QHY cameras: Updated QHY test build - 2.6.1dev6a_qhytest7

[Andy Galasso]

We received an updated Windows SDK library from QHY and some updates to operate the camera in single frame mode (vs streaming video frame mode) which should hopefully be a reliability improvement. Here it a Windows installer:

http://openphdguiding.org/phd2-2.6.1dev6a_qhytest7-installer.exe

The build is based on the latest code in the main PHD2 repository, so it is somewhat newer than 2.6.1dev6, thus the 2.6.1dev6a designation.    We do not yet have OSX or Linux versions of the QHY SDK, so it's still just Windows for now.

Please give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Andy

[Vince]

Hi Andy, I tried this live last week using the QHY Camera driver and it works just fine, over an hour of guiding with no camera problems.  But I didn't have any problems with the last QHY Test version so I can't say whether it has fixed anything :). 

I like new the dev6a GUI.  I did have a couple of issues that I assume are related to this build and not to the QHY SDK:
--I could not get it to set Bookmarks
--I cannot open the log file in PHD Lab; PHD Lab will display "Exception caught", including the line "Unable to parse log file, either corrupt or unsupported PHD version."

Thanks,

Vince

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Vince,

Thank you for the feedback.

--I could not get it to set Bookmarks

Could you tell us specifically what you did and what you expected and what the problem was? AFAICT the bookmarks are working as usual so we'll need more information.

 

--I cannot open the log file in PHD Lab; PHD Lab will display "Exception caught", including the line "Unable to parse log file, either corrupt or unsupported PHD version."

You'll need to contact the PHDLab author for help with that. Last I knew he was no longer maintaining the program, but maybe that has changed. PHD2 Log Viewer is an alternative that is actively maintained.

Andy

[Vince]

Thanks Andy.  Re the Bookmarks, while guiding I would press "Bookmark Lock Pos" under the Bookmarks menu and nothing would happen; I would not get the usual bulls-eye over the guide star.  Now I have tried it with the simulator camera and it seems to be working fine.  I will try again with the QHY5L next time out, maybe user error.

Vince

[peter wolsley]

Andy,

I had a chance to try out the QHY Camera setting with my QHY5II-M.  Everything seems stable,  changed gains and everything worked as expected.  I especially like that I now have sub-frames again.

Peter

[Andy Galasso]

Peter,

Great, thanks for the feedback.

Andy

[Steve Lindsey]

I recently bought a QHY5L-II with hopes of a more sensitive guide camera (have been using an old Meade DSI II which works great with PHD2 but lacks sensitivity).  I've had nothing but hang ups and crashes with PHD2 with my setup and loaded this new test build when it came out and got the same results.  Here's my set up:

Laptop with USB2 cable to powered USB2 hub

USB2 hub cable to QHY10 OSC imaging camera using Nebulosity over native driver

USB2 hub cable to QHY5L-II guide camera on OAG using PHD2

USB2 hub prolific USB to serial adapter to AP900 mount

I back out PHD2 to PHD and got it to take frames but it had delays and guiding was terrible compared to using the Meade DSI.

Any suggestions as it looks like others are getting good results with the latest test build of PHD2?

Steve

[Andy Galasso]

Steve,

The first thing I would do would be to try connecting the camera to the PC directly without going through the hub. We have seen cases of the QHY5LII camera being less stable when USB traffic is being impeded by a hub, so this would be the first thing to rule out as the source of the instability.

For the latest camera support from QHY use the qhy test build linked earlier in this thread and make sure you are using the latest camera drivers from QHY.

Andy

[Steve Lindsey]

Thanks for the quick reply Andy. I did use the PHD2 update test build you made available in my test. I'll see if I need to update the QHY driver as well and double check the camera operating directly connected to the laptop. When I did this before it didn't help. I'll let you know. Thanks!

Steve

[peter wolsley]

Steve,

This may not apply to you but I use a USB-2 powered hub with my Dell Laptop.  I had my Laptop blue screening at first until I noticed that my Laptop has both USB2 and USB3 ports.  The Laptop would bluescreen whenever I used a USB3 port but has been totally reliable when I used a USB2 port.  The documentation for USB3 says that it is backwards compatible with USB2 devices but I now doubt that's true in all cases.

Peter

On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 10:18:26 AM UTC-4, Steve Lindsey wrote:

[Ray Leeson]

Update: update the installation of NativeWDM, according to the version number to determine to install or not.
(Note. NativeWDM will disable in this situation: (eg. there are two new drivers V160304£¬V170304 and one old driver V160128) if install V170304 at first, then install V160128, and then install V160304. As V160304 lower than V170304, that caused NativeWDM disalbed. Solution: uninstall NativeWDM driver by manual from Control Panel, then install V160304 again.£©

These are the install instructions for the latest QHY drives pertaining to the latest test build!

