QHY5 is stressing me out

[SteveA]

I must remember in future..."if it ain't broke..don't try and fix it"

So my win7 upgrade from XP continues to give me grief and I'm still wondering why I bothered to upgrade when the XP based system was working flawlessly.

I can now no longer connect to the QHY5 in PHD using the CD Labs Q-Guider driver, the camera is just not found. The only connection I can make is using the ASCOM driver. So should I be bothered? We'll yes...I am.. The image quality using this driver is complete rubbish, shed loads of random noise and horizontal lines make it unusable. I've used the latest drivers from QHYCCD.COM, installed and uninstalled several times using the recommended methods. Every which way..nothing cures this. I did run the ASCOM diagnostics which flagged up an error saying the 64bit enabled ASCOM driver was registered as 32bit..and that I should contact the authors for a 32bit installer. The camera is fine as it works absolutely Okay with the QVideo application...clear sharp images with no noise. To top it all...I'm getting issues with EQMOD connectivity via EQDIR, which seems to be down to the ASCOM connection to the QHY5. EQMOD is fine until I connect to the QHY5 using the ASCOM driver. as soon as the connection is made EQMOD doesn't see the mount (EQ6 Pro). I've tried configuring the Prolific USB-serial driver with a whole range of different COM ports from 3 to 16 but still get the same result. once the mount connection is lost I then have to uninstall the USB serial connection and then re-install.

I'm sure there is an issue with the ASCOM driver for this camera, but it's the latest one from the QHY site !

I don't really want to ditch Win7 or ASCOM 6, but I am seriously considering saying good by to the QHY5...pity as I've used it for several years without issue and it did a reasonable job in the past.

I've just striped all of the software down and re-installed from scratch....still the same.

I'm not sure there is anything else I can try...but if anyone has any suggestions I'll certainly give them a shot.

[JamesF]

I guess the 32-bit/64-bit thing is the only clue.  Is your machine 32-bit or 64-bit?  It does sounds like ASCOM or the ASCOM drivers might be suspect.  Can you get PHD to set up guiding ok using the 314L?

James

[SteveA]

Yep..it's 64bit...and I suspect I'm going to need to post this issue to the QHY forum, though as this camera is now discontinued, I can't imagine I'm going to get much joy there. This does seem weird though..I've read plenty of forum threads from users who have this working fine on Win7...I'm beginning to wonder if ASCOM 6 SP2 may be the culprit.

I've not tried the 314 with PHD...but I know It's not PHD that's the issue as I tried the QHY5 with Maxim DL guiding and it was the same noisy image.

[martin_h]

My QHY5 used to connect as a CD Labs Q Guider, then it stopped working and I had to reflash it...there is a utility on the QHY site...........the only problem is - you need an XP machine to run the reflash program.

[JamesF]

Does sound more and more like an ASCOM-related issue.  I do have everything working ok on 64-bit Win7 with a QHY5L-II, but it does appear that I have to shut things down in the right order or PHD hangs.

The QHY5 does seem to have fallen out of favour fairly rapidly.  I was looking for one to test against some software I'm writing and couldn't get hold of one easily.  In the end I decided that unless one comes up for sale second hand at a fair price I guess it won't happen.

James

[SteveA]

hi Martin....I'm struggling to find that utility on the QHY site.....you don't have a link do you ?

James....if I can't sort this I know someone who will have a QHY5 for sale!

[JamesF]

Looks like the QHY5 site has been revamped and lots of old links have been broken or disappeared.  I can find drivers for the QHY5, but I assume you've upgraded those already.  They do appear to have a WDM driver.  I wonder if it's possible to use that instead of the ASCOM one?

James

[Scott]

Is this any help Steve?

http://qhyccd.com/en/top/download/

[Oddsocks]

Did you remember to enable Windows Net Framework 3.5.1 before installing ASCOM 6 SP2 ?

Net Framework 3.5.1 is resident with the Win 7 installation but not enabled by default and it has to be enabled before ASCOM is installed.

If this step is missed then:

1: De-install ASCOM, reboot the computer.

2: Enable Net Framework 3.5.1, go to the programs and features applet in the control panel, click on the link "Turn Windows features on or off", put a check mark next to Net Framework 3.5.1, exit and reboot the computer.

3: Re-install ASCOM 6 SP2, reboot the computer.

4: Test the camera and any other astro software that relies on the Net Framework interface.

5: Let Windows download all updates for Net framework 3.5 and install them.

William.

[SteveA]

Yep....I did the uninstall and double checked the .Net Framework and re-installed everything. Still exactly the same...

Just off on a weeks holiday tomorrow so will spend the week deliberating my next move...thanks for all the suggestions...

[martin_h]

Have a look at this....... http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=2702.0

or when on the QHY site do a search for QHY5 PID

[gary1968]

Strange, I have just had to reinstalled my lappy with Win7 and have no problem with my QHY5, I used the driver disc that came with it. If you want I can copy the original disc I have and send it to you to try.......

Gary

[Dodge]

Not much help, but I run a QHY5 with Win7 with no problems whatsoever using the current drivers on the QHY site.

