It focuses!

[Ags]

To my great surprise, my ASI178MM connects to my 100mm macro lens, and I got the spacing correct, and it comes to focus!

1. 

[geordie85]

It's always nice when something just works 

[Ags]

In addition, the long photo-thread bolt counterweight on the back of the camera is really great for sighting alignment stars. Not quite as good as an RDF but still pretty nifty.

[JamesF]

Does the macro lens have a T2 thread, or did you need a converter?

James

[Ags]

I am using the T2 converter from TS. FLO are selling it too now.

[alan potts]

I may try my 300mm F2.8 on the mount with my 071, it will be fairly wide field I would think.

Alan

[Ags]

I think the stars would be better in my Pleiades picture if i had used an IR-cut filter.

[Thalestris24]

Hi Ags

How are you finding the 178? Have you tried it bin 2x2? I was thinking of getting the cheaper gpcam3 version - I started a thread earlier but no response (yet). Does the zwo version implement trigger mode?

Louise

Edited November 12, 2019 by Thalestris24

[Ags]

I have used 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4 (the latter particularly for EEA). It works very well indeed. But I don't know what trigger mode is...

The 178 is a spectacular little camera. I have the non-cooled version - darks are not optional!

Edited November 12, 2019 by Ags

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, Ags said:

I have used 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4 (the latter particularly for EEA). It works very well indeed. But I don't know what trigger mode is...

Hi

Ok, thanks

Oh, re trigger mode - it's the electronics which allows you to interrupt the current exposure. So, if you had started a 60s exposure you can stop it at 15s, say. Without trigger mode you'd have to wait until the 60s exposure had completed before starting a new/different one. You'd notice this in SharpCap in the way it behaves when you try and change the current exposure time (assuming SharpCap supports trigger mode - it doesn't seem to with my qhy183m using the qhy Ascom driver).

Louise

[Ags]

Sorry, I have been using it for months exclusively with sharpcap, and I've never noticed what happens when I cancel a capture. But I have never gone over 30 second exposures.

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, Ags said:

Sorry, I have been using it for months exclusively with sharpcap, and I've never noticed what happens when I cancel a capture. But I have never gone over 30 second exposures.

Oh ok, no worries - it's probably not a big issue anyway.

Thanks

Louise

[JamesF]

I was kind of aware that Altair described the ability to interrupt captures with some reference to a "trigger", but the term means something else to me in relation to these sorts of cameras.  Some cameras have an additional set of IO pins that can be used to deliver a pulse to external electronics that indicates an exposure has taken place ("strobe mode") or to take an exposure only when a pin is taken to a given logic state ("trigger mode").  I think some have a "software trigger mode" that takes an exposure only when the camera is told to (rather than running all the time).  I wonder if Altair have used one of these latter two in some way to force an exposure to be aborted if required...

James

[Thalestris24]

19 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I was kind of aware that Altair described the ability to interrupt captures with some reference to a "trigger", but the term means something else to me in relation to these sorts of cameras.  Some cameras have an additional set of IO pins that can be used to deliver a pulse to external electronics that indicates an exposure has taken place ("strobe mode") or to take an exposure only when a pin is taken to a given logic state ("trigger mode").  I think some have a "software trigger mode" that takes an exposure only when the camera is told to (rather than running all the time).  I wonder if Altair have used one of these latter two in some way to force an exposure to be aborted if required...

James

As I understand it, it's about being able to stop the current exposure and start a new one. I get the impression it's something the imx174 can do http://www.scorpionvision.co.uk/industrial-camera-optics-blog/sony-imx174-sensor and also the imx178 http://www.scorpionvision.co.uk/_literature_152801/DMK_33GX178 .It's maybe a combination of hardware and software but I don't know if it requires extra hardware or not. It's really only a 'nice to have' and if you are only doing short exposures you can live without it.

Louise

Edited November 12, 2019 by Thalestris24

[JamesF]

The description on that page:

"The IMX174 is equipped with trigger mode, and the external pulse can control accumulation time. The sensor also has a pulse output function to indicate respective conditions during shutter operation and can be coordinated with peripheral circuits."

sounds pretty much like what I was trying to describe.  And the additional socket on the back of the Imaging Source camera that they have a photo of at the bottom of the article looks very much like it could be the hardware inputs.

After a quick peek at the Altair SDK I'd guess that one can put the camera into "software trigger" mode to capture images and there's then an option to cancel the trigger, so perhaps it's not an arbitrary thing you can do when the camera is in "free run" mode.

James

[Thalestris24]

9 minutes ago, JamesF said:

The description on that page:

"The IMX174 is equipped with trigger mode, and the external pulse can control accumulation time. The sensor also has a pulse output function to indicate respective conditions during shutter operation and can be coordinated with peripheral circuits."

sounds pretty much like what I was trying to describe.  And the additional socket on the back of the Imaging Source camera that they have a photo of at the bottom of the article looks very much like it could be the hardware inputs.

After a quick peek at the Altair SDK I'd guess that one can put the camera into "software trigger" mode to capture images and there's then an option to cancel the trigger, so perhaps it's not an arbitrary thing you can do when the camera is in "free run" mode.

James

I dunno... I was only wondering if it was implemented on the gpcam3 178, but it doesn't matter really.

Louise