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QHYCCD COLDMOS QHY163M User Manual
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QHYCCD COLDMOS QHY163M User Manual

Astronomy camera
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User Manual
REV.1.6
QHY163M
COLDMOS Astronomy Camera

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Summary of Contents for QHYCCD COLDMOS QHY163M

  • Page 1 User Manual REV.1.6 QHY163M COLDMOS Astronomy Camera...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Contents PACKAGE CONTENTS ..................3 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION ................4 USE QHY163M WITH FILTER WHEEL ..............6 USE QHY163M IN SHARPCAP ................7 USE QHY163M WITH ASCOM ................10 USE QHY163M IN EZCAP_QT ................17 USE QHY168M IN FIRECAPTURE ..............19 USE BROADCAST VIDEO STREAMING ............

  • Page 3: Package Contents

    QHY163M 01 Package Contents USB3.0 cable(1.5m) Self-locking power cable 6pin guide cable Car power adapter Drying tube Desiccant M42/2inch adaptor(Maximum diameter: 56mm) Driver download card Inspection report QHY163M camera Optional accessories Car power adapter C-MOUNT lens adapter...

  • Page 4: Software Installation

    4. QHY163M camera uses SharpCap as the default capture software. Please download SharpCap. QHY163M camera can run on SharpCap 2.9 or later versions Note that QHY168M requires the latest qhyccd.dll for the new version of SharpCap, and QHYCCD has SharpCap Patch already developed a software named for it.
  • Page 5 QHY163M 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: Use Qhy163M With Filter Wheel

    QHY163M 04 Use QHY163M with Filter Wheel QHY163M is a monochromatic camera and it is frequently used with color filter wheel. With its M42/2inch lens mount (this has already been installed on QHY163M), connecting it with QHY color filter wheel will be simple and quick.

  • Page 7: Use Qhy163M In Sharpcap

    QHY163M 05 Use QHY163M in SharpCap 1. Connect your QHY163M to color filter wheel with DIN4/RJ11 cable. Connect your QHY163M to 12V power supply. Connect your QHY163M to your computer with USB3.0 cable. Before running SharpCap, make sure filter wheel’s initialization is finished. When it is initializing, you can hear the sound gear makes.
  • Page 8 QHY163M 5. Adjust filter wheel position. You can select which filter you are going to use by changing the position of filter wheel as shown in the following picture. 6. Adjust the offset. When you block the light thoroughly, you may find that the image is not really zero.
  • Page 9 QHY163M 9. After you connect 12V power supply for QHY163M to power the TEC cooling circuit, you can set the CMOS sensor 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” and adjusting “Target Temperature”.

  • Page 10: Use Qhy163M With Ascom

    QHY163M 06 Use QHY163M with ASCOM You can connect many software that support ASCOM. Currently QHY163M only supports normal ASCOM connection and does not support the ASCOM VIDEO connection. Please note that QHY163M 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.
  • Page 11 QHY163M Normally, you can set the gain=1 and offset=10 to start. Keep clicking “Okay” to return to Camera Control window. The following instructions are going to show you how to configure filter wheel (QHYCFW2-M) in MAXIMDL. Click “Setup Filter” in the Camera Control window.
  • Page 12 QHY163M In the window shown below, you can set up your filter wheel Keep clicking “OK” to return to the Camera Control window. Click “Connect”...
  • Page 13 QHY163M...
  • Page 14 QHY163M Sequence Generator Pro Sequence Generator Pro is an extremely powerful image capture suite. It can perform many complex tasks in order to meet your imaging needs. After you connect your gears and configure Sequence Generator Pro properly, you can go to sleep and see images in the morning. To use QHY163M in Sequence Generator Pro, you can follow the instructions listed below.
  • Page 15 QHY163M The next step is going to connect your filter wheel (QHYCFW2-M). Before you select QHYCCD Filter wheel as the filter and click the red connect button, you should also make sure you’ve connected QHY163M to filter wheel (QHYCFW2-M) with DIN4/RJ11 cable, you’ve plugged in the 12V power supply...
  • Page 16 QHY163M For example, you can change the filter names to Lum, Red, Green, Blue, and Ha as you installed them this way. Then you make schedule events to take turns to use these filters as shown in the following picture. For detailed and helpful tutorial of this software, please go to its website to check its help content.

