Light Speed Vision 174M Camera User Manual

Light Speed Vision (Beijing) Co.,Ltd. Camera

User manual

QHY174M COLDMOS Astronomy Camera Manual01 Software Installation1. Download and install ASCOM platform from the link belowhttp://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm2. Download and install the System Driver from the link belowhttp://note.youdao.com/share/?token=786920BD40DE4F11A12C792EA39B285B&gid=7234866#/3. Download and install the ASCOM Driver from the link belowhttp://note.youdao.com/share/?token=64FD5A0238A84D1FBA0BD2D5D68F259F&gid=7234866# /4. QHY174M camera uses SharpCap as the default capture software. Please download SharpCapfrom the link below. QHY174M camera can run on SharpCap 2.9 or later versionshttp://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/downloadsNote that QHY174M requires the latest qhyccd.dll for the new version of SharpCap, and QHYCCDhas already made an update patch for it. You can download it from the link belowhttp://note.youdao.com/share/?token=A4F2944B7C324BEC8505C5A119FCB0E9&gid=7234866#/5. Connect QHY174M to your PC with USB3.0 cable. For the first time the system will find a newdevice and search the driver. You can skip the online searching by clicking "Skip obtaining driversoftware from Windows Update" and the computer will find the drivers. After installation iscomplete successfully, you can find the device in the device manager as shown in the picturebelow
02 How to Connect QHY174M to Color Filter WheelQHY174M is a monochromatic camera and it is frequently used with color filter wheel. With itsM42/2inch lense mount(this has already been installed on QHY174M), connecting it with QHYcolor filter wheel will be simple and quick. QHY174M supports connections both withQHYCFW2-S and QHYCFW2-M.Take QHYCFW2-M for example, you can refer to the following instructions in the link below to setup your QHYCFW-M.http://www.qhyccd.com/ManualCFW2M2.1.htmlAfter you've installed color filters for your QHYCFW2-M properly, you can begin to connect it withQHY174M as shown in the picture below.First, you need to stick QHY174M into QHYCFW2-M as shown in the picture above. Then youshould screw those three bolts in. At the first time you screw bolts, you may find it a little bitdifficult to screw in, in this case, please make sure that the bolts are pointing towards the centerand apply a little bit more of force. Finally, you should connect your QHY174M with QHYCFW2-Mby using DIN4/RJ11 cable, which is included in the box.The last thing you need to do before using QHY174M with QHYCFW2-M is to open the link belowto download and install the drivers(CFW2 and Filter[RS232]) for QHYCFW2-M.http://www.qhyccd.com/QHYCFW2-M.htmlNow, you should be all set. Read the following parts to know how to use QHY174M with colorfilter wheel in SharpCap, MAXIMDL, and Sequence Generator Pro.03 Use QHY174M in SharpCap1. Connect your QHY174M to color filter wheel with DIN4/RJ11 cable. Connect your QHY174M to
12V power supply. Connect your QHY174M to your computer with USB3.0 cable. Before runningSharpCap, make sure filterwheel's initialization is finished. When it is initializing, you can hear thesound gear makes. When it is finished, you will see the color lights flash. If you start SharpCapbefore initialization is finished, SharpCap cannot detect the filterwheel.2. Run SharpCap. If the aforementioned software and drivers all have been installed properly, thevideo image will appear automatically and you will se the frame rate at the lower-left corner ofthe software as shown below3. If you have started the SharpCap before connecting camera to your PC. You can clickmenu->cameras->rescan for cameras to search the camera and check on the camera name(QHY174M in this case).4. To make sure the camera can run properly, the software will start the camera at the lowestspeed, which makes the frame rate much lower than the highest frame rate declared on itswebpage. Now you can try to get the most out of it by changing several settings. First you can tryto set the exposure time to 1ms, then try to reduce the "USB traffic" value. For modern computerwith i7-4 core, it should get the max performance. But please note that not all computers can getthe best performance due to various reasons such as the CPU loading, the saving-energy modesetting, the mainboard performance and USB3.0 port performance. Sometimes the display sizemay also impede obtaining the best performance. So you can try to use the "Zoom" function toreduce the display size to see if it helps. Normally speaking the QHY174M can get more than22.5FPS@16mega full resolution.5. Adjust filterwheel position. You can select which filter you are going to use by changing theposition of filterwheel as shown in the following picture.
