QHY 174M-GPS Issues

[steve_conard]

Hi,

I am a brand-new user, and having problems right out of the box. I am trying to interface to a QHY-174M-GPS, and seem to be able to connect to the camera. I can successfully set the temperature, for example. But when I try to take an image, it counts down then hangs-up on the download and never produces an image. If I hit stop, it just says "digitizing" and never changes with almost all the buttons greyed out until a timeout occurs in 2 minutes.

The camera works fine with my other software.

Also, where are the controls to enable and disable the camera's built-in GPS and the timestamp printed on each image?

Note that I'm software challenged--don't assume it isn't some extremely simple issue. Thanks!

Steve

[Hamza Touhami]

Hi Steve and thanks for joining us, it was a pleasure chatting with you at NEAF

Can you send us sample images with good FTIS headers so we can open them and inspect what's going on?

Thanks

[steve_conard]

Hamza,

It was good chatting with you as well. I'm heading out of town on business, I'll get you some more information when I return late in the week.

Thanks.

Steve

[steve_conard]

Hamza,

I'm back from my travels. You asked for sample images with good FITS headers--the problem I'm having is it never gets to that point. The exposure time just counts down to zero, and sits there. I don't see anything being saved.

Thanks.

Steve

[Hamza Touhami]

Hi Steve. In this instance we will need the log file of your session, you can activate this by going to observatory then log file. Just enable the log file by check in the box at the top left. Restart Prism and go through the steps just like you would normally then shut down present. Your log files are present inside your documents folder then inside the prison hi Steve. In this instance we will need the log file of your session, you can activate this by going to observatory then log file. Just enable the log file by check in the box in the top left. Restart Prism and go through the steps just like you would normally then shut down prism. Your log files are present inside your documents folder then inside the prism folder.

[steve_conard]

Here is the file, I had to rename it to .txt to be able to attach it.


Steve

[Hamza Touhami]

I don't see the attached file Steve, can you just send it to me to hyperion.astronomy@gmail.com instead? Also, after speaking with Cyril about this, he did clarify that ASCOM might not have the GPS property in it, can you please run the camera using its native driver. Under hardware, choose QHY instead of ASCOM

[steve_conard]

Hamza,

OK, I'll send that by direct email in a few minutes.

I did try selecting QHY rather than ASCOM, and I get a message "QHY native camera support is intended for version 11, use ASCOM drvier instead".


Steve

[Hamza Touhami]

Hello Steve,

We did take a look at the logs and it seems that it is a feature to be implemented. However, I have added a USB GPS to my system and PRISM can actually adjust your PC's time to the exact time every so many seconds. My question is as follows: will this be accurate enough for your application?

[steve_conard]

Hamza,

No, our testing over many years has shown you need the built-in GPS timing of the camera.

But that isn't the first problem I'm having--the first is I'm unable to get images in any form from this particular camera (actually I have 2 I've tried)--even with the GPS off. That is the first hurdle I have. The camera does work fine with the recommended freeware--so it isn't a hardware issue.

Add to this the laptop I installed the Prism software just died (completely unrelated to your software, of course!)--I'm not having a good start with this. I'll have to buy other observatory computer and use my second install on that one.


Steve