QHY5 - schizophrenic or just shicz

[pmrid]

I have - or I should say had - two QHY5s - and both have performed well in their role as a guide camera but in the past 6 months, both of them, at different times, have become distinctly flakey. Work one day - not the next sort of thing.
Both of them have now become unreognisable by their drivers - either conventional or ASCOM. They come up as a new piece of equipment (same USB port by the way) and their drivers can't be found either by browsing locally or by letting Windows do the searching.
I've tried the same cameras on different computers on which I know they have worked in the past - with the same results.
One of them went back to Theo some months ago and worked for a while on its return but it's now gone the way of it's mate.
I wonder if anyone else is having these sorts of problems and whether anyone has any idea as to cause and/or cure.
Peter

[gregbradley]

I have had a similar issue at one stage with other brand cameras and USB.

In my case it was a USB hub that did not work reliably and also USB extensions that are often unreliable.

Greg.

[mill]

Peter it looks like the firmware on the camera has gone corrupt.
On the QHY forum was a way to reload the firmware and then cut some traces to prevent another corruption because you can't write to the QHY5 anymore.
Go here for a solution -->> http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=2702.0

Martin.

[jjjnettie]

In Win7 I can get mine working under ASCOM, but it causes conflicts with my computers video drivers. My screen dims and won't brighten again. I've had the blue screen of death last time I tried, so won't be trying this again in a hurry :(
Can't get the XP machine to recognise it at all.
So I'm back to using my SPC900 and GPUSB.
I am assuming that it was a Windoze driver update that's caused it.

[mill]

That is weird JJ, mine works in every version of winblow, i only had to replace the usb input on my QHY5 once because it stopped making good contact and then corrupted the firmware.
Now i have no problems anymore but bought a Orion guide camera just in case :)

[pjphilli]

Hi Martin

I also had problems with the USB socket. Too loose and I got tired of the camera stopping because of cord movement. Fixed it by aralditing the plug into the socket - not problems since!

Cheers Peter

[mill]

My usb connector didn't have the middle post in between the contacts so it lost contact a lot.
I bought 2 connectors from the Netherlands and voila it worked again after a flash of the firmware :)

Martin.

[pjphilli]

Hi Martin

A broken middle post of the USB socket was also the cause of my problem. Fortunately I recovered it and was able to glue in in place before gluing the plug. It was not necessary to flash the firmware.
A rough fix but it works.

Cheers Peter

[Tandum]

I've replaced a couple of those sockets on QHY5's. You can get the sockets here (http://australia.rs-online.com/web/p/terminals/7187202/)and replacing them is quite trivial for someone with desoldering gear.

I think there used to be a minimum buy from those guys, like at least 5 of, but that might have changed, and I don't think jaycar etc stock the upright type.

[Karls48]

I should keep my mouth shut in view of my recent trouble with DSI2 and Orion G3 but QHY5 that I have for about three years has worked without any problems - so far.