Handbook for the TRIUS PRO-825C Issue 1 September 2020
9
If you use a normal lens, then stop it down to the smallest aperture number
possible, (usually F22), as this will minimise focus problems and keep the light level
reasonable for daytime testing. The pin hole needs no such adjustments and will
work immediately, although somewhat fuzzily!
Point the lens or pinhole towards a well-lit and clearly defined object
some distance away. Now enter the ‘File’ menu in the H9C software and click on ‘SX
camera interface’. Select an exposure time of 0.1 seconds and press ‘Take Photo’.
After the exposure and download have completed (about 1 seconds) an image of
some kind will appear on the computer monitor. It will probably be poorly focused
and incorrectly exposed, but any sort of image is better than none! In the case of
the pinhole, all that you can experiment with is the exposure time, but a camera
lens can be adjusted for good focus and so you might want to try this to judge the
high image quality that it is possible to achieve.
Various other exposure options are available, as can be seen in the picture above.
For example, you can ‘Bin’ the download 2x2, or more, to achieve greater sensitivity
and faster download, or enable ‘Continuous mode’ to see a steady stream of images.
‘Focus mode’ downloads a 128 x 128 segment of the image at high speed. The initial
position of the segment is central to the frame, but can be moved by selecting ‘Focus
frame centre’ in the ‘File’ menu and clicking the desired point with the mouse. The
focus window has an adjustable ‘contrast stretch’, controlled by the 12-16 bit slider.
The image will be ‘normal’ if 16 bits is selected, while setting lower values will
increase the image brightness in inverse proportion.
If you cannot record any kind of image, please check the following points:
1)
Ensure that the power indicator lamp is on and that the cables are properly home
in their sockets.
2)
If the screen is completely white, the camera may be greatly overexposed. Try a
shorter exposure time, or stop down your lens. See if covering the lens causes
the image to darken.
3)
If the USB did not initialise properly, the camera start-up screen will tell you that
the connection is defective. Try switching off the power supply and unplugging
the USB cable. Now turn the power supply on and plug in the USB cable. This will
re-load the USB software and may fix the problem after restarting the
SXV_hmf_usb program. Otherwise, check the device driver status, as previously
described, and re-install any drivers which appear to be defective.
4)
If you cannot find any way of making the camera work, please try using it with
another computer. This will confirm that the camera is OK, or faulty, and you can
then decide how to proceed. Our guarantee ensures that any electrical faults are
corrected quickly and at no cost to the customer.
As the TRIUS PRO-825C is a ‘Single-shot’ colour camera, the full resolution raw
image will show a fine grid pattern, due to the RGB colour filters on the CCD chip
surface. This is normal and will disappear once the image has been converted to
colour by the software. Unlike commercial digital cameras, astronomical colour
cameras do not normally output a colour image directly. This is so that various
