QHYCCD QHY163 User manual

QHY163С
COLDMOS Astronomy Camera
User Manual
REV.1.1

Contents
01 PACKAGE CONTENTS.........................................................................................3
03 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION................................................................................4
04 USE QHY163M IN SHARPCAP ............................................................................6
05 COLOR BALANCE FOR QHY163C ......................................................................9
06 USE QHY163C WITH ASCOM............................................................................11
07 USE QHY163C IN EZCAP_QT ...........................................................................13
08 USE QHY168C IN FIRECAPTURE.....................................................................16
09 USE BROADCAST VIDEO STREAMING............................................................17
10 QHY163C COLOR WHEEL CONTROL PORT ...................................................18
11 QHY163C GUIDE PORT CABLE RJ11 PIN SEQUENCE...................................18
12 FAQ.....................................................................................................................19
13 CAMERA MAINTENANCE..................................................................................22
15 OHY163C MECHANICAL SIZE...........................................................................23
16 SPECIFICATIONS...............................................................................................26
17 REVISION HISTORY...........................................................................................27

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01 Package Contents
USB3.0 cable(1.5m)
1
Self-locking power cable
1
6pin guide cable
1
Car power adapter
1
Drying tube
1
Desiccant
1
M42/1.25inch adaptor
1
Driver download card
1
Inspection report
1
Camera
1
Optional accessories
12V power adapter + power cable
1
C-adapter lens mount
1

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03 Software Installation
1.Download and install ASCOM platform
2.Download and install the Camera Driver
3.Download and install the ASCOM Driver
As you most probably want to use your QHY163C as an expose camera, please download the Capture
version. If you want to use it as a guide camera, please download the Guide version.
4. QHY163C camera uses SharpCap as the default capture software. Please download SharpCap.
QHY163C camera can run on SharpCap 2.9 or later versions
Note that QHY168M requires the latest qhyccd.dll for the new version of SharpCap, and QHYCCD has
alreadydevelopeda softwarenamed SharpCap Patchfor it. Youshould downloadandinstall it prior
to using SharpCap.
5. Connect QHY163C to your PC with USB3.0 cable. For the first time the system will find a new device
and search the driver. Youcan skip the online searching by clicking "Skip obtaining driver software from
Windows Update" and the computer will find the drivers. After installation is complete successfully, you
can find the device in the device manager as shown in the picture below.
6.QHYCCD has developed a software named UpdateCheck that can check if the drivers installed on
your computer are the latest versions as well as update the drivers if needed. If the status of some driver
is “Need Update”, you can directly download its update package in this software freeing you from the
inconvenience of looking for and downloading it from our website.
Take QHY367C for example, you can see the drivers we need are the latest versions and don’t need to
be updated as shown in the following picture.

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Note that after you downloading and installing the new drivers by using this software, be sure to pull the
USB cable out and then plug it in to enable the new drivers.

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04 Use QHY163M in SharpCap
1. Connect your QHY163C to 12V power supply. Connect your QHY163C to your computer with USB3.0
cable
2. Run SharpCap. If the aforementioned software and drivers all have been installed properly, the video
image will appear automatically and you will see the frame rate at the lower-left corner of the software
as shown below
3. If you have started the SharpCap before connecting camera to your PC. You can click menu-
>cameras->rescan for cameras to search the camera and check on the camera name (QHY163C in this
case).
4. To make sure the camera can run properly, the software will start the camera at the lowest speed,
which makes the frame rate much lower than the highest frame rate declared on its webpage. Now you
can try to get the most out of it by changing several settings. First you can try to set the exposure time
to 1ms, then try to reduce the "USB traffic" value. For modern computer with i7-4 core, it should get the
max performance. But please note that not all computers can get the best performance due to various
reasons such as the CPU loading, the saving-energy mode setting, the mainboard performance and
USB3.0 port performance. Sometimes the display size may also impede obtaining the best performance.
So you can try to use the "Zoom" function to reduce the display size to see if it helps. Normally speaking
the QHY163C can get more than 15FPS @ full 20mega resolution.
The debayer may take the CPU time and sometimes it will limit the frame rate. You can use the RAW8
mode and select debayer OFF to get faster.

