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Qhycc QHY5IIISeries User Manual Book

Qhycc QHY5IIISeries User Manual Book

Usb3.0 high-speed camera

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USB3.0 high-speed camera
QHY5III Series
User's Manual REV.1.2

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Summary of Contents for Qhycc QHY5IIISeries

  • Page 1 USB3.0 high-speed camera QHY5III Series User’s Manual REV.1.2...
  • Page 2 QHY5III Series This document is an online document. You may save this PDF file or print it out. QHYCCD reserves the right to change this user manual without prior notice.
  • Page 3: Software Installation

    QHY5III Series 01 Software Installation 1. Download and install ASCOM platform 2. Download and install Camera Driver Note that QHY5III series cameras use the same drivers, so you can download their drivers from any webpage of cameras belonging to QHY5III series. 3.
  • Page 4 QHY5III Series Take QHY367C (It’s only an example, and QHY367C doesn’t belong to QHY5III series) for example, you can see the drivers we need are the latest versions and don’t need to be updated as shown in the following picture. Note that after you downloading and installing the new drivers by using this software, be sure to pull the USB cable out and then plug it in to enable the new drivers.
  • Page 5 QHY5III Series 02 Use QHY5III in SharpCap 1. Connect camera 2. Run SharpCap. If everything ok, the video image will appear automatically and you will see a FPS number 3. If you run the SharpCap earlier than connect camera. You can use menu->cameras->rescan for cameras to search the camera and check on the camera name (eg.QHY5III174).
  • Page 6 QHY5III Series If you are using the color camera, like QHY5III290C, QHY5III224C, QHY5III178C, QHY5III174C, It is very important to set the offset to a low value and let the histogram peak is close to zero. Because the color camera color balance is multiple a ratio to the pixel value in the FPGA. The bias will be multiple also and it may affect the color balance.
  • Page 7 QHY5III Series...
  • Page 8 QHY5III Series 03 Color Balance for Color QHY5III Camera SharpCap will start at the default RGB balance for color camera. Here is the screenshot of the QHY5III224C start up For color camera. SharpCap will show the WB Red/Green/Blue progress bar. Since the color balance is the ratio between Red to Green and the Blue to Green.
  • Page 9 QHY5III Series For example, in this image the blue is 255 and red is 161, green is 128. It looks the color is well white balanced. If you need more blue, since it has reach to 255 and you can not get more. In this condition, you can reduce the green a little and you will have more room for the ratio.
  • Page 10 QHY5III Series Now the ratio R’’:G’’=(R+bias)/(2R+bias) and it is not equ to 1:2 . It shows the bias will effect the true value of the R:G. And the ratio of R:G will arious when the image light changed. It is hardly to correct with a fixed ratio.
  • Page 11 QHY5III Series 04 Use QHY5III with ASCOM You can connect many software which support ASCOM. Currently QHY5III only support normal ASCOM connection. Does not support the ASCOM VIDEO connection. Please note QHY5III always transfer maximum bit depth (QHY5III174, 224, 290, 185 is 12bit and QHY5III178 is 14bit) by ASCOM to make the best DSO imaging performance.
  • Page 12: Phd Guiding

    QHY5III Series PHD Guiding You can use PHD Guiding software and the on-camera guide port of QHY5III Camera. PHDGuiding can connect with QHY5III camera via ASCOM. 1. In PHDGudiing 2.5. Select ASCOM Camera Choose in Camera and On-camera in mount.
  • Page 13 QHY5III Series 2. Select Connect and In ASCOM camera chooser , select QHYCCD-Camera-Capture 3.In QHYCCD Setup, Select QHY5IIIxxx camera 6. Normally, you can set the gain=1 and offset=10 to start. The speed and overscan calibration options are no using in QHY5III camera. 7.Select “connect all”...
  • Page 14 QHY5III Series 8.Select button to begin preview. 9. Select a star in the screen and click to start calibration and guiding.
  • Page 15: Use Broadcast Video Streaming

