PHD white screen issue

[SkyExplorer]

I have the colour version of the qhy5 the qhy5t, which I found out later is not as sensitive as the qhy5.

When I tried phd 2, I just got a dark frame followed by a white frame, so went back to trying phd 1

[Thalestris24]

I have the colour version of the qhy5 the qhy5t, which I found out later is not as sensitive as the qhy5.

When I tried phd 2, I just got a dark frame followed by a white frame, so went back to trying phd 1

Hi

Just to complicate matters, it's a 3 megapixel camera with small pixels... I think it's really intended for planetary imaging. You may have to adjust the gain and/ or apply binning. Without binning I suspect you'll need a dedicated high speed port with a high quality usb cable. You didn't mention what guide scope you're using?

Louise

[SkyExplorer]

I'm using the 9x50 finderscope that came with the 80ED.  Maybe time to sell the QHY5t and buy a QHY5II.  I don't think PHD supports binning, the Video software that comes with the QHY5t does.

I'm using the USB 2.0 port directly from the laptop

[Thalestris24]

Hi

It's not down to PHD, it's a function of the ascom driver. You just go into the properties (click button in PHD 1). It should come up with binning settings. PHD2 is better... In that case you click on the camera setup button prior to clicking on connect.

Louise

[SkyExplorer]

The ascom driver for the QHY5t only allows me to adjust the gain.  I cannot setup the camera from within PHD as the button is disabled.

So went back to the start, attached the camera to my 80ED to see if I could see anything using the video software.  Yes I could, so then attached it to the guide scope and tried again, after setting exposure to 5ms I finally managed focus with the video software.

The video software supports 2x2 binning (supported by the QHY5t in hardware), it was much quicker and easier with setting on.

So to PHD 1.11 and using a exposure of 0.05s I managed to get focus (on a far off tree) and consistent results.  However the image is magnified by a factor of 2 as the ascom driver does not support binning.

I guess this just means I have smaller patch of sky to work with.

WIll try and upgrade to PHD1.14 and then 2 to see what happens

[SkyExplorer]

All seems to be working okay now.  I reinstalled PHD2 and it started to capture just fine.  I tried darks and then started to capture again and all looked fine.  I am now running ascom platform 5.5 which I found on the CD that came with the camera

I'm wondering if my camera's ascom drivers do not like the ascom platform 6.1 sp1.  When running diagnostics I got an error when trying to connect to the camera saying the drivers were 64bit but only registered as a 32bit COM driver.  I do not get this error with 5.5 diagnostics.

All seems ok so far, just have to wait for a clear night now 

Thank you all for you help.

[SkyExplorer]

Well, I set everything up on Christmas eve, did a 1 minute 30 second exposure as a test on M81, M82, all looked good.  Opened PHD 2, set exposure to 1 second, hit the loop button....  black screen, white screen, black screen white every second. 

Tried PHD 1, it was at least a constant black, but could I focus it on anything, nope.  After trying to get focus for nearly 30 minutes, changing exposure from 1 second to 2 to 3 and 4, nothing.

By this time I just thought, stuff it, my 1 min 30 sec exposure looked good, so I started taking lights unguided.

After I finished taking about 60 exposures, I attached the QHY5t to the end of my 80ED, and still could not get focus.

What I am doing wrong??

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Maybe you could try setting up during the day? Do you have some fairly distant objects you can focus on? It will then only need a small adjustment for stuff at infinity.

Louise

[SkyExplorer]

Hi Louise,

I tried that during the day on Christmas eve on a tree in the distance, got it all nicely focused, but during the night nothing.  So this time I focused on Crystal palace TV transmitter which is about 11 miles away.

The lights on the transmitter seem well focused to me.  I also connected my camera and got that taking exposures to see if white/black screen from PHD maybe USB load, it all worked fine.  The only thing that is different is the length of the exposure, I cannot set it to 2 seconds during the day otherwise I will end up will constant white images, so no real test.

I am wondering what the small black smudge like marks are?  I thought they were finger prints, but after cleaning the lens, they are still there, when I put my finger over part of the lens I notice all the smudges change from being a circle to being a circle with a finger shape removed.   Is this light reflecting in the finder scope ?? 

Thanks

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Looks like marks on the camera glass front or sensor. Probably the glass as they look out of focus. I wouldn't worry about them too much. You obviously have the bayer matrix showing. Not sure if that can be got rid of via the driver or by using a different guide prog. You could try running it with EZplanetary just to see how it behaves.  The problem is that it will likely affect sensitivity so could be an issue if trying to guide. You could using as a wdm with PHD if you have a wdm driver?

Louise

[SkyExplorer]

Hi,

No such WDM drivers exist for the QHY5t, only the QHY5 (judging by the QHY web site anyway) - When it was working anyway as Google Chrome will not let me go there at the moment due to it thinking there is malware on their website.

I thought they were dust marks, but like I said when I moved my finger over part of the finder scope the lens, those round grey marks showed my finger impression on all of them. I.e. they started to go from a full moon to a crescent moon.

I tried EZplanetary and it cannot find the camera.

[Thalestris24]

Hi

You'd need the qhy (non-ascom) driver to work with Ezplanetary. Hopefully qhy will sort their site out soon. It might be worth emailing them about the site problems. This isn't the first time they've had their site flagged...

Louise

[glowingturnip]

definitely using the wrong codec somewhere as you can see the bayer matrix (the fine rectilinear grid of darker and ligher dots), which may be the cause of your other issues.

Probably worth going through all the choices PHD gives you for camera and see which, if any, give you a decent picture.  Doing it in daytime will show you which codecs handle the bayer matrix properly and which don't so at least you can rule some off the list, but you'll probably need to experiment again at night to find the correct one for guiding - my QHY5liic works perfectly with the QHY5Liic setting (no surprise) but only at night, seems the settings are configured for dark and are always over-exposed in daytime.

[SkyExplorer]

definitely using the wrong codec somewhere as you can see the bayer matrix (the fine rectilinear grid of darker and ligher dots), which may be the cause of your other issues.

Probably worth going through all the choices PHD gives you for camera and see which, if any, give you a decent picture.  Doing it in daytime will show you which codecs handle the bayer matrix properly and which don't so at least you can rule some off the list, but you'll probably need to experiment again at night to find the correct one for guiding - my QHY5liic works perfectly with the QHY5Liic setting (no surprise) but only at night, seems the settings are configured for dark and are always over-exposed in daytime.

 I installed the drivers for the QHY5T from the QHY web site, when I pick "ASCOM camera driver" from the list of cameras in PHD, the QHY5T is listed so I pick that.

[glowingturnip]

iirc, there was an 'Ascom Driver - QHY5L11c' option on my PHD which did *not* work with mine, but the plain 'QHY5liic' option did.  Also I found that 'WMD Webcam' with 'RGB24' gave passable results in the daytime without the bayer matrix showing.  I don't know about the QHY5T though I'm afraid.