Is it just me or are these instructions confusing?
If someone has fathomed them could you please enlighten me?

Regards Ray

[Andy Galasso]

Ray,

Yeah, that definitely confused me too.  My interpretation is that there was an inadvertent V170304 release which, if you had installed it, would need to be manually uninstalled before installing the latest, V160304.

I did find that V160304 installed fine (properly uninstalling the older version I had installed) in my case of never having installed V170304.

Andy

[Ray Leeson]

Cheer Andy for the clarification, I though I'd gone dyslexic!

Ray

[Steve Lindsey]

Andy,  I deleted the NativeWDM driver and reloaded the latest QHY5L-II camera driver just to make sure and now when I plug the camera directly into my USB2 port the driver won't install.  I'm chasing my tail a bit here unfortunately.

And Peter, I checked and yes I had been using the USB3 port and switched to the USB2 port but getting no difference so far.

Steve

[Andy Galasso]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:23 PM, Steve Lindsey <stevenm...@gmail.com> wrote:

I deleted the NativeWDM driver and reloaded the latest QHY5L-II camera driver just to make sure and now when I plug the camera directly into my USB2 port the driver won't install.  I'm chasing my tail a bit here unfortunately.

Steve, Sorry to hear you are running into trouble. Unless there are other QHY users on this forum who have ideas how to fix the driver installation, I think you'll need to contact QHY for assistance getting the driver installed.

Andy

[peter wolsley]

Steve,

Two things...

-The USB3/USB2 port issue with my system was very difficult to identify.  Sometimes my system would run for 1/2 hour and crash...sometimes only 10 minutes. It was never an immediate failure.

-I believe you know your way around computers but I just worry about your wording "deleted the NativeWDM driver".  You need to use the Add/remove programs utility in the control panel to 'uninstall" the QHY drivers.  Beyond the actual files on your hard disk there are several entries in the windows registry that can best be uninstalled using the add/remove programs utility.  I know I'm being picky here but I just want you to get to the bottom of this problem.

Peter

[Steve Lindsey]

Thanks Andy and Peter.  I did to the uninstall via control panel so that wasn't the issue.  I'll keep at it as I have time.

Steve

[Jim]

I use a powered USB 3.0 hub to connect my mount (iEQ-45), Canon 7Dii, and QHY5L-II. The powered hub is connected back to my laptop using a single 10m USB 3.0 active repeater cable into a USB 3.0 socket on my laptop, this has worked well for over a year now.

I used to use a pair of 10m USB 2 active repeater cables, one running a hub connecting the Canon camera and the mount the other the QYH guide camera only. I was also lucky enough to have two separate USB hubs (one USB 2 the other USB 3.0) on my laptop that were independent of each other. If I tried sharing anything with the USB 2 link used for the QHY camera it or the other devices failed regularly. The Canon camera and mount where quite happy to be connected vis the USB 2 hub into the USB 3.0 hub on the laptop, with the QHY guide camera connected into the USB 2 hub on the laptop. One thing that is not realised by many is that laptops have internal USB hubs and even when not sharing connections from devices back to the laptop they can be effectively sharing a single hub internal to the laptop, and if bandwidth is tight this can be a cause of failure. I don't know but have long suspected that the QHY cameras are bandwidth hogs at USB 2 speeds.

I find my USB 3.0 single cable solution works very well and now only have two cables from my house out to my mount in the garden, one for power the other being the USB 3.0 active repeater, much less to trip over :^))

USB 3.0 hub I use, I think it has now been superseded:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KGU2SMC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This powered hub appears to have the advantage of not grouping all its ports together so that connecting a USB 2 device down rates all other ports to USB 2 speeds, by using ports at each end of the hub I do appear to still get USB 3.0 performance from the Canon 7Dii which has a USB 3.0 connection while the QHY guide camera and mount work quite happily connected at the other end.

10m USB 3.0 active repeater cable

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B9G4AZ0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I did try an alternative active repeater cable that did not work well. Luckily I decided to try the configuration out during the day before trying to use it at night for imaging and found the other cable very unreliable in that sometimes the laptop could detect devices connected to the hub and other times not. I have learnt that not all USB devices and hubs are equal and spending more money is not always a guarantee of getting better quality.

Jim

[Jerry]

Do you know if an OS X version is forthcoming?

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Jerry,

A user recently reported in another thread that they received an OSX version of the SDK from QHY.  I have contacted QHY about this but have not heard back from them yet.

As soon as QHY provides an updated SDK with support for OSX we will incorporate it into PHD2. One of the earliest test versions of the new SDK had OSX support, but subsequent versions they gave us only had Windows support.

Sorry I do not have any more information than that.

Andy