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5. Adjust the offset. When you block the light thoroughly, you may find that the image is not really "zero"
(entirely black). Sometimes this will lower the quality of image contrast. You can adjust the offset to make
the histogram peak close to zero in order to get a better background. You can open the histogram to
confirm that.
QHY163C is a color camera, so it is very important to set the offset to a low value and make the histogram
peak close to zero. Because the color camera color balance is multiple a ratio to the pixel value in the FPGA.
The bias will be multiple too and it may affect the color balance.
6. If you want to try 16bit image, you can switch the Colour Space to "RAW16".
7. By check the "LX" mode you can expand the exposure setting range and take long exposure shot.
QHY163C camera has the anti-amp light control circuit and it can reduce the amplifier glow significantly.
Note that it's impossible to reduce the glow in the corner thoroughly, and it's normal to see a very small
amount of glow in the corner when you do long exposure.
A typical long exposure image in +25℃, 5 sec exposure and 50% gain of QHY163C is shown below.

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8. After you connect 12V power supply for QHY163C to power the TEC cooling circuit, you can set
the CMOS sensor cooling temperature in the “Thermal Controls” section in SharpCap as shown in the
following picture.
Basically, you can control the temperature of CMOS by either adjusting “Cooler Power” or clicking “Auto”
and adjusting “Target Temperature”. You can also see the CMOS temperature at lower-left corner of the
software.
Before use this function, you should read the content about how to protect the cooler in the FAQ section.

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05 Color Balance for QHY163C
SharpCap will start at the default RGB balance for color camera. Here is the screenshot of the QHY163C
start up
For color camera, SharpCap will show the WB Red/Green/Blue progress bar.
Since the color balance is the ratio between Red to Green and Blue to Green. You can fix the Green color
to 128 and adjust the Red and Blue.
For example, in the image above the blue is 188 and red is 196, green is 128. It looks the image is well
white balanced. If you need more blue, since it has limit of 255. In this condition, you can reduce the
green a little and you will have more room for the ratio.
As we said before, if you are doing planetary imaging you should set the offset value as low as possible.
To make the background close to zero. Then you can easy to get correct color balance. Otherwise it will
not easy to get it. Sometimes the offset of an image is good but you cannot get good balance.

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The reason is that the Color balance is a ratio of the RGB sensitivity difference. So we use a ratio to
multiply the RGB value and get it done. But if there is a bias exist. The ratio will not be correct. For
example, the G sensitivity is the double of R sensitivity.
G=2R In order to get white balance. We multiply a ratio of 2 to R
R'=2R= G so we get R=G
When a bias exist. The bias is a constant added to each pixel. So the image you see is:
R''=R + bias
G' '= G + bias = 2R+bias
Now the ratio R'': G''= (R+bias) / (2R+bias) and it is not equal to 1:2. It shows the bias will affect the true
value of the R:G. And the ratio of R:G will vary when the image light changed. It is hard to correct with a
fixed ratio.
But for DSO capture, you should keep the offset above zero and avoid the background being cut off. A
background from 1000-5000 is a good value (16bit mode) for DSO imaging.

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06 Use QHY163C with ASCOM
You can connect many software that support ASCOM. Currently QHY163C only supports normal ASCOM
connection and does not support the ASCOM VIDEO connection. Please note that QHY163C always
transfers maximum bit depth by ASCOM to make the best DSO imaging performance. The image format
is 16bit width and patch zero on low bit.
MAXIMDL
1. First you have to makesure that both ASCOM Platform and ASCOM driver have been installed. If not,
please install it first.
2. Start MAXIMDL
3. Follow the instructions shown below to finish the setup

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Normally, you can set the gain=1 and offset=10 to start. The speed and overscan calibration options are
no use to QHY163C.
Click Connect before start shooting
The screenshot below shows QHY163C running on MAXIMDL.
Keep clicking “OK” to return to the Camera Control window. Click “Connect”

