ASI 533 MM not detected in ASI Live.

mr_wolf

I just bought a ASI 533 MM.
I have it powered (red light on - but I can't hear a fan or anything).
I connecting it to a MacBook but it is not detected in ASI Live.

What am I doing wrong?

w7ay

mr_wolf What am I doing wrong?

You are not doing anything wrong if you are using a USB 3.0 or 3.1 (camera end) to USB-C (computer end) hub. Some hubs require that you flip the USB-C end to get it to recognize the camera. Something that is like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08X4LHP1B

You cannot just use a USB-C cable from the camera to your MacBook since ZWO does not support Thunderbolt.

If you are already using a hub...

The ZWO cameras have faulty USB design (not sufficient design margins; they should check with a real electrical engineer). And when coupled with the cheap USB cables that comes in the ZWO boxes, will often result in no USB connection at all.

ZWO will eventually answer you and tell you to try different cables to try to "tune" a cable to work with your camera's margins. What they should have done is to design a proper USB interface, so that it can take different cables. When have you bought a USB drive and have to keep swapping cables to get it to work?

Instead of wasting your time swapping cables, just ask your dealer to replace it with a different one since it is not your fault. Let the dealer deal with ZWO's RMA process, which is another waste of your time. Don't do the job of ZWO's QA when they are not paying you to swap cables.

Chen

mr_wolf

Thank you for the information. I'll get another cable and try it again.

Also should the cooling fan start spinning as soon as the camera is powered ?

w7ay

mr_wolf Also should the cooling fan start spinning as soon as the camera is powered ?

No. If I remember correctly, the ZWO camera waits for a USB connection.

I'll get another cable and try it again.

has to establish a USB connection before the fan starts.

Why are you doig QA for ZWO. Just return the camera to the dealer. The problem with poor design margins is that you don't know what would happen when temperature changes.

Up to you. I don't suffer fools, and would personally return the camera and not waste any more time trying to get this one to work. It is up to ZWO to ship a camera that works with an average USB cable. It is not your problem; why make it so?

Chen

Tech@ZWO

mr_wolf The fan will run after connecting the power and USB cable, and will stop after you connect it in any software.

Tech@ZWO

w7ay
Thank you very much for your support and time on our forum, and we really appreciate your response to our users.
and the USB cable is consumable, Pulling, etc during use will cause damage to the cable. We hope the customer to test with different USB cables to verify where the problem is just want to avoid the situation in which the customer ships back the camera but can not fix the problem. we are sorry if this causes any inconvenience, we will continue to try our best to provide better products and services.

w7ay

Tech@ZWO Pulling, etc during use will cause damage to the cable.

The problem is that ZWO's USB hardware is poorly engineered; it does not work with even undamaged cables. There is insufficient design margins to meet the USB specifications.

https://www.planetanalog.com/design-margins-in-analog-digital/

At 5 GHz, the USB 3.1 interface needs care, like using microstrip techniques, instead of just laying some traces on a printed circuit board. Otherwise, you need to place the USB chip really close to the USB connector (less than a quarter of a wavelength, or 15 mm away).

Chen

mr_wolf

I tried every cable that came with the camera and also a cable I purchased elsewhere - without success.
NB: I am able to successfully use another ASI camera that I owned (a 294 MC) using the same cable and computer.

HD_ZWO

mr_wolf How was this ASI533MM finally handled? Was it sent for repair?