6. Adjust the offset. When you block the light thoroughly, you may find that the image is notreally zero. Sometimes this will lower the quality of image contrast. You can adjust the offset tomake the histogram peak close to zero in order to get a better background. You can open thehistogram to confirm that.7. If you want to try 16bit image, you can switch the Colour Space to "MONO16".8. By check the "LX" mode you can expand the exposure setting range and take long exposureshot. QHY174M camera has the anti-amp light control circuit and it can reduce the amplifier glowsignificantly. Note that it's impossible to reduce the glow in the corner thoroughly, and it's normalto see a very small amount of glow in the corner when you do long exposure.A typical long exposure image in +20 ℃, 5 sec exposure and 50% gain of QHY174M is shownbelow.
9. After you connect 12V power supply for QHY174M to power the TEC cooling circuit, you canset the CMOS sensor cooling temperature in the "Thermal Controls" section in SharpCap asshown 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-leftcorner of the software.Before use this function, you should read the content about how to protect the cooler in the FAQsection.04 Use QHY174M with ASCOMYou can connect many software that support ASCOM. Currently QHY63M only supports normalASCOM connection and does not support the ASCOM VIDEO connection. Please note thatQHY174M always transfers maximum bit depth by ASCOM to make the best DSO imagingperformance. The image format is 16bit width and patch zero on low bit.MAXIMDL1. First you have to make sure that both ASCOM Platform and ASCOM driver have been installed.If not, please install it first.
2. Start MAXIMDL3. Follow the instructions shown below to finish the setupNormally, you can set the gain=1 and offset=10 to start. Keep clicking "Okay" to return to CameraControl window.The following instructions are going to show you how to configure filterwheel(QHYCFW2-M) inMAXIMDL.Click "Setup Filter" in the Camera Control window.
In the window shown below, you can set up your filterwheel
Keep clicking "OK" to return to the Camera Control window. Click "Connect"
Sequence Generator ProSequence Generator Pro is an extremely powerful image capture suite. It can perform manycomplex tasks in order to meet your imaging needs. After you connect your gears and configureSequence Generator Pro properly, you can go to sleep and see images in the morning.To use QHY174M in Sequence Generator Pro, you can follow the instructions listed below.Open sequencer by clicking the button in the red rectangle as shown in the picture below.
If you've connected QHY174M to your PC before click that red button. The red button will turn togreen as shown in the picture below.The next step is going to connect your filterwheel(QHYCFW2-M). Before you select QHYCCDFilterWheel as the filter and click the red connect button, you should also make sure you'veconnected QHY174M to filterwheel(QHYCFW2-M) with DIN4/RJ11 cable, you've plugged in the12V power supply cable, you've installed the FilterWheel drivers, and the initialization offilterwheel has been finished.
For example, you can change the filter names to Lum, Red, Green, Blue, Ha as you installed themthis way. Then you make schedule events to take turns to use these filters as shown in thefollowing picture.For detailed and helpful tutorial of this software, please go to its website to check its helpcontent.
05 Use QHY174M in FireCaptureThe latest FireCapture supports QHY63M already. Please go to FireCapture website to downloadits v2.5 BETA (32-bit) version.By default, it will be installed in the "Documents" 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 tutorialsection at http://www.firecapture.de/
06 Use QHY174M in EZCAP_QTEZCAP_QT is the software developed by QHYCCD. This software has the basic capture function forQHYCCD deep sky cameras. You can use this QHY63M camera with filterwheel in this software.You can download it from the link below.http://www.qhyccd.com/QHY174.html1. Install EZCAP_QT software.2. Connect your QHY174M to 12V power supply. Connect your QHY174M to color filter wheelwith DIN4/RJ11 cable. Connect your QHY174M to your computer with USB3.0 cable.3. Run EZCAP_QT. Select "Connect" in Menu->Camera. If the camera is successfully connected.The title of EZCAP_QT will display the camera firmware version and the camera ID as shownbelow.4. In Menu->Camera Setup, Click "Temp Control" and set the CMOS sensor temperature. Youcan enable the "Auto Control " and set the target temperature . For example here we set thetemperature to -10C. The CMOS temperature will come to -10C very fast (in about 2-3minute). Ifyou want to close the TEC, you can select "TEC OFF". If you just want to set the TEC power butnot the temperature. You can select "Manual" and then set the percent of the TEC power.5. You can select which filter you are going to use by changing the position of filterwheel asshown in the following picture.
5. You can use the preview tab to do preview. And use the focus tools to do focus. Then use thecapture tab to capture image.6. In EZCAP_QT there is a planner for image tasking. You can capture a series images by usingthe table below.
