New ASCOM driver for test V1.0.1.10

Sam@ZWO

main changes:

1.fix amp-glow problem with ASI174MM/MC

2.add LCG mode to ASI224MC

welcome test and feedback

bigol

Sam wrote:
main changes:

1.fix amp-glow problem with ASI174MM/MC

2.add LCG mode to ASI224MC

welcome test and feedback

Could I see full changes list? Thanks.

mert

bigol wrote:
Sam wrote:main changes:

1.fix amp-glow problem with ASI174MM/MC

2.add LCG mode to ASI224MC

welcome test and feedback

Could I see full changes list? Thanks.

Hi Sam,

Will there be the same development ( especially for the Amp-glow problema )

for the 224MC???

Thanks for your feedback!

Mert

Admin

Hi Sam,

I've just been testing with the new Ascom driver and Firecapture

with my 224MC.

All works perfectly and there are 2 new options in the camera

properties, High Gain and Low Gain predefined settings.

I will have to try and get out to do testing under the stars.

Thanks for the hard work done!

Mert

Sam@ZWO

actually, we should say improve amp-glow problem with ASI174 instead of fix

there is still amp-glow but better

the H-gain setting means unity gain

eastofjupiter

The amp glow is substantially reduced. So is the overall noise on the sensor. The noise reduction worries me slightly, as I'm afraid that programatically reducing the noise is actually reducing all signal received by the chip.

I'm currently running several series of dark frame tests to really get a good idea of the level of reduction. I'll post my results here when It's been completed.

Each test takes approximately 2 and a half hours to run... In the meantime, here is a single 180s long exposure. with driver v1.1.06 versus v1.1.10

Sam@ZWO

thanks very much for the compare

nice to see the result

eastofjupiter

Final tests are done. Nice job, Sam!

I've compared 3 drivers:

1.1.03 - Shipped on CD with camera

1.1.06 - Most recent GA driver from website

1.1.10 - Beta driver found here.

Each driver was tested at the following time intervals:

30s

60s

120s

180s

240s

300s

The tests were allowed to run, with a minimum of 10 minutes of cool down between each run.

5 dark frames were taken for each exposure, and then stacked to create a 'Master' dark frame.

An uncompressed version of this test matrix is available upon request. It is also nearly 83 megabytes in size, though.

-Mitchell

Sam@ZWO

time to try some real DSO now

eastofjupiter

I'm doing one last test of the driver to ensure that pixel binning is working correctly. It appears that the drivers only support 1x1 and 2x2 binning.

I've tried 3x3 but that didn't work. I may not be remembering correctly, but I do think that the camera is claimed to only bin 2x2 pixels. That means that the binning is still working as expected. The amp glow is slightly more pronounced when the binning is enabled, which is to be expected. The amp glow is signal, and binning improves the SNR.

I'll post another matrix of binned dark frames as soon as I've collected the data and compiled the master dark frames.

Also, Sam - if you need someone to beta test the new cooled cameras before they are released, I'd be happy to help. You've got my personal email address if you would like to discuss the details.

Admin

Hi Sam,

The first trials I did from my balcony with a fixed tripod

show an incredible improvement in behaviour with respect

to the AMP-glow problem.

I will have to go to our dark site and check if things

stand the way you have put it.

IMHO you have done an incredible job!!!!!!

Mert

Sam@ZWO

EastOfJupiter wrote:
I'm doing one last test of the driver to ensure that pixel binning is working correctly. It appears that the drivers only support 1x1 and 2x2 binning.

I've tried 3x3 but that didn't work. I may not be remembering correctly, but I do think that the camera is claimed to only bin 2x2 pixels. That means that the binning is still working as expected. The amp glow is slightly more pronounced when the binning is enabled, which is to be expected. The amp glow is signal, and binning improves the SNR.

I'll post another matrix of binned dark frames as soon as I've collected the data and compiled the master dark frames.

Also, Sam - if you need someone to beta test the new cooled cameras before they are released, I'd be happy to help. You've got my personal email address if you would like to discuss the details.

ONLY BIN2 supported

welcome to test!

purdyd

The title of this thread does not give it enough credit. This is a fairly significant improvement for the ASI174

I've been playing around with externally cooling the camera as it has been running about 40C and I finally got a system that would cool it do 5C but after about 45 minutes of cooling at full power.

With this new driver, operating temperature was 26C and it only took a couple of minutes to drop to 2C and I had to turn the voltage down to the peltier cooler and fan.

Well done on this driver.

eastofjupiter

Purdyd wrote:
The title of this thread does not give it enough credit. This is a fairly significant improvement for the ASI174

I've been playing around with externally cooling the camera as it has been running about 40C and I finally got a system that would cool it do 5C but after about 45 minutes of cooling at full power.

With this new driver, operating temperature was 26C and it only took a couple of minutes to drop to 2C and I had to turn the voltage down to the peltier cooler and fan.

Well done on this driver.

I agree! Though I've not tested my camera with my external cooling activated, I'm confident that I'll have ridiculously low thermal signal and amp glow which should be easily corrected in post processing!

PurdyD and I have been pretty active on the CN forums, testing and documenting our cooling solutions. Maybe we should start a new topic there for the v1.1.10 driver + active cooling, as well?

-Mitchell Tubbs

eastofjupiter

Here are the three driver versions, unbinned in an image matrix, as well as binned.

The careful eye may notice that 2x2 binning reduced the overall noise even further.

If the weather holds, I'll be attempting some DSO imaging form a darker sky than my house tonight. I'll post raw images converted to JPG because of attachment size limitations.

purdyd

So here are two dark image panels at temperatures of 2C and 28C and stretched hard in photoshop like what you might do with a deep sky image

significant decrease in hot pixels and noise but the fixed pattern bands are starting to rear up and they are hard to get rid of when they are close to the values for the faint objects

Sam@ZWO

Purdyd wrote:
So here are two dark image panels at temperatures of 2C and 28C and stretched hard in photoshop like what you might do with a deep sky image

significant decrease in hot pixels and noise but the fixed pattern bands are starting to rear up and they are hard to get rid of when they are close to the values for the faint objects

yes, the right down side is not a good area to image DSO expecially for narrowband

here is a NGC6888 raw file

174.rar

space cowboy

Ive installed the new ascom driver for my 224mc but can't find the new high and low gain settings in firecapture?

Sam@ZWO

Space Cowboy wrote:
Ive installed the new ascom driver for my 224mc but can't find the new high and low gain settings in firecapture?

you can set the value you see in ASCOM when you click high gain or low gain

space cowboy

Sam wrote:
Space Cowboy wrote:Ive installed the new ascom driver for my 224mc but can't find the new high and low gain settings in firecapture?

you can set the value you see in ASCOM when you click high gain or low gain

Thanks Sam, do I use ascom alongside firecapture or instead of? I've never used ascom before and the asi manual only refers to guiding.