QHYCCD QHY163, User Manual

Page 1: ...QHY163С COLDMOS Astronomy Camera User Manual REV 1 1 ...

Page 2: ... USE QHY163C WITH ASCOM 11 07 USE QHY163C IN EZCAP_QT 13 08 USE QHY168C IN FIRECAPTURE 16 09 USE BROADCAST VIDEO STREAMING 17 10 QHY163C COLOR WHEEL CONTROL PORT 18 11 QHY163C GUIDE PORT CABLE RJ11 PIN SEQUENCE 18 12 FAQ 19 13 CAMERA MAINTENANCE 22 15 OHY163C MECHANICAL SIZE 23 16 SPECIFICATIONS 26 17 REVISION HISTORY 27 ...

Page 3: ...5m 1 Self locking power cable 1 6pin guide cable 1 Car power adapter 1 Drying tube 1 Desiccant 1 M42 1 25inch adaptor 1 Driver download card 1 Inspection report 1 Camera 1 Optional accessories 12V power adapter power cable 1 C adapter lens mount 1 ...

Page 4: ... 5 Connect QHY163C to your PC with USB3 0 cable For the first time the system will find a new device and search the driver You can skip the online searching by clicking Skip obtaining driver software from Windows Update and the computer will find the drivers After installation is complete successfully you can find the device in the device manager as shown in the picture below 6 QHYCCD has develope...

Page 5: ...QHY163С 5 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 6: ... much lower than the highest frame rate declared on its webpage Now you can try to get the most out of it by changing several settings First you can try to set the exposure time to 1ms then try to reduce the USB traffic value For modern computer with i7 4 core it should get the max performance But please note that not all computers can get the best performance due to various reasons such as the CP...

Page 7: ...e color camera color balance is multiple a ratio to the pixel value in the FPGA The bias will be multiple too and it may affect the color balance 6 If you want to try 16bit image you can switch the Colour Space to RAW16 7 By check the LX mode you can expand the exposure setting range and take long exposure shot QHY163C camera has the anti amp light control circuit and it can reduce the amplifier g...

Page 8: ...section in SharpCap as shown in the following picture Basically you can control the temperature of CMOS by either adjusting Cooler Power or clicking Auto and adjusting Target Temperature You can also see the CMOS temperature at lower left corner of the software Before use this function you should read the content about how to protect the cooler in the FAQ section ...

Page 9: ...ue For example in the image above the blue is 188 and red is 196 green is 128 It looks the image is well white balanced If you need more blue since it has limit of 255 In this condition you can reduce the green a little and you will have more room for the ratio As we said before if you are doing planetary imaging you should set the offset value as low as possible To make the background close to ze...

Page 10: ...o of 2 to R R 2R G so we get R G When a bias exist The bias is a constant added to each pixel So the image you see is R R bias G G bias 2R bias Now the ratio R G R bias 2R bias and it is not equal to 1 2 It shows the bias will affect the true value of the R G And the ratio of R G will vary when the image light changed It is hard to correct with a fixed ratio But for DSO capture you should keep the...

Page 11: ...onnection Please note that QHY163C always transfers maximum bit depth by ASCOM to make the best DSO imaging performance The image format is 16bit width and patch zero on low bit MAXIMDL 1 First you have to make sure that both ASCOM Platform and ASCOM driver have been installed If not please install it first 2 Start MAXIMDL 3 Follow the instructions shown below to finish the setup ...

Page 12: ...nd offset 10 to start The speed and overscan calibration options are no use to QHY163C Click Connect before start shooting The screenshot below shows QHY163C running on MAXIMDL Keep clicking OK to return to the Camera Control window Click Connect ...

Page 13: ...version and the camera ID as shown below 4 In Menu Camera Setup Click Temp Control and set the CMOS sensor temperature You can enable the Auto Control and set the target temperature For example here we set the temperature to 10C The CMOS temperature will come to 10C very fast in about 2 3minute If you want to close the TEC you can select TEC OFF If you just want to set the TEC power but not the te...