  • Page 17: Use Qhy163M In Ezcap_Qt

    07 Use QHY163M in EZCAP_QT EZCAP_QT ( V0.1.51.18 ) is the software developed by QHYCCD. This software has the basic capture function for QHYCCD deep sky cameras. You can use this QHY63M camera with filter wheel in this software. 1. Install EZCAP_QT software.
  • Page 18 QHY163M 5. You can select which filter you are going to use by changing the position of filter wheel as shown in the following picture 6. You can use the preview tab to do preview. And use the focus tools to do focus. Then use the capture tab to capture image.

  • Page 19: Use Qhy168M In Firecapture

    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.

  • Page 20: Use Broadcast Video Streaming

    BroadCast video steaming is a special function that QHY163M supports. It can send the video image to multiple target software via QHYCCD BroadCast video driver. For example, you can use the SharpCap software to control the QHY163M camera and at the 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.

  • Page 21: Qhy163M Color Wheel Control Port

    QHY163M 10 QHY163M Color Wheel Control Port Pin number arrangement Note: The TXD and RXD is standard RS232 level (+-10V). Not the TTL standard 11 QHY163M Guide Port Cable RJ11 Pin sequence This connector 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 check if it is the same pin sequence with the...

  • Page 22: Faq

    QHY163M 12 FAQ 1. Does QHY163M support 10bit or 12bit? QHY163M supports both 10bit and 12bit output(For 10bit, it is 0-255, and it only uses the high 8bit, for 12bit it is 0-4095 map to 0-65535). 2. How to get maximum FPS? Since QHY163M has very high data bandwidth.
  • Page 23 QHY163M 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 QHY163M. The QHY163M’s CMOS sensor has the AR coating so you need to be careful to clean it. You can use the clean kit for DSLR sensor to do it.
  • Page 24 QHY163M 8. What’s on-camera DDR buffer and what is benefit for? The QHY163M has the on-camera 128MB DDRII image buffer. It brings two advantages: It can buffer whole image and avoid it lost during USB transfer. Because CMOS sensor outputs the image continuous after exposure end and it does not allow the pause.
  • Page 25 QHY163M maximum value, and you should gradually turn up the “Cooler Power” value. When you turn off the power, if the “Cooler Power” value is very big, you should gradually turn it down before turn off the power. 10. The FPS of cameras sometimes suddenly drops to zero under DDR mode on SharpCap, what’s the solution for this problem? Recently, we have been told by our users that the FPS of their cameras sometimes suddenly drops to zero under DDR mode on SharpCap.
  • Page 26 QHY163M E.g., this is the secondary image which has an exposure of 0.1sec. It is about 60sec after first image was captured. Don't worry about it. To avoid this. You can use a longer exposure time to do bias frame. For example: 0.3sec.

  • Page 27: Camera Maintenance

    3. Check if the heat board working. If the heat board not working, the optic window is easy to get 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 heat board.

  • Page 28: Ohy163M Mechanical Size

    QHY163M 15 OHY163M Mechanical Size Drawing of QHY163M with a M42 lens mount The back focal length of QHY163M with M42/2inch lens mount is about 18 mm.
  • Page 29 QHY163M Drawing of QHY163M with C-MOUNT lens adapter The back focal length of QHY163M with C-MOUNT lens adapter is about 17.50mm. Note that C mount is an optional accessory that you can order from us. Its part number is 020017.
  • Page 30 QHY163M Dimensions of C-MOUNT lens adapter Back Focus with some typical setup: QHY163M+QHYCFW2-M-US=36mm QHY163M+QHYCFW2-M-SR=41mm QHY163M+QHYCFW2-S =37mm For OAG, it is 13mm add-on.

  • Page 31: Specifications

    QHY163M 16 Specifications CMOS Sensor 4/3inch 16mega pixel mono CMOS Sensor Effective Pixels 4656*3522 Pixel Size 3.8um*3.8um Effective Area 17.7mm*13.4mm Shutter Electric Rolling Shutter. FullWell Readout Noise 1.2e 22.5FPS@16mega Full Resolution 30FPS@4K HD Video Frame Rate (on 8bit) 57FPS@1920*1080 60FPS@1280*1024 80FPS@1024*768 100fps@800*600 ROI Support...

  • Page 32: Revision History

    QHY163M 17 Revision History Date of change Revision Content of change November 29 th , First edition 2016 December 20 th , Added solution to the problem that cameras halt under DDR mode in the FAQ section 2016 January 5, 2017 Added notes about 12V power adapter Added introduction about how to eliminate bad January 6, 2017...

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