ASI120MM Issue

[oldpink]

My ASI120MC works fine on a AMD machine and on my Intel laptop

[JamesF]

I don't know if I missed this or I was blind, but, there is a firmware update tool on their download page. http://www.zwoptical.com/Eng/Software/index.asp Some of the USB problems might be fixed when updating the firmware in the camera. I haven't tried it yet for my USB3 problems but I will do, soon™... ;-)

I've not tried my 120MM yet, but I have spent a fruitless few days trying to get oacapture to work with the 120MC on my USB3 MacBook until Sam@ZWO suggested I try the "120MC-compatible" firmware upgrade.  I did that this morning and I now I have video capture from the 120MC on the MacBook working very nicely

James

[JamesF]

I meant to add...

I really do think it's some sort of chipset issue rather than "doesn't work with AMD" etc.  Even before the upgrade my 120MC worked fine in the USB2 and USB3 port of my Acer desktop, and in my Orico USB3 hub.  It wouldn't work at all in the Mac though, even when plugged in via a USB2 hub.

James

[wavydavy]

Hi james f...whats the USB traffic setting used for?? Ive used my camera a while now but never messed about with that setting...........

[rwg]

The 120MM/MC and 130MM will work with AMD chipsets - that's what I use in my obsy machine and I have no problems with the USB ports on the motherboard working fine.

The cameras don't like the ports on my (NEC chipset) USB3 card. I spoke to Sam at ZWO and he suggested that it is because the camera uses a 1024 byte packet size for USB rather than a standard 512 byte packet. USB ports really should be able to cope with this as it is supposed to be part of the USB spec, but since it's something that not many devices do, some ports (or maybe it's the port drivers) don't support this properly.

The firmware update mentioned above changes the camera to use 512 byte packets, which should be more compatible at the expense of a tiny reduction in maximum frame rate.

Robin

[oldpink]

Hi james f...whats the USB traffic setting used for?? Ive used my camera a while now but never messed about with that setting...........

it determines the data rate to the hard drive, in some cases you need to slow the data rate down 

but the default setting is 80,

[JamesF]

Hi james f...whats the USB traffic setting used for?? Ive used my camera a while now but never messed about with that setting...........

I'm not absolutely certain how it works technically.  I think it modifies how aggressive the camera is in utilising the bandwidth available to it on the USB bus.

James

[JamesF]

it determines the data rate to the hard drive, in some cases you need to slow the data rate down 

but the default setting is 80,

I don't think it has anything to do with the hard drive.  The camera driver doesn't do anything that involves writing data to disk.

James

[JamesF]

Referring back to the code for my QHY5L-II driver (which is very similar to the ASI120 in terms of hardware), the USB traffic setting changes the line length pixel clock on the camera chip.  I can't find a good description of what that actually means in real terms though.

James

[JamesF]

The cameras don't like the ports on my (NEC chipset) USB3 card. I spoke to Sam at ZWO and he suggested that it is because the camera uses a 1024 byte packet size for USB rather than a standard 512 byte packet. USB ports really should be able to cope with this as it is supposed to be part of the USB spec, but since it's something that not many devices do, some ports (or maybe it's the port drivers) don't support this properly.

The 1024 byte packet size is a common issue that I think is actually the "fault" of the Cypress chipsets on which the ASI120, QHY5L-II and QHY5 amongst others are based.

My understanding of the USB2 spec. is that the maximum packet size for bulk transfers is 512 bytes (1024 is allowed for interrupts and isochronous transfers).  However, some implementations will accept 1024 bytes regardless.  I know both Linux and OSX log an error when a device claims to use a packet size over 512 bytes for bulk transfers and I think both still accept them anyhow.  I'm pretty sure Win7 accepts them too.  If the USB hardware doesn't want to play for some reason then you're probably stuck.

USB3 may be different.  I've not checked.

James

[JamesF]

The firmware update mentioned above changes the camera to use 512 byte packets, which should be more compatible at the expense of a tiny reduction in maximum frame rate.

I wasn't aware that was what it did.  I shall have to plug it into a Linux box now I've updated the firmware and see what it advertises.  I'll check my QHY5L-II as well, as I'm sure that also requests 1024 byte bulk transfers and I had no problems with it on my MacBook whereas I did with the ASI120.  It is perhaps possible that the firmware downloaded to the QHY each time it is plugged in changes the size back down to 512 bytes.

James

[rwg]

I wasn't aware that the 1024 byte transfers were strictly out-of-spec rather than being an odd but in-spec option

 I'll check my QHY5L-II as well, as I'm sure that also requests 1024 byte bulk transfers and I had no problems with it on my MacBook whereas I did with the ASI120.  It is perhaps possible that the firmware downloaded to the QHY each time it is plugged in changes the size back down to 512 bytes.

James

What is the betting that this is the difference between the QHY 'performance' driver and their 'compatibility' driver - probably just a firmware file tweak?

cheers,

Robin

[JamesF]

What is the betting that this is the difference between the QHY 'performance' driver and their 'compatibility' driver - probably just a firmware file tweak?

Not sure.  I wasn't aware that there were two different versions of the firmware for any of the cameras, though as none has any kind of version number or name beyond the camera name it's hard to be certain.

James

[JamesF]

Oh, just returned my ASI120MC to the non-"compatible" firmware and on Linux I get this error:

[134565.694084] usb 1-1.3: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x82 has invalid maxpacket 1024

I don't get that error with the "compatible" firmware installed, but that doesn't work on Linux either so I'm not sure what's going on there.  I shall discuss it with Sam.

James

[stoffe]

Hello

I can't get my camera to work with higher framerates with the compatible firmware and it doesn't work at all with my USB2.0 PCI card with NEC chipset. I have to use the other "original" firmware to get it work.

[JamesF]

Hello

I can't get my camera to work with higher framerates with the compatible firmware and it doesn't work at all with my USB2.0 PCI card with NEC chipset. I have to use the other "original" firmware to get it work.

Yes.  I emailed Sam and he reckoned it should work, just not as fast.  My experience so far however is that the compatible firmware barely works at all on those systems where the original firmware works fine.

James

[stoffe]

I just tested my ASI120MM camera with a Asus P5Q SE with onboard USB 2.0 connectors and I could reach full speed with my camera. It have ICH10 chipset. No problem to reach 35 fps in full frame mode. I tested it with different cables too, one 0,3 m, 1 m and one 3 meters. No difference at all between them.