JHA I changed the gain but still no image.
1) did you have a lens or telescope connected to the camera?
If you don't, and if there is any leak (the sensor is not completely capped), you will get an all white image (and often, ASIAIR would even crash when there is zero variance in the pixel values).
Assuming you have done the above...
In the Main Camera settings window, tap on "L" to select the lowest gain (usually defaults to 0).
In the Preview Window, select Bin1 for sensor binning. Tap on the EXP button and select 0.001 second.
Be sure to tap on Auto (auto histogram stretching) in the Preview mode. If you don't select Auto, then at least slide the black point slider towards 0 and the white point slider towards 65535. This is crucial -- if the histogram sliders are both to the left, you will get an all white image.
After tapping on the exposure button, do you see a short "Shooting" message at the bottom right corner of the Preview window? With an 0.001 second exposure, the "Shooting" message will just be an augenblick. That message should then turn into a "Loading" message, together with a progress bar. If you see those messages, and still get a white screen, check the histogram sliders again. No one is shooting at anyone -- it should have said "taking exposure."
2) Does it show an all white screen at night? Don't depend on the cap of the telescope, wait until night time. Do it in a darken room, or outdoors with no light. Again, don't forget the attach the camera to a lens or a telescope, otherwise it is easy to have stray light illuminate the entire sensor and produce an all white image (especially when the histogram is not set to Auto).
3) for daytime, the gain would have to be set to zero, and the exposure time set to 0.001 second or less for the image to be not saturated to white. Remember that .001 second exposure is like 1/1000 second on a regular camera (while gain is related to ISO). Again, be sure to have a lens or telescope attached. A DSLR with no lens attach will produce an all white image too.
4) at night, with the camera connected to a small telescope, you should not get an all white screen at a gain of 100 and exposure of 5 seconds. Again, only if you have the camera attached to a lens or telescope.
The camera is not getting warm at all no matter how long it is on.
The ASI120 has such a tiny sensor that I doubt you can feel it get warm unless you are taking video with it. And even in video mode, it will barely get warm.
You can always check how much current the camera is consuming by going through a USB Tester like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D9Y6ZFW
If it reads less than 0.1 A, it is difficult for that chunk of metal to get warm with just 0.5 watts of power (1800 Joules after an hour, assuming the camera body does not radiate any heat away).
Chen
