QHY268M & QHY268C Users Thread (Please share your knowledge and tips)

[Starflyer]

On 17/01/2024 at 08:31, tomato said:

Oh, and it looks like last night I managed to fry my Rising Cam IMX571 camera, I was a bit shaky plugging the power lead in at it looks like I somehow momentarily put a reverse polarity 12v into the camera!😱An odour of burning and a whiff of smoke followed,  and it won’t connect anymore. Lesson learned, plug in then switch on.

At this rate I’ll have to dig out my G2-8300.😊

This may be related to your other problems.  I have heard of an HEQ5 mount being fried when the outside of a power plug momentarily touched a tripod leg. 

I don't know enough about this and perhaps someone with electronics expertise will be along to explain exactly what happens.  Essentially, you'd expect them both at zero volts, the negative on the power plug and the tripod, or in your case the camera body.  But in some circumstances you can get a voltage leak that results in a difference in potential between various parts of the system, maybe the powered usb hub makes it worse, I don't know.

Who are the electronics gurus here?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

2 hours ago, Starflyer said:

This may be related to your other problems.  I have heard of an HEQ5 mount being fried when the outside of a power plug momentarily touched a tripod leg. 

I don't know enough about this and perhaps someone with electronics expertise will be along to explain exactly what happens.  Essentially, you'd expect them both at zero volts, the negative on the power plug and the tripod, or in your case the camera body.  But in some circumstances you can get a voltage leak that results in a difference in potential between various parts of the system, maybe the powered usb hub makes it worse, I don't know.

Who are the electronics gurus here?

I am not putting myself forward as an electronics Guru here, admittedly I did go to part time to college to do electronics for 5 years but that was 40 years ago.
Anyway for what it is worth saying both the legs of the tripod and the outer pole of the plug are both at zero volts is normally meaningless.
Obviously, we have to assume the HEQ5 is connected to 12V power source and that the outer casing of the mount (an hence the tripod) are also connected to zero volts of its power supply for anything to be meaningful. 

With this assumption then yes the tripod may well be at zero volts (now the important bit to grasp) wrt (with respect to) the +12V DC of it's power supply.
And in the same  manner the plug on this other power supply, that touched the leg, will also be at zero volts wrt the inner pole of that same plug.
BUT, to each other the zero volts of the tripod / mount has no reference to the zero volts of the outer power supply plug. They will have no potential to each other at all.

Best similarity I can give is imagine both supplies as 2 batteries, if you took a voltmeter and measured the potential between the negative of each battery then there will be no reading (meter may show some fluctuations as it picks up radiation), but it does not mean they are at the same potential voltage, similarly if you tried to measure from the positive of one battery to the negative of the other again there is no voltage there. But, connect the positive of battery 1 to the negative of the battery 2 and now you make that negative of battery 2 the same potential as the positive of battery 1 and you now can measure a voltage from battery 1 negative to the positive of battery 2, and the voltage will be the sum of the two battery voltages.

I do not know if I have explained that very well but you see that until the two batteries have one node of each connected then there is no voltage between them at all.

Now that is not the end of the tale as some power supplies may have the negative tied down to earth potential, and if both supplies have them tied to earth then the negatives would be the same potential, but only if both are tied to earth, not if just one was. In my experience normally none of the encapsulated (black box oblong supplies) have the negative to earth, but if using on of the bigger supplies that come with amp and volt meters on the front and a red and black post terminals then those could be tied to earth.

Apologies if that sounds like unsubstantiated waffle, I often struggle to explain what I really mean and non of this explains why a HEQ or CCD would  be fried.

But as I believe it, because essentially on these black box supplies the negatives are essentially floating until they are plugged into something which then may ground the negative to earth potential, a switch mode supply, if powered up but not connected, can assume quite a large potential, wrt  earth that results in a spike when it is connected as it then becomes earthed.
In all circumstances I would not recommend  plugging in a 12v (or any voltage) supply whilst switched on, it should be switched on after plugging it in.

And, I think similarly, the ccd casing MAY be earthed by virtue it is connected to the scope and mount via various metal spacers and other metalwork, and within the ccd the negative supply may be also connected to the casing. So similarly plugging in a live power source could mean the centre may touch slightly before the outer casing does and may then momentarily apply a larger voltage just for a split second until the outer casing connects, just enough of a spike to fry some circuitry.

These are just my thoughts, and I obviously cannot say for sure, I am just offering one possibility.
In the past I too have seen flashes of sparks when connecting live 12V DC plugs to equipment, normally not had anything fry doing it though, but it has since made me check the plugs are dead when plugging them in and then only switching them on after they are connected.