[SteveA]

Looks like I have several routes to try when I get back after the holiday then.

Last night I installed ASCOM 6 on another PC I have....just on the off chance that there was an issue with the other PC.....but unfortunately I have the same problem on that machine...can't help thinking it must be the camera.....

..to be continued after the hols.....

thanks

[pubquiz]

Hi Steve

When I first got my QHY5 years ago when it worked great ....years later something happened ..can't remember what (probably a new PC or something) but I had probs with the QHY being recognised using the drivers off the website.

I then found the old original driver and installed that and it worked fine.

I could e mail it to you if you want ...whether it will work on 64 bit win 7 I don't know..I use an XP partition for my scope control stuff as it all works great on XP but it may be worth a try if all else fails.

Let me know if you want it

Tom

[SteveA]

Hi Tom,

That might be really useful...if you wouldn't mind. I certainly don't seem to have kept a copy of the original myself, in fact the camera didn't ship,with a CD when I purchased it several years back from Bern at Modern Astronomy and I seem to remember Bern had the drivers on his site for download.

Of course this whole fiasco is the result of me upgrading to Win7 in the first place and although I can see some attraction it going back to XP I would really like to see it through and get this damn thing working on Win7.

I've got several things to try when I get home from hols at the wekend...fingers crossed..

[pubquiz]

Hi Steve

Hope you had a good hol

Yes i have absolutely no idea re all the drivers for the QHY5 re win 7 or Vista (I bought a genuine version of Vista and it was the worst thing I ever did!)

Like I say when I got the QHY5 (also from Bern at MO) the driver it came with worked great.

Thinking back I then did something stupid like trying to plug the guiding lead into the USB socket but whatever I broke it

I sent it back to Bern and got it back repaired and but somehow couldn't get it to connect with PHD.

I went through all the usual channels of asking on Cloudy Nights etc ...wasn't a member of SGL then..

And tried everything and nothing worked until I installed the very hard to find original driver ...I now have it saved  so if you want it PM me and I will send it.

May  not work on your winn 7 64 bit but who knows.

Good Luck

Tom..

[SteveA]

Well...finally I seem to have found the solution!

Thanks to you all for help and advice by the way...

Having tried just about everything, I was just about to chuck in the towel and ditch the QHY5, when it occurred to me that following the Win7 build I had actually downloaded and installed the latest version of PHD...version 1.14. Not really expecting much...I tried an earlier version ...1.13. Quite unbelievably....this has fixed the problem!

I have to say I do feel slightly stupid for not having thought of this before, I just assumed it was a driver/ASCOM thing and totally missed the obvious.....just how many times have I done this sort of thing before?...LOTS.

[JamesF]

That's really good news.  No idea what version I'm running.  I have the laptop booted into Linux at the moment, but I'll reboot it later and check.

James

[pubquiz]

Yes glad you sorted it Steve.

Mentioning PHD versions...I have just downloaded PHD2 to give it a try...seems to have some nice new features like connecting scope and mount with one click and saving different equipment profiles etc.

Tom

[SteveA]

Damn and blast!....the problem is is back?...more stress.

I'm fairly sure there is a hardware problem with the camera..it was working fine the other night and now (no changes made) I'm back to square one. clearly the PHD solution was a red herring!

I think I'm going to stop wasting time and get myself another guide camera...I'd rather be imaging than wasting precious clear nights messing with this *******

[JamesF]

Gah!

I'm imaging right now and have PHD v1.14 running without a problem with my QHY5II-L.  I've also acquired a used QHY5 for testing, but I'm sure you'll appreciate my reluctance to give that a go on the first clear night for a month

James

[SteveA]

I'm going to give it one more days playing around this weekend and see if I can resolve this...if not I'm reluctantly going to go for a new guide camera.

At the end of last weekend I did see some improvement if I forced the gain right up to 100% when selecting the camera in the ASCOM interface...I'm just wondering if this could be the potential solution? I don't ever seem to remember having to set the gain on this camera when using the CCD Labs guider in PHD, so I'm not sure whet the optimum should be.

If I set the gain at 0 I get random flashing dots on the screen, as the gain is increased I get various noisy images. Anyone any recommendations on the optimum gain setting?

Steve

[gary1968]

Mine is set at 50% in the gain window

Sent from my HUAWEI U8815 using Tapatalk now Free

[SteveA]

A stress free life now!...well at least I think so...

Basically I think I've found the solution.....

In the PHD "brain" button there is a parameter call "Noise reduction"...I must say I had never taken much notice of this previously and in fact it may well have been grayed out when I was using the CCD Labs Q-Guider driver. I noticed this was set at "2x2 mean", I changed this "None" and the difference is massive! OK I still have some banding, probably not as much as when using Q-Guider driver but I think its going to be acceptable. I've yet to try it in a guiding scenario, but I reckon it should be OK.

I've attached a couple of images here to demonstrate the before and after. The first image is with the camera gain st at 50% and the noise reduction at 2x2 mean and the second is with the same gain and the noise reduction in PHD turned off...