Ezplanetary problems

[Dave grim]

Hi guys I have just purchased a new windows 8.1 laptop and have installed the disc that came with the QHY 5 11 and downloaded all the software ,trouble is that the ezplanetary software keeps crashing , I have only tried to set it up during the day. It seems to happen when I adjust the usb traffic down to get Fps to go up can anyone help please.

Cheers

Dave

[Thalestris24]

Hi

I can only mention that you may need a dedicated hi speed port and a good quality cable i.e. one rated for 480 Mbps. Hubs are best avoided though powered hubs can be used. Hope you can get it working ok. Also check that you've downloaded the latest driver and ezplanetary. One more thing - the qhy site has been plagued with viruses. I think it's ok at the moment but it's advisable to have good antivirus / internet security software installed...

Louise

[JamesF]

You could also use something other than ezplanetary.  FireCapture or SharpCap may be worth a look.

James

[Dave grim]

Thanks for your replies Louise and James I thought it might be the laptop as I've just bought a new windows 8 lappy the old win 7 was knackered , so luckily I have good antivirus etc ,I've tried Sharpcap and Firecapture it works fine with those but I don't know how to up the Fps in those programs any tips

Dave

[JamesF]

The QHY5 models don't have a specific frame rate control.  They deliver as many frames as possible based on the exposure time set, so for example an exposure time of 100ms will get you around 10fps and 10ms will get 100fps.  Was there some reason you needed an exact frame rate?

James

[Dave grim]

Only to get as many frames as possible on Jupiter so I have more frames to work with as I only get about 30-40 secs worth as I have light pollution in the back garden where I do all of my observing , imaging from ,also I'm really to all this imaging stuff and have read lots of articles etc and I think the general rule is to get as many frames as possible due to losing quite a few .

[JamesF]

Then I shouldn't worry about it.  If you use FireCapture for instance, you'll get as many frames as are available at the exposure time you set.

James

[Dave grim]

I have another problem with it now I don't think I downloaded all the software correctly so I uninstalled everything and did it all again from the supplied disc I then downloaded PHD 2 from the disc and let it run, I then proceeded to take a series of darks as PHD suggests and the camera was fine then as the red light was coming on as it was capturing the darks. It was after that I had a problem I launched Sharpcap just to see if everything was ok for capturing normal avi's and when I looked at the red light it was flashing on and off quite quickly and also on the computer screen it was reading 0 Fps ,the settings were 20ms and about 5% gain so I'm totally lost now this was all done indoors mind without a telescope so don't know if that would make a difference , I thought I would get at least some colour saturation that would go darker when I waved my hand in front of the camera.

[Horwig]

If you really need EZP Dave, as one who has had no end of problems getting it to be stable, there are ways. Some pcs were happy, the one I really wanted it to work on was not. Eventually, I found that using it on a good quality 1.8m cable into a powered hub did the trick.

Huw