ASI220MM mini and camera drivers

bulrichl

I just obtained my new guiding camera, ASI220MM mini. When I tried it with the guiding application PHD2, I got some weird results:

At first I selected the direct camera driver. With this driver, only 8-bit files (value range 0 to 255 ADU) were generated.
With the ASCOM driver, no matter what offset value I set, the median value of a dark frame (gain: 110, exposure time 2 s) was 3120 ADU.

Obviously, both the direct camera driver and the ASCOM camera driver do not work correctly with this camera.

These are the software versions that are installed on my notebook (Windows 10 Professional):
ASCOM v6.6 SP2
ZWO Camera Driver v3.24
ASCOM Camera Driver v6.5.26
PHD2 v2.6.13 dev5

Please advise what I can do.

Bernd

bulrichl

Nobody?

For now, I could not get the camera to work correctly with PHD2. I am trying to use the ASI220MM mini with a guide scope (aperture: 60 mm, focal length: 355 mm) at an exposure time of 2 s. My main camera is an ASI2600MC Pro. The guiding camera is connected to the USB2 port of the main camera.

I would like to get help from ZWO or from an user who guides with this camera:

which camera driver should be used and
what settings of offset and gain are appropriate?

If I don't get help, I will have to return the guide camera.

Bernd

Mapleleaf

Have you tried disconnecting the ASI2600MC and seeing if PHD2 will connect to the ASI220mm?

bulrichl

Thank you for your reply.

Mapleleaf Have you tried disconnecting the ASI2600MC and seeing if PHD2 will connect to the ASI220m

Yes. I connected (by cable) only the ASI220 when I generated the new PHD2 profile.

Several times I tried to generate the new PHD2 profile with the direct camera driver ("ZWO ASI Camera") selecting "ASI220 mini", and finally found out the following behavior:

I am asked whether the new camera is already connected,

when I click on 'yes', the pixel size (4 microns) is detected correctly, but the bit resolution is set to 8-bit, the 16-bit option is grayed out and no more selectable,
when I click on 'no' and manually input the pixel size, I can select a bit resolution of 16.

ad 1.:
When I capture dark frames, the resulting dark library is a 8-bit file. This is evident from the Debug Logfile, and I verified it as well by loading the dark library in PixInsight. When looping, the camera generates images with a sampling of 8 bits. This is not appropriate for guiding.

ad 2.:
When I capture dark frames, the resulting dark library again is a 8-bit file! When looping, the camera now captures images in 16-bit (12-bit scaled to 16-bit). The camera generated images and star profiles that could be used for guiding. However, I don't understand how this combination could work, dark frames in 8-bit are not compatible with 16-bit images. Actually a dark frame subtraction executed in this way will achieve nothing.

So I conclude that this is a PHD2 issue: one cannot generate a dark library as 16-bit file.

Bernd