07 Use BroadCast Video StreamingBroadCast video steaming is a special function that QHY174M supports. It can send the videoimage to multiple target software via QHYCCD BroadCast video driver. For example, you can usethe SharpCap software to control the QHY174M camera and at the same time the videoappearing on the SharpCap will be sent to any of softwares that support the WDM camera, likethe HandyAvi, Adobe video encoder, online Chat software etc. This function is very useful for thevideo live boardcast applications.1. Install the BroadCast Video WDM Driver from the link belowhttp://note.youdao.com/share/?token=104F4758D58B4EBF898063EC1BE99BBF&gid=7234866#/2. Connect QHY63M to your PC and start SharpCap
3. Turn on "Enable Live Broadcast" at the bottom of Camera Control panel in SharpCap as shownbelow.4. Select "QHYCCD camera (WDM)" as your webcam in the software you are using.
08 QHY174M Color Wheel Control Portdrawing of pin number arrangement09 QHY63M Guide Port Cable RJ11 Pin sequenceThis connector is fully compatible with the EQ5/EQ6/Celestron/ iOpton Guide Socket. The PinSequence is (When face to the connector of the cable)The Socket side (mount side) isIf you are using other mount, please check if it is the same pin sequence with theHEQ5/EQ6/Celestron/iOpton.
10 FAQ1. Does QHY174M support 10bit or 12bit?QHY174M supports both 10bit and 12bit output(For 10bit, it is 0-255, and it only uses the high8bit, for 12bit it is 0-4095 map to 0-65535).2. How to get maximum FPS?Since QHY174M has very high data bandwidth. Not all computer can get the maximum FPS.Normally I7-4core should have no problem for that. The CPU loading will also affect themaximum FPS. So please reduce the CPU load by close other applications when using camera. Ifthe CPU load is too high, the software may become very slow or hang.3. How to avoid the camera hanging?If you camera always hangs. It may be caused by many reasons. You can check the followingthings.3.1 If your computer is via chipset, or some type of the mainboard. In SharpCap it cannot getimage at all. (But in ASCOM it works well). In this condition, you need enable the DDR buffer ofthe camera. Current SharpCap supports DDR function enable. The next version SharpCap willsupport it.3.2 If there is power leak for your mounts and computers? The power leak may cause the leakcurrent transfer from computer to the camera via the GND. This may affect the USB transfer andcause the data packet lost and cause it hang. You need to make sure the computer and themount is well grounded.3.3 If the USB port's voltage not enough? Some computer's USB port +5V is not enough. It maycause the camera always hangs. In this condition you can use a powered USB3.0 HUB to connectcamera 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 causethe camera hangs. You can increase the USB traffic value to reduce the FPS and get more stablevideo transfer.3.5 If the USB cable connection is good enough? Sometimes the contact issue in the USB cable tocamera or USB cable to computer will cause the signal loss and cause camera to hang. Especiallywhen you move the cables. In this condition. You can try to add a little silicon oil into the USBsocket/plug .This can increase the contact a lot better.3.6 Avoid the statics. Sometimes the static electricity on human body will cause the camera tohang. You can touch the computer metal case for first before touch the camera to let the staticelectricity on your body release.3.7 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 thecamera always hang on front USB port. You can try the USB port on backside of the computer(which is connected to chipset directly on the mainboard).4. What's the interface to telescope? How to use C/CS lens on QHY63M?QHY174M supports C lens but currently doesn't support CS lens. You need order the optional Cadapter for QHY174M with this adapter the back focal is 17.0mm and you can use the C-mountlens with it. Since this sensor is one inch, you need to choose the lens which can cover the oneinch image circle.5. How to clean the CMOS sensor and the optic windows of the camera?If you found there is dust on the CMOS sensor. You can screw off the front part of the QHY174M.The QHY174M's CMOS sensor has the AR coating so you need to be careful to clean it. You canuse the clean kit for DSLR sensor to do it.The optic window is the IR cut coating or AR coating. So you need to be careful when cleaning it.You can also use the DSLR clean tools or the lens paper. Don't use strong force to clean it. Thecoating is not so hard and it is easy to get scratch when you use strong force on it.6. How is the anti-amplifier function in QHY174M?QHY174M camera has the anti-amp light control circuit and it can reduce the amplifier glowsignificantly. Note that it's impossible to reduce the glow in the corner thoroughly, and it's normalto see a very small amount of glow in the corner when you do long exposure.This is a demo picture for the QHY174M glow in 60sec exposure and high gain. Dark framecalibration can remove it completely.
