ZWO ASI 553 software issues

[Andy274]

Hi guys,

Ive just bought one of these cameras from FLO - im having a hell of a time trying to get some software to work with it. 
My setup is a 110 starwave mated to an Atik 383L + mono for luminence/NB & an Atik 16c with a homemade OAG for guiding.  Sat on top of that is a 70mm Altair triplet mated to my 553.

I use the Atik software to guide & image with but im trying to find a piece of software that can control the 553.  So far, ive tried SG pro & found it annoying as it thinks of itself as an evil genius & wants to control absolutely everything.  I also tried sharpcap & the generic ZWO software - both of them only (as far as i discovered) allowed the capture of video & not a FIT file.  I also tried to use NINA but have struggled with it for the following reasons:

Unsure which driver to use - Ascom or actual ASI 553 driver

I cant get the chip to cool down at all.  The cooling gets to 100% but will not reduce the chip temp at all.  Ive tried various settings etc & got nowhere with it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas that would be helpful?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Andy

 

[DaveS]

Have you tried AstroArt 7? Before I moved to Maxim DL I used to use AA5 for my capture as well as post, and found it pretty good.

[Andy274]

Thanks for the reply Dave - ive not heard of that, i also have maxim 5 but will give that Astro art a bash too.

Cheers

Andy

[geeklee]

Hi Andy - I'm not sure if there's any useful info in this thread:

This was purely with the native driver though.  With the ASCOM driver, I only tried Apt and no problems - capture and cooling were fine.

It may be that SG Pro and NINA haven't updated their ZWO SDK yet so the native driver support isn't there for the 533.  Both SharpCap and Apt have both updated now and I've not seen any issues yet although I think I had already just started using the ASCOM driver. 

Did you browse through the settings in SharpCap to change the default formats:

https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/3.2/#Preferred Video Format (mentions .fits)

 

[Andy274]

Cheers for that Lee

I'll have a look at it - im also downloading APT as I type this response...

Cheers

Andy

[Adam J]

1 hour ago, Andy274 said:

Hi guys,

Ive just bought one of these cameras from FLO - im having a hell of a time trying to get some software to work with it. 
My setup is a 110 starwave mated to an Atik 383L + mono for luminence/NB & an Atik 16c with a homemade OAG for guiding.  Sat on top of that is a 70mm Altair triplet mated to my 553.

I use the Atik software to guide & image with but im trying to find a piece of software that can control the 553.  So far, ive tried SG pro & found it annoying as it thinks of itself as an evil genius & wants to control absolutely everything.  I also tried sharpcap & the generic ZWO software - both of them only (as far as i discovered) allowed the capture of video & not a FIT file.  I also tried to use NINA but have struggled with it for the following reasons:

Unsure which driver to use - Ascom or actual ASI 553 driver

I cant get the chip to cool down at all.  The cooling gets to 100% but will not reduce the chip temp at all.  Ive tried various settings etc & got nowhere with it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas that would be helpful?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Andy

 

Chip getting to 100% but not cooling is often caused by fan issues. Confirm the fan is spinning. 

[Andy274]

fan is definitely spinning Adam

[ngwillym]

Sharpcap default to SER video files when using very short exposures. It goes back to Fits or tif or png when exposures are greater than 1sec. Also, you can change the file type in Sharpcap itself (turn off the auto button) or you can set the default file type in the sharpcap settings.

Neil

[Andy274]

Im just about to head outside too.  I'll check it out & let you know how I got on.
FLO said to try it in SG pro again & if the chip doesn't start to cool they need it back to test it

Fingers crossed

[Adam J]

1 hour ago, Andy274 said:

Im just about to head outside too.  I'll check it out & let you know how I got on.
FLO said to try it in SG pro again & if the chip doesn't start to cool they need it back to test it

Fingers crossed

To be honest with you if anything is going to work and be common between the different ASI cameras it's going to be the cooling. So it is looking like something is amiss. 

[Andy274]

Cooling is fine - I think I had a dicky connection on the 12v cig lighter - now fixed as SG pro is cooling it brilliantly - which is a relief as I couldn't be arsed with the hassle of sending it back for there to be nothing wrong.

RIght now im in the process of trying to do a test run where im capturing images from my 383L+ mono, my ASI 553, running my mount & auto guiding simultaneously to see what is & isn't going to fail... Wish me luck lol

Im also having driver issues with my Atik 16C guider - only artemis capture has managed to pick it up as a device in its own right so far which is a concern (win 10 64bit, i5 processor with 8Gb RAM)  The pain continues lol

[newbie alert]

Apt will work as Ivaylo is using the same camera