Hi Bruce.
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I see that you asked the same question on the Diffraction Limited support forum on 5th August and it was mentioned that QSI had just released a new 64bit driver package, including an updated ASCOM driver, you didn¡¯t return to your topic to let us know whether you download, installed and tested that driver package and using the latest QSI ASCOM driver included in that driver package instead of the old QSI - MaxIm native plug-in, and also whether toggling the options on/off in MaxIm DL > Camera Control > Setup > Camera 1 > Options > Advanced > ¡°Camera threading on (recommended)¡± and ¡°Filter wheel threading on (recommended)¡± made any difference.
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With those two advanced threading options deselected in MaxIm if the camera driver or the camera itself becomes locked-frozen then MaxIm will also become locked-frozen and will not respond to mouse clicks but also with MaxIm and the camera driver operating in a single computer CPU process thread then all steps in the process have to operate sequentiality and a ¡°race¡± condition cannot occur where the camera operations get out of sync with MaxIm¡¯s operations.
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Your last entry on that Diffraction Limited forum topic was that those options were already off and that perhaps you should try turning them on to see if that made a difference but you didn¡¯t return after that entry to say whether it had made a difference.
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You also had an earlier topic covering the same subject, July 20th, running in parallel on both the Diffraction Limited forum and ACP forum and we gave a description of the camera¡¯s coloured LED status lamps and asked what sequence of LED colour flashes the camera was displaying when it would not download the first image of the night as that might help to show what was happening at the camera¡¯s firmware level, but again you didn¡¯t return to either thread with a reply to say what those LED indicators were showing.
Regarding startup temperature being an issue, that is possible if the camera power supply is not sufficient to keep the camera input voltage above 11v when the TEC cooler is running at maximum power, as it will be at first startup with a warm camera, the camera¡¯s diagnostic colour LED flash sequence will show you if the voltage is too low, or any one of a number of different fault conditions.
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The only suggestions I can come up with are:
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1 Completely uninstall all the current QSI drivers on your system via Windows Programs and Features dialogue.
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2. Check that you are running the latest ASCOM platform, currently v6.6SP2, although v7 is due out imminently and I¡¯ve been testing ASCOM platform v7 RC-7 with ACP and MaxIm DL7 for a few weeks now, if you are not current then update the ASCOM platform.
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3. Install the latest 64bit QSI driver package to get the latest QSI ASCOM driver installed, you can download the QSI drivers by clicking ><.
4. Configure MaxIm to use the new QSI ASCOM driver and try with those Advanced threading options in MaxIm both off and on to see if there is any difference in behaviour.
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5. If the camera still fails to download the first image after connecting look at those coloured LED status lamps on the body of the camera, what sequence of colour flashes are they displaying?
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6. When running the ACP observatory startup script do you include a wait-for-camera-cool-down period in that script or just turn on cooling and start imaging?
Although it shouldn¡¯t matter with a QSI you could include in the startup script a staged cool-down that cools the camera in -10 deg steps over fifteen minutes or so, before releasing ACP to begin capturing images.
7. If using a Paramount mount and powering the camera through the Paramount¡¯s Versa Plate power pass-through socket and connecting to the camera¡¯s USB input via the Versa Plate USB hub try temporarily running a direct power cable and direct USB cable to the camera, bypassing the Paramount entirely.
When I had my Paramount I had problems with broken power and USB cables inside the mount on several occasions, these were not cables I had added myself but the mounts built-in cables that run up through the mount axes from the input panel at the base of the mount to the Versa Plate outlets.
I had to buy from Software Bisque and replace the internal Versa-Plate USB outlet cabling twice and the Versa-Plate power cabling once due to conductor wire-strand breakages and voltage drop under load.
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8. Try using a different capture program manually (not under ACP control) such as N.I.N.A.
If the same problem occurs using N.I.N.A. and the QSI ASCOM driver from a warm start-up then at least that would discount MaxIm and ACP start-up from the fault diagnosis and point to the camera, camera power supply, cabling etc, if the problem does not occur when using N.I.N.A. and the ASCOM driver then you can go back to Diffraction Limited and say that this appears to be a MaxIm problem and what are the next steps to diagnose the cause.
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HTH
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Will.
WILL B