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07 Use QHY163C in EZCAP_QT
EZCAP_QT (V0.1.51.18)is the software developed by QHYCCD. This software has the basic capture
function for QHYCCD deep sky cameras. You can use this QHY63M camera with filter wheel in this
software.
1. Install EZCAP_QT software.
2. Connect QHY163C USB cable and also the 12V power supply cable
3. Run EZCAP_QT. Select “Connect” in Menu->Camera. If the camera is successfully connected. The
title of EZCAP_QT will display the camera firmware version and the camera ID as shown below.
4. In Menu->Camera Setup, Click "Temp Control" and set the CMOS sensor temperature. You can enable
the "Auto Control" and set the target temperature. For example here we set the temperature to -10C.
The CMOS temperature will come to -10C very fast (in about 2-3minute). If you want to close the TEC,
you can select "TEC OFF". If you just want to set the TEC power but not the temperature. You can
select "Manual" and then set the percent of the TEC power.
You can use the preview tab to do preview. And use the focus tools to do focus. Then use the capture tab to
capture image. Here is a typical dark image at 60sec exposure, -10C. Stretch to full range.

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Stretch to background. Normally speaking since the noise of the ADC, after heavy stretch you may see
some random banding on the background. By stacking more image these banding will be gone since it
is the random. This noise will not increase when you increase the gain. So the readout noise at higher
gain is less than low gain. The QHY163C has about 2.7e at low gain and about 1e at high gain.

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In EZCAP_QT there is a planner for image tasking. You cancapture a series images by using the table
below.

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08 Use QHY168C in FireCapture
The latest FireCapture supports QHY163C already. Please go to FireCapture website to download its
v2.5 BETA (32-bit) version.
By default, it will be installed in the “Documents” folder. After it was installed successfully, navigate to
“Document folder”, and you will find its installation folder as shown below.
Enter that folder and run "FireCapture.exe", then select QHYCCD camera. And after the loading, you
will see the image on FireCapture like shown below.
For detailed and helpful tutorial of this software, please go to its website to check the tutorial section at
http://www.firecapture.de/

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09 Use BroadCast Video Streaming
BroadCast video steaming is a special function that QHY163C supports. It can send the video image to
multiple target software via QHYCCD BroadCast video driver. For example, you can use the SharpCap
software to control the QHY163C camera and at the same time the video appearing on the SharpCap
will be sent to any of software that support the WDM camera, like the HandyAvi, Adobe video encoder,
online chat software etc. This function is very useful for the video live broadcast applications.
1. Install the BroadCast Driver
2. Connect QHY163C to your PC and start SharpCap
3. Turn on “Enable Live Broadcast” at the bottom of Camera Control panel in SharpCap as shown below.
4. Select "QHYCCD camera (WDM)" as your webcam in the software you areusing.

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10 QHY163C Color Wheel Control Port
Pin number arrangement
Note: The TXD and RXD is standard RS232 level (+-10V). Not the TTL standard
11 QHY163C Guide Port Cable RJ11 Pin sequence
This connector is fully compatible with the EQ5/EQ6/Celestron/iOpton Guide Socket. The Pin Sequence
is (When face to the connector of the cable
The Socket side (mount side) is
If you are using other mount, please check if it is the same pin sequence with the
HEQ5/EQ6/Celestron/iOpton.

