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QHY8L Amp Glow ASCOM 3.1 Driver

ianaiken

By ianaiken
in Discussions - Cameras

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ianaiken

ianaiken

Posted
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I upgraded my ASCOM driver from version 3.0 to 3.1 for my QHY8L.  Unfortunately, this introduced some rather nasty amp glow.  My advice is to not upgrade.  I didn't bother reporting this on the QHYCCD forum as I usually get ignored there.  To roll back you have to uninstall both the Starsense v3.0 and 3.1 and also manually delete the QHY8L.dll in Program Files\Common Files\ASCOM\Camera (or something along those lines) and then install the v3.0.

Using v3.0

post-15076-0-17761100-1393888354_thumb.j

Using V3.1

post-15076-0-37208800-1393888357_thumb.j

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r3i

r3i

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Hi Ian,

That's very odd, are you sure it is amp glow?  The reason I ask is that as I understand it, the QHY8L amp glow appears in the top left of the image ( I can see it in my subs ).  

No idea what else it could be though - I presume that you can readily repeat the issue - have you tried reinstalling V3.1 and see if it happens again?

What capture software are you using?  I use Nebulosity V3 and don't use the ASCOM drivers.

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russellhq

russellhq

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This is my fault, sorry :D

I reported a fault with the 3.0 driver when using it with ASCOM, looks like they fixed the fault but maybe introduced something else.

Here's my post reporting the fault:

http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=4287.msg23951

Maybe you should give them another chance at fixing the problem. When I reported the fault, it was fixed in about 10 days.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Roberto Coleschi

Roberto Coleschi

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I have tried the 3.1 Ascom driver with AA5 "indoor" and yes, seems to me there is a lot of "amp glow" in a dark frame, but if you stretch a lot the image it is much more evident. I have replaced the old 3.0 version, but when I choose in Ascom settings - Qhy8L Star Sense Sci , I read: Ver: 3.1 FIR: Unknown. I have disinstalled the new drivers with Ascom Profile Explorer. So I don't know what driver ver. there is on my PC.

Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot :smiley:

Roberto

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Roberto Coleschi

Roberto Coleschi

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Manually Delete the dll and reinstall 3.0. The location is in my original post this will get you fully back to version.l 3.0. If you do a properties on the file it should show the right version.

Thanks Ian, I did it. I have installed the 3.0 version, and when I plug my camera, the screen that appears (QHY8L Star Sense Sci- properties - QHY8L Setup), tells me that the installed version is 2.0 - FW: Unknown. But I am sure that I have installed the version 3.0. When possible, I'll try this solution (but the weather is still bad)..

Thanks..

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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Hi

I've recently bought a qhy8l and have been doing some tests on it today. It would seem that Mr Q is wrong in what he says about the amp glow being fixed and independent of exposure time. I've got the v3.1 Ascom driver installed. I've been taking darks and it appears the amp glow varies according to exposure time - increasing with longer exposures. This means either going back to v3.0 as mentioned here else taking sets of darks for different exposure times. Annoying and disappointing :( Now I'm wondering if it also varies according to set point temperature... Has anyone examined this?

Louise

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ianaiken

ianaiken

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The glow is too great on 20 min exposures it ruins half the picture.  Roll back and when he decides to listen he might fix it...

Edit: Because there's no hope darks are going to fix that glow after 20 mins at -20C.

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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The glow is too great on 20 min exposures it ruins half the picture.  Roll back and when he decides to listen he might fix it...

 

Edit: Because there's no hope darks are going to fix that glow after 20 mins at -20C.

I added a post on the qhy forum earlier. I can't believe the manufacturer (Mr Q) is so certain! It doesn't fill me with confidence re their testing. The darks do cancel it out (for my relatively short exposures) but it bothers me that it's there in the first place. Maybe I will roll back the driver. I suppose I'll then have to do another set of darks, flats and bias frames... I think I've seen the amp glow appear on some very short exposures too. Sigh.

Louise

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ianaiken

ianaiken

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Yep - I was ignored on a very obvious problem for another camera so I don't hold out much hope at all.  At least he said it "looks like amp glow" - way to go good observation made there, so he agrees at least its amp glow :-)

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GuillermoBarrancos

GuillermoBarrancos

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Yep - I was ignored on a very obvious problem for another camera so I don't hold out much hope at all.  At least he said it "looks like amp glow" - way to go good observation made there, so he agrees at least its amp glow :-)

How can you say this, when this problem was just posted yesterday on the official forums, by Russelhq?

http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=4287.0

Give them time to respond to it and fix the problem.

I had nothing but good customer service from Mr.QHY himself years ago when I had a lot of problems with my QHY5 camera at the time and he was very responsive and send me all kinds of test Tools and custom versions of EZCap to identify the problem at the time. Which ended up being the camera itself.

There aren't many companies that offer this kind of direct service.

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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Just to update - I posted this on another thread earlier:

Yeah, it does look like it needs the older v3.0 Ascom driver. I've changed over to v3.0 for the moment. EZcap uses the native driver which doesn't have the problem. I use the ascom driver with APT as I'm used to APT and it integrates with Astrotortilla. The v3.0 driver doesn't show any amp glow in single 300s or 600s dark frames but... instead it has an overscan artefact :( - the reason v3.1 was created, I think. It should be easy enough to crop off the overscan in post-processing. I'm hoping the overscan won't interfere with calibration but it'll have to wait until some clear skies to try it properly!

Louise

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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Hi Roberto

Copying this over from another qhy8l thread:

For some reason the ascom driver option for selecting effective area is greyed out? So capturing via APT results in an overscanned image :{. At least the v3.2 seems to have fixed the amp glow problem. More tests required. You'd think if they can fix the effective area problem in 3.1 they could have managed it for the newer version. Looks like will have to wait for v3.3....

Roberto: Have you found the same?

Louise

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Roberto Coleschi

Roberto Coleschi

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Hello Louise: the checkbox "Effective area only" does function correctly, using the drivers 3.2 Ascom and Nebulosity. If you don't check that box, you can see a black stripe in the right of the image, if you select the image is downloaded at full resolution, without the overscan area. So, I can say that I'm happy for this issue solution, but I'm waiting to try the camera in the sky (maybe tomorrow night).. :smiley:

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