7. What's on-camera DDR buffer and what is benefit for?The QHY174M has the on-camera 128MB DDRII image buffer. It brings two advantages: It canbuffer whole image and avoid it lost during USB transfer. Because CMOS sensor outputs theimage continuous after exposure end and it does not allow the pause. But the computer mayhave some pause due to the multi-task feature of the windows. If the pause is too long, the smallbuffer in the USB transfer chip will full and the coming image data will lost. And it will cause oneframe is lost some data and this frame will be a bad frame. For short exposure it maybe not causebig problem because the next frame will comes soon. But for long exposure it means you lost along exposure frame. The 128MB DDRII buffer can solve this problem by storing the wholeframe into it and transfer. Even the computer has big pause it will not lost data.Another advantage is that it will make the video more smooth when in some slow computer orsome mainboard which is not friendly to USB3.0(like the VIA chipset) . In these computers theycannot handle the high speed USB data well and the data is always lost. With this DDR it canbuffer the input image data and then send to computer. Even the high frequency pause happens,it can keep the USB data lossless.Note; The current SharpCap version has no options for enable/disable the DDR buffer. It is alwaysworking in DDR bypass mode. In future SharpCap it will support the DDR enable function. Thecurrent ASCOM driver is always working under DDR enabled mode.8. How to protect the cooler in QHY174M?The cooler in QHY174M can lower the CMOS temperature to a value that's almost 40 degreescentigrade below the ambient temperature. So you need to be careful to avoid thermal shock,
which refers to when the cooler's temperature rises or fall dramatically, the cooler is subjected tostrong internal stress due to contraction principle. Drastic thermal shock can shorten cooler'sservice life or permanently break it.So when you begin to adjust the CMOS temperature, you should avoid setting "Cooler Power" toits maximum value, and you should gradually turn up the "Cooler Power" value. When you turnoff the power, if the "Cooler Power" value is very big, you should gradually turn it down beforeturn off the power.11 Camera MaintenanceDrying the CCD ChamberThe CCD sensor is located in a CCD chamber. This chamber is airproof and connect to the socketof the silicone gel tube on one side of the QHY63M front case. If there is moisture and cause theCCD sensor glass get dew. You can connect the silicone gel tube on the socket to dry it.Please put the effective silicone gel into the silicone gel tube. Make sure this is a cotton inside toprevent the silicone gel get into the CCD chamber.Avoid CCD chamber optic window get dewIf the environment humidity very high, the optic window of the CCD chamber may get dew. TheQHY174M 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 thecamera facing down to the ground, the cold air is easy to get the optic window and cause it verycold and get dew2. Increase the temperature of the CCD sensor. You can increase the CCD sensor temperature alittle to prevent the optic window get dew.3. Check if the heat board working. If the heat board not working, the optic window is easy toget dew. Normally the heat board can get about 65-70C in +25C environment. If it is not so warm,it maybe the problem of the heat board damaged. Need to contact QHYCCD to replace one heatboard.12 Parameter TableCMOS SensorSony IMX174 Exmor CMOS sensor (Color)Effective Area11.34mm*7.13mm Typical 1/1.2inchActive Pixel1936*1216 2.35mega pixelsPixel Size5.86um*5.86um
QETBDExposure5us-900secFrame rate138FPS @ 1936*1216260FPS@960*600490FPS@480*300Fullwell>32 KeADC Bit10/12bit, Output 8bit/12bitReadout Noise5.3e@Gain0 2.8e@Gain60 1.6e@Gain100TEC2-stage TEC with -40C below ambient with temperature regularData interfaceUSB 3.0 high speed interfaceBuilt-in DDR memory128MB DDR memoryInterface12v power port,6pin RJ11 4PIN Color Wheel Control PortSoftwareSharpCap, EZCAP_QT, ASCOM Driver, WDM Driver, LiveVideo BroadCast Driver. Support FireCapture.13 In the BoxAccessory ItemQuantityUSB3.0 cable(1.5m)1Self-locking power cable16pin guide cable1Car power adapter1Drying tube1desiccant1M42/1.25inch adaptor1Driver download card1Inspection report1camera1Optional accessories
12V power adapter + power cable 1C-adapter lens mount 1This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: 1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and 2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:—Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.—Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.—Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.—Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user's authority to operate the equipment.The product can be used for a variety of occasions, such as the roof, indoor balcony, classrooms, children's playground, landscape platforms, etc., using the 12V power supply with the use of computers, the product can be connected to either power adapter or 12V battery.

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