PHD2 with QHY5L-II (Colour)

[Michael Phillips]

Hi,

I'm having intermittent problems with my QHY5L-II (colour version) timing out with PHD2.    I've only recently received the camera and managed to get all the latest drivers installed from the QHY website.  I use the "CMOS QHY5L-II Camera (ASCOM)" option to connect to the camera with the ST4 cable connecting directly to my mount.

Sometimes I can get a picture, sometimes not.  Sometimes it starts well then fails after a while.  Eg, I managed to get a dark library a few times but sometimes it just hangs.

Mostly, I get the camera timeout message.  (My timeout is set to 15s).  I have proved the ST4 link works by using the 'manual guide' option.

I've tried different USB cables.  Same problem.

I've tried other applications that can use the QHY5L-II.  No problems! 

It's just with PHD2.    Can anyone offer any advice?  I have Windows 10 64bit on a Dell XPS 15 (9550 model - very new!)  PHD2 2.6.3  ASCOM 6.3

I tried PHD1 and it just freezes when I try to loop or take a dark.

I heard rumours that PHD2 v2.3 was happier with this camera.  Where can I obtain a copy of that version?
Thanks

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Michael,

The problem has to do with something in the USB path not being able to handle the bandwidth requirements of downloading full camera frames. Switching cables was a good idea, but have you also tried bypassing any USB hubs you may be using? Also, trying a different USB port on the PC would be a good thing to try.

If none of that helps, you may be able to get it to work more reliably by enabling subframes and/or setting binning to 2. These options will greatly reduce the amount of data coming from the camera.

Regarding downgrading to an older version of PHD2: any issues you are having are related to the USB path and the QHY drivers (camera drivers and ASCOM driver), and even the camera itself (unlikely but possible).  PHD2 has no role in this since everything just goes through the ASCOM driver. Downgrading to an old version of PHD2 will not help.

Andy

[Vince]

Michael, I use the same camera with PHD2, and per QHY the proper driver to use is the “QHYCCD-Cameras-Guide (ASCOM)", see http://qhyccd.com/bbs/index.php?topic=5604.msg29689#msg29689, which can be downloaded and installed via the “updatecheck” tool, a link to which is also on that web page.

 

You might try increasing the “USB traffic” setting in the driver.  Too low a setting can cause hangs like you are experiencing.

 

Also, I have never had success with the ST-4 connection, and strictly use the ASCOM connection to the mount.

 

Vince

[Michael Phillips]

Andy, thanks for the ideas.  I don't use a hub - I connect directly to the USB3 port on my laptop.

On Wednesday, 15 February 2017 00:52:25 UTC, Andy Galasso wrote:

r. Downgrading to an old version of PHD2 will not help.

Andy

I only asked about obtaining v2.3 of PHD2 as I had read posts elsewhere where people had trouble with this camera and 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 but reverting to 2.3 fixed their issue.

I may be being a dummy (I'm not well educated in the mysteries of USB....) but why does my camera seem to work properly with other applications?

[Michael Phillips]

Vince - I didn't know that - every bit of documentation on the QHY site and even the installation notes that came with the camera (from ModernAstronomy.co.uk) suggested using the "CMOS QHY5L-II Camera (ASCOM)" driver.  Ouch!

I tried the QHYCCD-Cameras-Guide (ASCOM), freshly downloaded from their site.   It's a guaranteed timeout when trying to get a dark library, even with bumped up USB traffic setting, high or low speed (in the driver) and enabling subframes (In PHD2 brain/Camera settings) 

I had the ST4 connection working.  Only once though - I got PHD2 all the way to the calibration phase but due to a typo on my part, the calibration steps were too small.  Ooops!  I can manally guide the scope through PHD2 via ST4, no problem.

[Michael Phillips]

Another curiousity - after a time out in PHD2, I exit PHD2.  Quite often, I can still see the PHD2.exe process running in Task Manager.  I can't end the process (like I can with other applications)  I get 'access denied' as if it is some sort of system process.  The only way to kill the process is to reboot....

