TO EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN UNIVERSE
Imaging telescope: PlaneWave CDK600
Date: December 24th
Comet Leonard C / 2021 A1, Imaging Camera QHY600, Matt Dieterich (US)
All-in-one Pack supports most QHYCCD models except some old CCD cameras.
All- in-one pack includes:
System Driver, SDK, ASCOM Driver, EZCAP_QT*, SkyX Plugin for Windows, Broadcast WDM Driver
All-in-one Pack can be applied on the following models:
Cooling CMOS: QHY600, 268, 410, 294Pro 367C Pro, 128, 247, 168, 163, 183, 550, 174, 294, 224, 290, 178
A-CCD Series: QHY695A, 16200A, 90A, 814A, 16803A, 09000A
Guiding/Planet:QHY5II Series, QHY5III Series (290, 178, 174, 224, 185, 462,485)
Filter Wheel: QHYCFW3
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System Pack* |
Stable Version
*Optimize UVLO function; *Fix the issue that the USB3.0 camera occasionally gets stuck when connected to USB2.0 interface when using some computer control. *Fix the issue that the camera occasionally disconnects due to long-time use (usually tens of hours or more) caused by firmware hibernation of computers. *New Function: Readout Timeout |
Beta Ver. 2021.09.18 | Driver Update Log
EZCAP_QT Update Log |
|---|
Classic CCD Cameras, Like QHY8L, QHY8Pro, QHY9 etc., share the same SDK and Ascom Driver.
However their drivers used are different, so please check the your model before download drivers.
| For Windows | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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System Driver
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QHY8Pro | QHY8L | QHY9 | QHY10 | QHY11 | QHY12 |
| QHY22 | IMG2Pro | QHY5IIDriver | ||||
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SDK
|
Stable Version | Beta Version | Update Log | |||
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ASCOM Driver
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Stable Version | Beta Version | Update Log | |||
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SkyX Plugin for Windows
|
Stable Version | Beta Version | Update Log | |||
For Discontinued devices which are not listed above, please contact us.
If you’re using Mac, there’s no need to download any driver or SDK, just download the software you need and use the device directly.
Please read articles listed in “Developer” Pages before you use QHY devices under Linux.
| Stable Version | Beta Version | Update Log |
| PoleMaster for WINDOWS | ||
| System Driver | System Drive Stable Version | Historic Version |
| Software download (WINDOWS) stable version | Stable Version
1.3.2.8 |
Historic Version |
| Software download (WINDOWS) QT Beta*
*You can experience some new functions in this version, like saving images. |
Beta Version
21.08.04 |
|
| PoleMaster LINUX Deb | Stable Version | Historic Version |
| PoleMaster Software for MAC
The MAC version is currently an informal version and works fine on most MAC models. For high-resolution retina screens, if the display is not normal, select “OPEN IN LOW RESOLUTION” when starting the program. |
Stable Version | |
| PoleMaster for Android | Stable Version | |
Now most scientific “Pro” series supports PCIE card, like QHY600Pro, QHY411Pro, QHY4040Pro, etc.
| System Driver After downloading the driver, please open the driver properties, select Windows 7 in the Compatibility column, check to run the program in compatibility mode and install it. |
System Drive Stable Version | Historic Version | |
| Link | For Windows | For Mac | For Linux | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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ASCOM Platform
All QHYCCD ASCOM Driver should install this platform ahead. |
Offical Website | √ | ||
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FireCapture
Free Software Special for planetary imaging. Availiable on Win&Mac both. |
Offical Website | √ | √ | |
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KStars
Availiable on Multiple operate systems. |
Offical Website | √ | √ | √ |
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MAXIMDL
A popular full functional CCD&CMOS Control/Image Process software. |
Offical Website | √ | ||
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N.I.N.A. – Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy
A software with great potential! The UI design is quite cool. |
Offical Website | √ | ||
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OPENPHD2
Well-welcomed by astrophotographers as an guiding software |
Offical Website | √ | √ | √ |
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SGP
A popular imaging software. It worths! |
Offical Website | √ | ||
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SharpCAP
Special for plantary imaging. And great. |
Offical Website | √ | ||
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The SkyX
Well-known as an full fuctional astroimaging platform. Availiable on Win&Mac both. Just trust it! |
Offical Website | √ | √ | |
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APT-Astro Photography Tool
No matter what you are imaging with – Canon EOS, Nikon, CCD or CMOS astro camera, APT has the right tool for planning, collimating, aligning, focusing, framing, controlling/tethering, imaging, synchronizing, scheduling, meridian flipping, analyzing and monitoring. |
Offical Website | √ | ||
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PRISM
A complete astronomical observatory control software (telescope, filter wheels, focusing, dome, derotator, stationweather, pointing model …) by native modules or by the ASCOM standard. All ASCOM equipment is piloted by PRISM.
|
Offical Website | √ | ||
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Stark Labs-Nebulosity
Affordable, Powerful, and Easy to Use Astrophotography Software.
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Offical Website | √ | √ | |
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Voyager
Voyager is a systems integration software, interfacing third-part software products to make them work together and achieve practical results, using a single management console.
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Offical Website | √ | ||
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Genika Astro
Genika Astro is an image acquisition software dedicated to astronomical imaging.
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Offical Website | √ | ||
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INDI
INDI Library is an open source software to control astronomical equipment. Availible on mutiple systems.
|
Offical Website | √ | √ | √ |
The camera requires an input voltage between 11V and 13.8V. If the input voltage is too low the camera will stop functioning or it may reboot when the TEC power percent is high, causing a drain on the power. Therefore, please make sure the input voltage arrived to the camera is adequate. 12V is the best but please note that a 12V cable that is very long or a cable with small conductor wire may exhibit enough resistance to cause a voltage drop between the power supply and the camera. The formular is: V(drop) = I * R (cable). It is advised that a very long 12V power cable not be used. It is better to place the 12V AC adapter closer to the camera.