Edited January 21 by teoria_del_big_bang

[tomato]

Thanks for your thoughts, the supply came from a regulated mains powered supply:

The damaged camera will be inspected this morning, I’m keen to find out what happened.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

13 minutes ago, tomato said:

Thanks for your thoughts, the supply came from a regulated mains powered supply:

I would have thought there is a good chance the negative posts are grounded on that type of supply but it is only a thought.
And ultimately what effect that has I am not sure I guess it depends what else is already plugged into and what bits are connected by pieces of metal (or carbon I guess). But I would have thought if the negative is earthed then that is safest but I must be honest I really do not know.
Like I say I have seen these flashes in the past when connecting things live, but again in the dark a small flash looks horrendous, so I always supposed it was just a very small arc as the plug went in and nothing sinister,  but since I have always tried to discipline myself to always plug things in when powered down. Sometimes though just too tempting to plug that last lead you forgot in without a power down.

Steve

Edited January 22 by teoria_del_big_bang

[tomato]

Although it was only a moment, there must have been some energy involved to generate the smoke and the odour. Plugging in while powered down is definitely good practice, I have plugged in devices while powered up many times without incident but not this time.

[Stuart1971]

Well after having the desiccant tube in my QHY268 for 4 days the humidity reading at zero degrees was  38% and at -10 was just 48%, now after removing the desiccant tube  about a week ago, the humidity is back to 61% at zero degrees and up at nearly 70% at -10..😮

So the sensor chamber is deffo not sealed properly, and I can see it’s probably beneficial to leave the desiccant tube in all the time….

[Richard_]

1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

Well after having the desiccant tube in my QHY268 for 4 days the humidity reading at zero degrees was  38% and at -10 was just 48%, now after removing the desiccant tube  about a week ago, the humidity is back to 61% at zero degrees and up at nearly 70% at -10..😮

So the sensor chamber is deffo not sealed properly, and I can see it’s probably beneficial to leave the desiccant tube in all the time….

Pretty much the same conclusion I came to a while back. However, I could probably do with replacing/recharging my dessicant.

[Richard_]

I've been doing a lot of playing around with my equipment over the past week and noticed my sensor humidity was  pretty high around 70%. My dessicant tube is always attached, so I figured I was due a recharge.

Yep, absolutely right! The used dessicant is shown in green, the original dessicant in orange. I collected the used dessicant and replaced with fresh dessicant and will keep the used dessicant to recharge.  I'll check tonight to see if the humidity has dropped.

Can't remember the last time I replaced, probably back in September/October 2023. Remember to check your dessicant!

[Richard_]

On 29/01/2024 at 09:42, Richard_ said:

I've been doing a lot of playing around with my equipment over the past week and noticed my sensor humidity was  pretty high around 70%. My dessicant tube is always attached, so I figured I was due a recharge.

Yep, absolutely right! The used dessicant is shown in green, the original dessicant in orange. I collected the used dessicant and replaced with fresh dessicant and will keep the used dessicant to recharge.  I'll check tonight to see if the humidity has dropped.

Can't remember the last time I replaced, probably back in September/October 2023. Remember to check your dessicant!

Just checked the humidity after two days. After reaching my camera cooling setpoint of -5°C, the sensor humidity is now reading 53%.

It doesn't take that long for the dessicant to do its job, let's see how long it takes to creep back up to ~70% with the dessicant tube still attached.

[Stuart1971]

2 minutes ago, Richard_ said:

Just checked the humidity after two days. After reaching my camera cooling setpoint of -5°C, the sensor humidity is now reading 53%.

It doesn't take that long for the dessicant to do its job, let's see how long it takes to creep back up to ~70% with the dessicant tube still attached.

I think I may need to put my tube on all the time, with it on its drops to below 30% and at -10 well under 40%, but after three days with the tube off, it’s back to 67% at -10, but I need to turn my camera round 180 degrees on the filter wheel then the desiccant tube will be protected against knocks by the filter wheel, at the moment it points the opposite way to the filter wheel, a job I just don’t want to do ATM…☹️🤔

[Richard_]

2 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

I think I may need to put my tube on all the time, with it on its drops to below 30% and at -10 well under 40%, but after three days with the tube off, it’s back to 67% at -10, but I need to turn my camera round 180 degrees on the filter wheel then the desiccant tube will be protected against knocks by the filter wheel, at the moment it points the opposite way to the filter wheel, a job I just don’t want to do ATM…☹️🤔

I know what you mean Stuart, it's a right faff if you've bolted the filterwheel to the camera. I had to do this twice before (adjusting tilt using the tilt rig and to replace filter masks) and I hated it every time 😂

[Xiga]

Hi guys 

I have a Qhy268m and noticed a weird problem in some lights recently. I started a thread in the Imaging discussion forum, but think it's better in here. 