Page 14: ...ou may see some random banding on the background By stacking more image these banding will be gone since it is the random This noise will not increase when you increase the gain So the readout noise at higher gain is less than low gain The QHY163C has about 2 7e at low gain and about 1e at high gain ...

Page 15: ...QHY163С 15 In EZCAP_QT there is a planner for image tasking You cancapture a series images by using the table below ...

Page 16: ...nts folder After it was installed successfully navigate to Document folder and you will find its installation folder as shown below Enter that folder and run FireCapture exe then select QHYCCD camera And after the loading you will see the image on FireCapture like shown below For detailed and helpful tutorial of this software please go to its website to check the tutorial section at http www firec...

Page 17: ...he 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 This function is very useful for the video live broadcast applications 1 Install the BroadCast Driver 2 Connect QHY163C to your PC and start SharpCap 3 Turn on Enable Live Broadcast at the bottom of Camera Control panel in Sharp...

Page 18: ...tandard 11 QHY163C 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: ...lways hangs In this condition you can use a powered USB3 0 HUB to connect camera and get the good 5V power for camera 3 4 If your CPU load is too high If CPU load is too high it will cause many frame lost and cause the camera hangs You can increase the USB traffic value to reduce the FPS and get more stable video transfer 3 5 If the USB cable connection is good enough Sometimes the contact issue i...

Page 20: ...hat is benefit for The QHY163C has the on camera 128MB DDRII image buffer It brings two advantages It can buffer whole image and avoid it lost during USB transfer Because CMOS sensor outputs the image continuous after exposure end and it does not allow the pause But the computer may have some pause due to the multi task feature of the windows If the pause is too long the small buffer in the USB tr...

Page 21: ... 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 It is caused by the fact that the receiving speed of computer is relatively slower than the sending speed of camera Once CMOS sensor starts working it will incessantly conduct exposure and output imag...

Page 22: ...e QHY183C has the build in heat board on this optic window to heat the optic window to avoid it In most conditions it can take effect If the optic window still get dew please try the following method 1 Avoid the CCD Camera face down to ground The cold air is heavy than warm air if you put the camera facing down to the ground the cold air is easy to get the optic window and cause it very cold and g...

Page 23: ...QHY163С 23 15 OHY163C Mechanical Size Drawing of QHY163C with a M42 lens mount The back focal length of QHY163M with M42 2inch lens mount is about 18 mm ...

Page 24: ...awing of QHY163C with C MOUNT lens adapter The back focal length of QHY163C with C MOUNT lens adapter is about 17 50mm Note that C mount is an optional accessory that you can order from us Its part number is 020017 ...

Page 25: ...QHY163С 25 Dimensions of C MOUNT lens adapter Back Focus with some typical setup QHY163C QHYCFW2 M US 36mm QHY163C QHYCFW2 M SR 41mm QHY163C QHYCFW2 S 37mm For OAG it is 13mm add on ...

Page 26: ...upport Yes Any Area ROI Exposure Time 50us 1800sec AD Sample Depth 10bit 12bit 8bit 12bit output On Camera Image Buffer 128MB DDRII Buffer Cooling 2 stage TEC Typical 40 below Ambient Temperature Regulated Power USB Powered for camera and 12V powered for TEC Anti Dew Control Air Connector for removable silicone gel tube Heat board for optic window of airproof CCD chamber Computer Interface USB3 0 ...

Page 27: ...uary 5 2017 1 2 Added notes about 12V power adapter January 6 2017 1 3 Added introduction about how to eliminate bad effects of amplifier glow by using dark frame calibration February 16 2017 1 4 Added solution for reducing the amplifier glow in the FAQ section March 2 2017 1 5 Added notes about camera working under low temperature April 10 2017 1 6 Added instructions for avoiding dark banding on ...