QHY8L dead

[Chris Murray]

Hi all i hope you can help me, i was taking some darks when i noticed the lappy capture screen white, stopped checked everything, mmh....  the seal on the edge of the chip looks like its gone, the surface of the chip is dull and linier, i was told possibly grease from the cooler has leaked, any ideas, chinese new year has made communications with china difficult, pic shows the silicon at the left side not sealing, thanks, this is my first post although i have been watching.

[Oddsocks]

The CCD sensor looks fine, the "seal" is the internal black surround running up to the gold wires surrounding the sensor active area, the gold looking part is internal structure. The CCD sensor will continue to work quite happily even if the glass is completely removed. If water had leaked inside condensation or even ice would be visible on the inside of the glass and surface of the sensor.

The "grease" used to couple the sensor to the peltier cooler is usually zinc oxide and is non conductive, even if it did contaminate the connection pins at the rear of the CCD it would not have a detrimental effect on the operation of the sensor.

When the laptop screen turned white was the auto stretch function selected? many programs turn the display white in the absence of a strong signal such as when taking bias subs or short darks and auto stretch set to "on".

To test the camera set it to take a range of different exposure lengths with the camera just pointing towards a dimly illuminated sheet of white paper or card, make sure auto stretch is "off".

Otherwise, if the captures remain white then it is more likely due to an electronics or CCD failure and a return to the dealer for diagnosis and repair would be necessary.

[Chris Murray]

hia, camera settings havent been changed or am i getting it wrong, everything was fine  taking the darks then i seen the capture screen white, over exposed if you like, i checked everything, even rebooting everything, but now i get dull terestrial images (test) then just noise, like the chip cant see through the fog, the camera was pointing down, what do you think, i did some reaserch on google but nothing

[redfox1971]

Hi are all the lights on the dc201 unit  on? Could you post a image? maybe a screen grab of what you are seeing are you useing ezcap.

 

[Chris Murray]

Hia red fox, i attach... or not mmh... DC-201s all lights on tried posting pics. no good, ezcaps screen shows bright drey at 1ms with the lense cap on, something not right? should be totaly dark  

[Oddsocks]

Which version of EzCap and drivers are you running? there have been some bugs with the earlier versions that were supplied with the cameras.

I would suggest next step is do uninstall of EzCap and drivers to eliminate corrupted software and download the latest version for Windows from here, then try again:  http://www.qhyccd.com/QHY8L.html

 

[Chris Murray]

ok hia oddsocks, looks good, i deleted ezcap and drivers reinstalled them with the latest version, im getting dark frames again so thats good, i will check in the morning with terestrial, im quite shocked that it works so well for a few years then the software lets it down, but, ill see in the morning, hope this is it thanks 

[Oddsocks]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

I don't know the QHY8L camera or EzCap software that well but I think there is an autodark function in EzCap that can cause the problems you described, if it is left switched on when acquiring images and the camera/telescope is not covered the first image in a sequence looks good then subsequent images fade away to grey if the camera continues to see light, or the image becomes white if the camera/telescope is capped.

Now you have a fresh install of EzCap I think you have to do a new gain and offset adjustment but I'm only guessing as I don't own any QHY cameras...

[Thalestris24]

Hi

It's probably not a good idea to undo the camera and expose the sensor... But too late now. You should consider storing it overnight, at least, in a sealed container with some desiccant. Otherwise you might get dew condensing on the sensor.

I use APT for capture and with the ascom driver. I like the way APT controls the temperature. However, I seem to recall that frames captured with the ascom driver aren't compatible with the native ezcap driver because of the overscan - but maybe drivers have been updated recently? Not sure.

Louise

[Chris Murray]

Hia louise, back to normal after reloading ezcap 3.5 and latest drivers, i was so worried and especially getting no heip from QHY. it normaly lives in a box with half a dozen silica gell packs and only comes out to play then, back in yer box. i didnt suspect the software at all so thats what threw me, ill now get the argon out and fill a bag, replace the front cover then purge and seal with tape, thanks Louise, Redfox and Oddsocks for your help, im usualy pretty good at googling and searching forums but this stumped me thanks again everyone, chris

[Thalestris24]

Hi Chris

Well glad all ok in the end. I leave mine on the 130pds. I've had the camera for two years and have never opened it up or changed the internal desiccant. So far, so good  

Louise

[redfox1971]

I did eventually find the problem with mine as my images were getting strange effects,I almost gave up and was about to send mine back to qhy but before I did I thought I would spray the rear cicuit board with wd-40 fast drying contact cleaner as it dryed I noticed it getting a white powder on it so used a fine paint brush and brushed it off and been working fine since,I to leave mine on my scope as it's a pain to keep removing it but goes to show what tricks damp conditions at times can play on you,glade you are back up and running.

[sloz1664]

I cannot understand why you are not getting any help from QHY. I have the same problem with my QHY8 Pro and they responded the next day. Unfotueatly my is faulty so it needs to go back for repair. Did you submit a  ticket with the repair team on the QHYCCD website?

 

Steve

[Chris Murray]

Hia Louise, i leave the scope in the conservatory and quite often soaking wet with dew when i bring it in so dont want to temp anything, i origionaly opened as i got a lot of dust in there, my fault, i do think that the instructions should say dont open or remove decandesicant port untill you realy need to, but hey ho its done now, cheers

[Chris Murray]

Hi Steve, i think Chinese new year just getting in the way but i sent a ticket in and got no confirmation email, spoke to Bern at modern astronomy, he says try a different email, so i did and it worked, i got a reply a couple of days later, ticket closed..... shock, spoke to Bern he says its worth one more go, so i have and still waiting, ah well the reinstal has solved my problem, thanks to you guys i am away again, thanks again all, cheers, chris