Link below. Interested to hear other owners thoughts, and the best way to test/analyse whether something is actual wrong with the camera.

Cheers. 

 

[Richard_]

1 hour ago, Xiga said:

Hi guys 

I have a Qhy268m and noticed a weird problem in some lights recently. I started a thread in the Imaging discussion forum, but think it's better in here. 

Link below. Interested to hear other owners thoughts, and the best way to test/analyse whether something is actual wrong with the camera.

Cheers. 

 

I followed the thread you posted and the first thing I thought about was sensor temperature. This is the key parameter which will drive your dark current when keeping your gain fixed.

In the past, I've had weird sensor temperature readouts when using the QHY268M, but this was resolved when choosing the driver (ASCOM versus native).

In terms of diagnostics, it wouldn't do any harm to check your power situation. How do you power you system? Are you using any power distribution systems (eg Pegasus box, ASI Air)? Are you using good quality power cables with solid connections? Before raising a ticket with QHY (if it comes to it) I would try hooking the camera up with QHY's EZCAP software to see if any errors come up.

If you still want to use the data, all is not lost. If you're a user of pixinsight, you can utilise the Cosmetic Correction tool in your workflow to eliminate rogue hot pixels. Try different sigma values for the hot a cold pixels and check to see if they equally eliminate your hot pixels in the best and worst subs. In my experience with my QHY268M at Gain 56, Offest 25, cooling temperature -5C°, using sigma values between 2 and 3 do a good job at eliminating any hot pixels not removed via dark & bias calibration.

[Xiga]

2 hours ago, Richard_ said:

I followed the thread you posted and the first thing I thought about was sensor temperature. This is the key parameter which will drive your dark current when keeping your gain fixed.

In the past, I've had weird sensor temperature readouts when using the QHY268M, but this was resolved when choosing the driver (ASCOM versus native).

In terms of diagnostics, it wouldn't do any harm to check your power situation. How do you power you system? Are you using any power distribution systems (eg Pegasus box, ASI Air)? Are you using good quality power cables with solid connections? Before raising a ticket with QHY (if it comes to it) I would try hooking the camera up with QHY's EZCAP software to see if any errors come up.

If you still want to use the data, all is not lost. If you're a user of pixinsight, you can utilise the Cosmetic Correction tool in your workflow to eliminate rogue hot pixels. Try different sigma values for the hot a cold pixels and check to see if they equally eliminate your hot pixels in the best and worst subs. In my experience with my QHY268M at Gain 56, Offest 25, cooling temperature -5C°, using sigma values between 2 and 3 do a good job at eliminating any hot pixels not removed via dark & bias calibration.

Hi Richard

I've double-checked my power connections and am happy that they are all sound (i use AC power) but i guess something must have come loose somewhere (although i can't figure out how!). I'll just keep a closer eye on the subs over the next few sessions to see if everything is ok. If not, i'll be back on here no doubt!

The data is still useable for sure. It's just typical though, that on my best ever Lum session (7 hrs with great guiding) that this happened! The first half were affected, but at least the 2nd half were ok. I've stacked the data already, just to see, and it stacks fine, with none of the hot pixels showing. No need for any cosmetic correction (which APP can do, if i needed it). The dithering and sigma stacking takes care of all the (many!) hot pixels, but of course the resulting stack is no doubt a fair bit noisier than it would have otherwise been. There's always something in this hobby isn't there?! 

[tomato]

On 18/01/2024 at 13:02, tomato said:

Here is QHY’s response to the above info:

Hello，Yes, judging from your latest test, the temperature control is normal, but outdoors, it may be that the heat dissipation effect is too good, causing the temperature inside the sealed camera compartment to be lower than the ambient temperature, which leads to this difference.

Not quite sure where this leaves me, the camera cooling is definitely not operating correctly, as it used to operate OK at low temperatures and my QHY268mono still does.

Not sure I want the faff and expense of returning it to QHY over this issue though, but last night it said the sensor was at -38 deg C with no cooling, maybe I’ll wait for the weather to warm up and see how it controls then.

My QHY cameras are back on the scopes, with an ambient temperature of 6 deg C, both cameras controlled the sensor temperature correctly, running at 28% cooler power to maintain a temperature of -10 deg C.