    QHY5III Series 05 Use BroadCast Video Streaming BroadCast video steaming is a special function that QHY5III series cameras support. It can send the video image to multiple target software via QHYCCD BroadCast video driver. For example, you can use the SharpCap software to control QHY5III series cameras and at the same time the video appearing on the SharpCap will be sent to any of software that support the WDM camera, like the HandyAvi, Adobe video encoder, online chat software etc.
  • Page 16 QHY5III Series...
  • Page 17 QHY5III Series 06 QHY5III Guide Port Sequence The QHY5III guide circuit has an opto-coupler inside.The “common” pin is normally the GND. Normally the four direction pin of the mount is pulled up by the mount circuit. And when guide pulse comes, the QHY5III will pull down the level on the direction pin.
  • Page 18 QHY5III Series 07 QHY5III Guide Port Cable RJ11 Pin Sequence This connector is fully compatible with the EQ5/EQ6/Celestron/iOpton Guide Socket. The Pin Sequence is (When face to the connector of the cable) The Socket side (mount side) is If you are using other mount, please check if it is the same pin sequence with the HEQ5/EQ6/Celestron/iOpton.
  • Page 19 QHY5III Series 08 FAQs 1. Does QHY5III support 12bit or 14bit ? QHY5III174, 224, 290 support 12bit output and QHY5III178 support 14bit output. All these output is convert to 16bit image to transfer and save. (For 12bit, it is 0-4095 map to 0-65535, for 14bit it is 0-16383 map to 0-65535) 2.
  • Page 20 QHY5III Series 3.6 Some computer’s front USB port is not so good for high speed transfer (The reason is it connected to mainboard by a cable and which has no good signal integrity). If you found the camera always hangs on front USB port. You can try the USB port on backside of the computer (which is connect to chipset directly on the mainboard).
  • Page 21 QHY5III Series 7.How about the anti-amplifier functions in QHY5III series The different QHY5III models has different behavior under the anti-amp light controllers. The QHY5III174 and QHY5III224 has great improvement under this technology. The QHY5III178 has tiny glow but QHYCCD’s anti-amp light control will reduce it a lot in long exposure time.
  • Page 22 QHY5III Series If you found this issue. It should be the wrong driver (native WDM driver) caused. Please update your software to the latest version. You can use the QHYCCD version check tools to check. It http://note.youdao.com/share/?token=79C82E1DC6D34CC4AE603EAB06FB49D2&gid=723486 9. The FPS of cameras sometimes suddenly drops to zero under DDR mode on SharpCap, what’s the solution for this problem? Recently, we have been told by our users that the FPS of their cameras sometimes suddenly drops to zero under DDR mode on SharpCap.
  • Page 23 QHY5III Series overflow of DDR would ensue resulting in bad frame. Therefore, not a single frame is a complete frame, and the FPS will drop to zero. Solutions: The first solution to this problem is to increase the value of USB traffic to decrease the FPS of the cameras.
  • Page 24 QHY5III Series 09 QHY5III Mechanical Size Front Side (Sensor) Back Focal Length Back focal length of QHY5III series camera is between 10mm-12mm. So that it support both CS mount and C-mount (with a 5mm C-mount extender ring).
  • Page 25: Revision History

    QHY5III Series 10 Revision History Date of change Revision Content of change December 20 First edition 2016 January 5 Add introduction about broadcast application 2017 (Section 5). Added the mechanical dimensions of the screw May 25, 2017 thread on the front end...
  • Page 26 QHY5III Series Alberic's short exposure DSO capture introduction Here is a little summary of my technique of short exposures imaging applied to Deep Sky Objects - DSOs. It's a mix between 'Lucky Imaging' technique for planetary objects and long exposure for Deep Sky Objects. Main advantages to use short exposures for DSO are: - No need of auto-guiding system which may be difficult to calibrate, - No need of super heavy, super expensive or super sturdy mounts,...
  • Page 27 QHY5III Series Don't forget to make 'Dark' images after choosen target imaging session, as done for DSO with long exposure. The more frames, the best. I don't use Bias nor Flat with IMX174. For bigger size sensors I guess that Flat will be necessary.