[Andy Galasso]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 1:56 PM, Michael Phillips <mikey.phi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't use a hub - I connect directly to the USB3 port on my laptop.

Although USB3 ports are supposed to be backwards-compatible with USB2, I have heard of cases where USB2 devices (like your QHY camera) do not work reliably when connected to a USB3 port.  Does your laptop have a USB2 port? If so you may want to give that a try.

I only asked about obtaining v2.3 of PHD2 as I had read posts elsewhere where people had trouble with this camera and 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 but reverting to 2.3 fixed their issue.

Sorry if I came off as criticizing you for asking about downgrading. Downgrading is not good advice, but that is not your fault for bringing it up.  As I mentioned in the last post, there are no changes in PHD2 related to ASCOM camera connections that would make this any worse in newer versions of PHD2.

why does my camera seem to work properly with other applications?

You did not mention what the other applications are, but can I assume they are planetary apps like FireCapture or SharpCap or the QHY camera app?  Those apps operate the camera in video mode which is different from single frame mode that phd2 uses (via the ASCOM diver). They also are probably not using the QHY ASCOM driver either.

Andy

[Andy Galasso]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 2:04 PM, Michael Phillips <mikey.phi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Another curiousity - after a time out in PHD2, I exit PHD2.  Quite often, I can still see the PHD2.exe process running in Task Manager.  I can't end the process (like I can with other applications)  I get 'access denied' as if it is some sort of system process.  The only way to kill the process is to reboot....

That is caused by the QHY ASCOM driver and/or the QHY device driver. If phd2 makes a request to the ASCOM driver, and the ASCOM driver hangs, then PHD2 hangs, and there is nothing we can do about it.   The only solution is for QHY to fix their ASCOM driver and device driver so that they do not hang (they should return an error when communication fails, not hang.)

Andy

[Brian Valente]

fwiw I also have the QHY5L-II monochrome, anticipating using it as a guide camera as well. I had similar issues but when I plugged it into usb2 port they seemed to be solved (this is also with a brand new MSI i7 gaming laptop, so it's very capable as well). 

one of the other issues i had was the combination of ST4 and ASCOM connection to my mount, it was causing issues (ascom for goto and plate solving from SGP). when i got rid of ST4 cable things went smoothly, but ultimately i switched to my lodestar guider and now everything is great for me.

Brian

[Michael Phillips]

Andy - thanks for all the explanations.  It's beginning to make sense now :-)

I just finished resurrecting my old laptop.  it seems to play nicely with the QHY5L-II and PHD2.  I managed to build a dark library then point the camera out my back window (Yes the clouds broke up for a moment!!!)  It's been looping nicely for a while now.  I even tried a calibration, but of course it failed as the camera is just sitting on a table, not connected to a mount.

I have high hopes all of a sudden.

The old laptop has USB2 and 3 ports.   The camera seems to work with either (but only shows up correctly in Device Manager when on the USB3 ports....Weird)

I'll probably not have time to get the rest of the setup tested tonight but I'm confident it will work now

[Duncan Evenden]

Hi Michael, 

I use both the QHY5L-IIM  & C cameras for guiding over USB3 powered hub and USB3 port on my Toshiba laptop (which has both 2 & 3 ports). I had all the same problems (with USB2 as well), it was sorted by by increasing the "Disconnect non-responsive camera" timeout in the Brain to 60s from the default 15s. No problems since. BTW one thing I found was that QHYs drivers don't seem to update cleanly and it seems more reliable to uninstall all the drivers and re-install each time there is an update.

HTH 

Duncan

[CyScape]

Does your usb laptop have an express slot? If it does an alternative would be to buy a usb 2.0 card and use that? They come in many varieties...2/3/4 ports.

[Michael Phillips]

Sadly, no.  :-(