want to hijack this thread, but I’m posting about it on the QHY 268 owners thread.
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I do indeed, it will be 10 years old this year. I dip into the Sitech forum regularly, blinky mode on the Sitech II is not unheard of, hence my concern. But my immediate hardware problem is with my 3 year old QHY268c camera which appears to have developed a temperature sensor fault…😒
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Updated driver has made no difference to my sensor temp anomaly on the QHY268c. It still shows -25 on start up and won’t go above -16 even with no cooling. Voltage to the camera looks good so I have submitted a ticket to the tech help centre at QHY, will keep this thread updated.
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As it was a Sitech II it might be the array of screw in terminal blocks that connect all of the encoders/motors wires to the unit, however I've just re-read the post and the OP does say in the sitech II controller. I checked the terminals for tightness when I took delivery of my mount 10 years ago, I haven't touched them since.🤞
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I hand made a Dobsonian telescope. Hope you like it :-)
tomato replied to GasGiant's topic in DIY Astronomer
That's weird, I have never been challenged on SGL to declare I am not a robot, and then find all the bicycles in the pictures, etc. Mind you that kind of test must be small potatoes nowadays for the AI based bots out there... -
I hand made a Dobsonian telescope. Hope you like it :-)
tomato replied to GasGiant's topic in DIY Astronomer
Beautiful piece of work, 3D printing is great but I can’t warm to them like I can machine tools. On the subject of models, here is my very crude, hastily crafted 1:1 scale model of a Mesu 200. Why on earth? I wanted a second hand flight case for it, and as it is an irregular shape I took the model to the shop to check it would fit in the case.
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BlurExterminator 2.0
tomato replied to gorann's topic in Imaging - Image Processing, Help and Techniques
No it isn’t much, Adam Block commented on one of my posts on here for the need for lots of integration to get the most out of BXT. 48 mins definitely doesn’t cut it. -
BlurExterminator 2.0
tomato replied to gorann's topic in Imaging - Image Processing, Help and Techniques
Here is a very brief (48 min) NGC 1499 taken with the RASA8/QHY268c/NBZ rig, imaging at 1.94 arcsec per pixel, with BXT and without BXT. It makes a difference but works much better, I think, on images with a lot more integration. Without BXT With BXT
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Does it even have a popular name? How about the Angelfish Nebula, I see one swimming left to right.
