QHY268M Driver Problems

[StevieO]

Hi,

Apologies if this has come up before:

This week I received my new QHY268M camera. I downloaded and installed the driver package, which contains the ASCOM and native drivers, from the QHY website. The computer won't recognise the camera. In 'Devices and Printers' it displays an icon labelled 'Westbridge' with an exclamation triangle and the words Driver Error and Driver Unavailable. In Device Manager it says 'Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed). I've done this numerous times, each time uninstalling before I try again.

At first I thought it was my (fairly) old laptop, which runs Windows 8.1 and which runs all my other image capture software, including my ATIK 383, without problems. So I splashed out on a new Beelink mini PC from FLO, running Windows 10 Pro, and it is still happening. I've now spent several hours on this and am ready to return the QHY if I can't find a solution.

I'd be grateful for any tips on how to get this problem sorted.

Merry Christmas!

StevieO

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Have you installed the "All in one package" ?

And then opened EZCAP_QT

But then the camera is not recognised when you try to connect ?

Steve

[StevieO]

Hi Steve,

Thanks, yes that's exactly what I've done. I've tried installing it with EZCAP and without (EZCAP won't recognise the camera, nor will APT which is my goto capture software) I've tried installing just the ASCOM driver, just the native driver, both drivers, versions 6.4 and 6.5 of the ASCOM Driver, the beta version, many times over. I rang Bernard at the supplier, Modern Astronomy. He was extremely helpful and emailed me another version of the all-in-one package, but that was the same. 

I don't think it's the camera, I'm sure it's the driver, but if I can't get it to work it's just an expensive doorstop and I can see myself getting an ASI2600 instead. Luckily, the cloud cover has been relentless all week so I haven't lost any actual imaging time, but I was hoping to have started on my darks library by now.

All the best

StevieO

[Stuart1971]

This may not help,  and sorry for that, but I too just got the colour version of this camera from Modern Astronomy, and had to install the driver package twice, but did work the second time perfectly, one thing I was told is that the camera should NOT be connected during the install and reboot after before connection the camera, also during the install did you install any of the packages other than the ASCOM driver one, as there is a list of them that come up, and the only one you should have checked it the ASCOM 6.5, and you need the latest ASCOM 6.5 SP1 installed for it to work…

Edited December 24, 2021 by Stuart1971

[StevieO]

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for that, I've had the camera completely disconnected and powered down each time I've reinstalled. I have V6.5 ASCOM and have tried both 6.4 and 6.5 drivers, uninstalling each time it's failed. 

Tonight I've found a possible solution on Cloudy Nights using ASCOM Diagnostics, so I'll try that and report back. Trouble is I'm away from home for a couple of days so it'll have to wait until Wed.

Watch this space!  

StevieO

[Stuart1971]

38 minutes ago, StevieO said:

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for that, I've had the camera completely disconnected and powered down each time I've reinstalled. I have V6.5 ASCOM and have tried both 6.4 and 6.5 drivers, uninstalling each time it's failed. 

Tonight I've found a possible solution on Cloudy Nights using ASCOM Diagnostics, so I'll try that and report back. Trouble is I'm away from home for a couple of days so it'll have to wait until Wed.

Watch this space!  

StevieO

It is ASCOM version 6.5 SP1 and not just 6.5…??

And also don’t use the beta QHY driver, use the latest stable version…as strangely the newer beta is actually older than the latest stable….🤔🤔

Edited December 26, 2021 by Stuart1971

[StevieO]

Problem solved - I got up at 6am today and let Cha from QHYCCD in China take over my PC via Teamviewer. He did exactly what I've done numerous times, except that he installed EZCAP and the native driver only first, got that working and only then installed the ASCOM driver so that I can connect with APT. I couldn't see any other differences, but that did the trick.

But it's in and working. Thanks to Cha, and Bernard at Modern Astronomy who put me in touch with him. Very impressed with MA!

And thanks to Stuart1971 and Teoria_Del_Big_Bang for their input.

C'mon clouds, gimme a break!

StevieO

[tomato]

Good to hear. Although I have a 268c I didn’t contribute to the thread as I couldn’t think of anything new to suggest. I would never have thought the order in which you install the software was critical, but there you go.

Now If only there was someone we could call about the clouds.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Good news. Thanks for letting us know the outcome. Enjoy the camera it really is a great camera.

Drivers eh, pain in the backside but we can't live without them 🙂 

Steve

Edited December 30, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[rsarwar]

May no t be exactly relavent, but i thought i would share some my of recent findings

I recently developed a fault on my QHY268M which meant it did not get detected by my PC/RPI4. i had the camera partially disassembled before sending it in for a replacement (Modern astronomy has been really helpful is mitigating the problem). However based on what i could see, the camera USB3 port is actually not isolated and shares the ground plane with the main power source. the power brick it comes with is fairly good, and seems to have proper grounding. however, in most cases, PI4/mount/usb hub power bricks are not, so there can be AC ground loop between the two device through the USB cable. since we are running the devices in outdoor settings, AC loop issues will be common if poor quality power bricks are used. this means, large current draw through the USB cable (on a bad day, as much as a few amps) which can potentially damage the camera and, more commonly make the camera USB link unstable.

In my opinion, the only way to solve it properly is to use a single good quality power adaptor with proper isolation to power both camera and all the other device. we are talking about something like a pegasus power box. ASI air is inadequite for qhy268m power requirements. 

alternatively use a single battery to power everything.

if you have to use multiple power bricks, one has to make sure all the device have the same grounding and use good quality power supply with proper isolation and grounding.

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by rsarwar