First connect the 12V power supply, then connect the camera to your computer via the USB3.0 cable. Make sure the camera is plugged in before connecting the camera to the computer, otherwise the camera will not be recognized. When you connect the camera for the first time, the system discovers the new device and looks for drivers for it. You can skip the online search step by clicking “Skip obtaining the driver software from Windows Update” and the computer will automatically find the driver locally and install it. If we take the 5IIISeries driver as an example (shown below), after the driver software is successfully installed, you will see QHY5IIISeries_IO in the device manager.
Please note that the input voltage cannot be lower than 11.5v, otherwise the device will be unable to work normally.
All-in-one Pack (Windows) is for all QHYCCD USB3.0 devices, including all Cooling CMOS cameras, QHY5III and QHY 5II series, QHYCFW3. We recommend you choose “Stable Version” as usual.
In this pack there are:
1. System driver. It must be installed to make devices work.
2. EZCAP_QT: it’s developed by QHYCCD which could be used in QHY devices tests, simple capture tasks, and above all, the management of updates. So even if you won’t use EZCAP_QT as your main capture software, we suggest you install it to get the latest information of QHY drivers/SDK updates.
3. Ascom driver: Ascom Platform is supported by most astronomy devices which connect to Windows.
4. SDK: SDK is the file of “.dll” format. With this the device can be identified in other capture software.
5. SkyX Plugin: special support for SkyX.
6. QHYCCD BroadCast WDM Driver: It is a broadcast driver that supports QHYCCD cameras with video broadcast function, which can meet the needs of customers to send video images to other target software.
How to install it?
Take SharpCap (x64) for example:
Before the installation, make sure you’ve already installed SharpCap (X64) on your PC;
Then click ”Third Party Software Support” – “SharpCap 64”, the pack will detect the location of SharpCap files and install automatically; if not, please manually select root directory of SharpCap where you installed it, like: C:\Program Files\SharpCap 3.2 (64 bit)
Before using software, make sure you have connected the cooling camera to the 12V power supply and connected it to the computer with a USB3.0 data cable. If it’s a planetary/guiding camera, 12V power is not needed.
Note: We recommend 64-bit Software when you’re using cameras with a large sensor, such as QHY600. A full resolution image from the QHY600 is 120MBytes. It takes a significant amount of processing power and memory to capture, buffer, display and process. We therefore suggest using 64-bit software with the QHY600, for example, SharpCAP x64 , N.I.N.A x64. etc. Although the camera has 4GB of internal memory, 32-bit software will run within this memory area and the remaining memory may be not sufficient for normal operation.
EZCAP_QT is software developed by QHYCCD. This software has basic capture functions for QHYCCD deep sky cameras.
Run EZCAP_QT. Click “Connect” in Menu -> Camera. If the camera is successfully connected, the title line of EZCAP_QT will display the camera firmware version and the camera ID as shown below.
Click “Temperature Control” in “Camera Settings” to set the temperature of the CMOS sensor. You can turn on “Auto” to set the target temperature. For example, here we set the target temperature to -10C. The temperature of the CMOS sensor will drop quickly to this temperature (approximately 2-3 minutes). If you want to turn off cooling, you can choose Stop. If you just want to set the TEC power but not the temperature. You can select “Manual” and then set the percentage of the TEC power.
You can use the “preview tab” to preview and use the focus tool to focus. Then use the “capture tab” to capture the image.
Launch SharpCap. If the software and drivers mentioned above are installed successfully, the video image will appear automatically about 3 seconds after the software loads. You will also see the frame rate in the lower left corner of the software window as shown below.
If you have already started the SharpCap software before connecting the camera, in order to open the camera, click on the “camera” in the menu bar and then select the device.
Offset adjustment. When you completely block the camera (i.e., like taking a dark frame) you may find that the image is not really zero. Sometimes this will reduce the quality of the image contrast. You can get a better dark field by adjusting the offset. You can confirm this by opening the histogram as indicated in the figure below.
If you want to enter the 16-bit image mode, select the “RAW16” mode.
By selecting the “LX” mode you can expand the exposure setting range and take long exposures.
After cooling devices connected to the 12V power supply, the temperature control circuit will be activated. You can control the CMOS temperature by adjusting the settings in the figure below. Basically, you can control the temperature of CMOS by either adjusting “Cooler Power” or clicking “Auto” and setting “Target Temperature”. You can also see the CMOS temperature at the lower-left corner of the software window.
With ASCOM drivers, you can use the device with many software packages that support the ASCOM standard. We will use Maxim DL below as an example, but a similar procedure is used for The SkyX and other software packages supporting ASCOM.
First make sure you have not only loaded the ASCOM drivers but that you have also downloaded and installed the ASCOM platform from ASCOM. After both the drivers and platform are installed, start MAXIMDL. Follow the instructions shown below to finish the setup. Then Click Connect in and enter the software.
Open N.I.N.A. – Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy. Drive connections via ASCOM. 
Turn on the TE cooler to set temperature. Then set the exposure time to capture the image.
QHYCCD BroadCast WDM Camera is a broadcast driver that supports QHYCCD cameras with video broadcast function, which can meet the needs of customers to send video images to other target software. For example, use sharpcap to connect a WDM-enabled camera, and the sharpcap display video image can be sent to other WDM-supported software for display, which is suitable for video online broadcast applications.
The installation process is over, right-click the computer to find the device manager, and check that the image device name is QHYCCD BroadCast WDM Camera, which means the installation is successful.
HANDYAVI test effect chart:
UFOCAPTURE test renderings:
