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Back-illuminated COLDMOS Astronomy Camera

 

QHY183C 

User’s  Manual  Rev.  1.1

 

 

Summary of Contents for QHY183C

Page 1: ...Back illuminated COLDMOS Astronomy Camera QHY183C User s Manual Rev 1 1...

Page 2: ...following items USB3 0 cable 1 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...

Page 3: ...Color Balance for QHY183C 04 Use QHY183C with ASCOM 05 Use QHY183C in EZCAP_QT 06 Use QHY183C in FireCapture 07 Use BroadCast Video Streaming 08 Color Wheel Control Port 09 Guide Port 10 FAQ 11 Camera...

Page 4: ...5 Connect QHY183C 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 f...

Page 5: ...QHY183C 2 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 redu...

Page 7: ...the histogram peak 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 too and it may affect the color balance 6 If you wa...

Page 8: ...cooling temperature in the Thermal Controls 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 an...

Page 9: ...e 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...

Page 10: ...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...

Page 11: ...nection Please note that QHY183C 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...

Page 12: ...Normally you can set the gain 1 and offset 10 to start The speed and overscan calibration options are no use to QHY183C Click Connect before start shooting The screenshot below shows QHY183C running o...

Page 13: ...QHY183C 10...

Page 14: ...the camera firmware version and the camera ID 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 h...

Page 15: ...u 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...

Page 16: ...QHY183C 13 In EZCAP_QT there is a planner for image tasking You can capture a series images by using the table below...

Page 17: ...QHY183C 14...

Page 18: ...ts 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 A...

Page 19: ...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 f...

Page 20: ...QHY183C 17...

Page 21: ...QHY183C 18 08 QHY183C Color Wheel Control Port Pin number arrangement Note The TXD and RXD is standard RS232 level 10V Not the TTL standard...

Page 22: ...tor 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 che...

Page 23: ...power leak may cause the leak current transfer from computer to the camera via the GND This may affect the USB transfer and cause the data packet lost and cause it hang You need to make sure the comp...

Page 24: ...of the camera If you found there is dust on the CMOS sensor You can screw off the front part of the QHY183C The QHY183C s CMOS sensor has the AR coating so you need to be careful to clean it You can u...

Page 25: ...DRII buffer can solve this problem by storing the whole frame 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 wh...

Page 26: ...23 9 What s the unity gain and other performance data The unity gain 1e adu is Gain 11 Here is the readout noise curve The noise is about 2 6 2 7e at zero gain 1 5e at unity gain and minimum 0 5e at...

Page 27: ...al shock which means that when the cooler s temperature rises or fall dramatically the cooler is subjected to strong internal stress due to contraction principle Drastic thermal shock can shorten cool...

Page 28: ...ot be interrupted If USB transmission was interrupted too often by the operating system the data overflow of DDR would ensue resulting in bad frame Therefore not a single frame is a complete frame and...

Page 29: ...HY183C 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 A...

Page 30: ...15000 16000e ADC Bit 10 bit and 12bit output 8bit 16bit MSB Alignment Readout Noise low 1e high gain 2 7e gain 0 TEC 2 stage TEC with 40C below ambient with temperature regular Data interface USB 3 0...

Page 31: ...QHY183C 28 13 QHY183C Mechanical Size and Back Focus...

Page 32: ...QHY183C 29 Drawing of QHY183C with a M42 lens mount The back focal length of QHY183C with M42 2inch lens mount is 17 5mm to 18 mm...

Page 33: ...183C 30 Drawing of QHY183C with C mount The back focal length of QHY183C with C adapter lens mount is 17 mm Note that C mount is an optional accessory that you can order from us Its part number is 020...

Page 34: ...QHY183C 31 drawing of QHY183C without mount There is four M42 screw holes on the R 19 5mm circle You can use them to connect with other parts...

Page 35: ...of change Revision Content of change November 29th 2016 1 0 First edition December 20th 2016 1 1 Added solution to the problem that cameras halt under DDR mode in the FAQ section January 13 2017 1 2...

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