Weird…

[Oddsocks]

9 hours ago, Xiga said:

I've double-checked my power connections and am happy that they are all sound (i use AC power) but i guess something must have come loose somewhere (although i can't figure out how!). I'll just keep a closer eye on the subs over the next few sessions to see if everything is ok. If not, i'll be back on here no doubt!

Ciarán.

Couple of things to check.

The camera power input socket on the QHY268M/C is 5.5/2.1mm, if you are using an extension cable on the QHY power lead make sure it really is 5.5/2.1mm female to 5.5/2.1mm male and not 5.5/2.5mm female to 5.5/2.5mm male, or some other combination. I've had a few power extension cables, even from reputable suppliers, that were marked 5.5/2.1mm but were in fact 5.5/2.5mm and they would cause intermittent power supply dropout or low voltage issues with the TEC.

According to the QHY manual for the 268M/C there is a UVLO protection device inside the camera that if triggered by low input voltage (below 11v DC at the camera) then the TEC is set to a low power mode which is not reset by power on-off, the low power mode (max 70% TEC power) is permanent until you connect to the camera using the QHY EZCAP-_QT software where you can reset the TEC protection mode back to normal (off).

There have been a couple of web reports of the heatsink fan inside the QHY268M/C failing, either through electromechanical faults or insect invasion clogging the fan and stopping it spinning, with the camera cooling running shine a light inside the vent holes at the rear of the camera so that you can see the fan (deep inside the body) and check that the fan is spinning.

Lastly, if you watch the subs arriving and they appear noisy look at the reported TEC cooler power in your capture program. Most capture programs will indicate the TEC cooler power and if you increase or decrease the requested TEC temperature you should see the power indication ramp up or down. If you change the temperature requested and the indicated power does not change then that is another clue. The QHY268M/C is not the fastest to respond to changes in requested TEC temperature, you have to wait a minute or two before any change you make to the requested temperature is reflected in the reported TEC power level.

HTH

William.

[Rob_Jn]

Anyone had problems with Windows  11 and the 268M camera? Running fine on my old Win 10 machine, switched to a new Miele mini PC and everything installs fine apart from the camera. Ran Qhy all in one drivers and my guide camera is recognised ok but not the main camera. Driving me nuts at this stage!
 

Rob

[Richard_]

A couple of months ago, I bought a Beelink SER5 running Windows 11 and my QHY268M runs perfectly fine after installing the QHY all in one package.

What software are you using (eg NINA, ATP)? If you haven't tried it already, try installing QHY's software "EZCAP" to see if it can find and connect to your QHY268M.

[Rob_Jn]

Tried Ezcap but nothing there either, in device manager there is an unrecognised device called WestBridge with another WestBridge game controller, tried pointing this to the QHY folder for drivers but no inf file

[Stuart1971]

I use a Mele mini PC with windows 11 and all runs fine with my QHY268, but I do use an older QHY all in one driver, as I heard the latest one is buggy…

[Rob_Jn]

Sorry using Nina

[Rob_Jn]

Just now, Stuart1971 said:

I use a Mele mini PC with windows 11 and all runs fine with my QHY268, but I do use an older QHY all in one driver, as I heard the latest one is buggy…

What version is it, I could try that…

[Stuart1971]

11 minutes ago, Rob_Jn said:

What version is it, I could try that…

I’m using the one that was the latest version when I bought the camera, which was approx March 2022..and the camera firmware is the same as what it came with from 2021, when I assume is was made, but there are newer drivers and firmware for this camera….but if it ain’t broke…….👍🏻

[Rob_Jn]

Thanks Stuart, I loaded the previous version on the website but no joy, Window insists it is a WestBridge device but I can find the appropriate place to point to for the correct driver.

 

 

[Oddsocks]

For a correctly installed QHY268M the camera appears in Device Manger, tree view, under a branch called "AstroImaging Equipment" > QHY5IIISeries_IO and the driver file is located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\QHY5IIISeries_IO.sys, provider, Cypress Semiconductor.

Driver version on my Win 11 system is 23.1.12.0 dated 12/01/2023.

I don't see a "WestBridge" device listed anywhere on my system.

Under the Events header for the driver and looking at Console I see that the initial camera config at connection point was carried out by a driver named "oem65.inf" which appears to be loaded under windows with a name QHYCCD_2ND.NTamd64, but I don't have a location for that.

I assume that when you unplug the camera and refresh the Device Manager view then the WestBridge device disappears? if if doesn't then the WestBridge device is not the QHY camera, it is something else on your system.

HTH