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12 FAQ
1. Does QHY163C support 10bit or 12bit?
QHY163C supports both 10bit and 12bit output(For 10bit, it is 0-255, and it only uses the high 8bit, for
12bit it is 0-4095 map to 0-65535).
2. How to get maximum FPS?
Since QHY163C has very high data bandwidth. Not all computer can get the maximum FPS. Normally
I7-4core should have no problemfor that. The CPU loading will also affect the maximum FPS. So please
reduce the CPU load by close other applications when using camera. If the CPU load is too high, the
software may become very slow or hang.
3. How to avoid the camera hanging?
If you camera always hangs. It may be caused by many reasons. You can check the following things.
3.1 If your computer is via chipset, or some type of the mainboard. In SharpCap it cannot get image at
all. (But in ASCOM it works well). In this condition, you need enable the DDR buffer of the camera.
Current SharpCap does not support the enable DDR function. The next version SharpCap will support
it.
3.2 If there is power leak for your mounts and computers? The power leak may cause the leak current
transfer from computer to the camera via the GND. This may affect the USB transfer and cause the
data packet lost and cause it hang. You need to make sure the computer and the mount is well
grounded.
3.3 If the USB port's voltage not enough? Some computer's USB port +5V is not enough. It may cause
the camera always hangs. In this condition you can use a powered USB3.0 HUB to connect camera
and get the good +5V power for camera.
3.4 If your CPU load is too high? If CPU load is too high, it will cause many frame lost and cause the
camera hangs. You can increase the USB traffic value to reduce the FPS and get more stable video
transfer.
3.5 If the USB cable connection is good enough? Sometimes the contact issue in the USB cable to
camera or USB cable to computer will cause the signal loss and cause camera to hang. Especially
when you move the cables. In this condition. You can try to add a littlesilicon oil into the USBsocket/plug
.This can increase the contact a lot better.
3.6 Avoid the statics. Sometimes the static electricity on human body will cause the camera to hang.
You can touch the computer metal case for first before touch the camera to let the static electricity on
your body release.
3.7 Some computer's front USB port is not so good for high speed transfer (The reason is it connected
to mainboard by a cable and which has no good signal integrity). If you found the camera always hang
on front USB port. You can try the USB port on backside of the computer (which is connected to chipset
directly on the mainboard).
4. What’s the interface to telescope? How to use C/CS lens onQHY163C?
QHY163C supports C lens but currently doesn't support CS lens. You need order the optional C adapter
for QHY163C. With this adapter the back focal is 17.0mm and you can use the C-mount lens with it.
Since this sensor is one inch, you need to choose the lens which can cover the one inch image circle.

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5. How is the anti-amplifier function in QHY163C?
If you found there is dust on the CMOS sensor. You can screw off the front part of the QHY163C. The
QHY163C's CMOS sensor has the AR coating so you need to be careful to clean it. You can use the clean
kit for DSLR sensor to do it.
The optic window is the IR cut coating or AR coating. So you need to be careful when cleaning it. You can
also use the DSLR clean tools or the lens paper. Don't use strong force to clean it. The coating is not so
hard and it is easy to get scratch when you use strong force on it.
6. How is the anti-amplifier function in QHY163C?
QHY163C camera has the anti-amp light control circuit and it can reduce the amplifier glow significantly.
Note that it's impossible to reduce the glow in the corner thoroughly, and it's normal to see a very small
amount of glow in the corner when you do long exposure.
This is a demo picture for the QHY163C glow in 60sec exposure and high gain. Dark frame calibration can
remove it completely.
7. What's on-camera DDR buffer and what is benefit for?
The QHY163C has the on-camera 128MB DDRII image buffer. It brings two advantages: It can buffer whole
image and avoid it lost during USB transfer. Because CMOS sensor outputs the image continuous after
exposure end and it does not allow the pause. But the computer may have some pause due to the multi-task
feature of the windows. If the pause is too long, the small buffer in the USB transfer chip will full and the
coming image data will lost. And it will cause one frame is lost some data and this frame will be a bad frame.
For short exposure it maybe not cause big problem because the next frame will comes soon. But for long
exposure it means you lost a long exposure frame. The 128MB DDRII buffer can solve this problem bystoring
the whole frame into it and transfer. Even the computer has big pause it will not lost data.
Another advantage is that it will make the video more smooth when in some slow computer or some
mainboard which is not friendly to USB3.0(like the VIA chipset) . In these computers they cannot handle the
high speed USB data well and the data is always lost. With this DDR it can buffer the input image data and
then send to computer. Even the high frequency pause happens, it can keep the USB data lossless.