Binned flats

[Fay]

If Flats are binned, do they have to brought up to 1x1 before stacking or does the program take care of it?

Thanks

[Mac]

Why are you binning flats?
its not as if they take long to take.

Mac.

[MarkS]

Why are you binning flats?

Sometimes they don't work out right - they're just rubbish and need to be thrown away.

[Fay]

Well Mac, 1x1 takes an age, 20 take around 20 mins. with QSI

[Whitters]

Your calibration images must be taken at the same bin level as your images. Flats, darks and bias.
If your camera is temperature controlled then you can take calibration files one night and reuse them on another. But you should refresh your calibration images regularly.

[Mac]

Well Mac, 1x1 takes an age,

I always though you took a flat against a white background,
and the flat would only be fractions of a second.

so that the sensors are just over half full.

so why are they taking so long.

Mac.

[Ian]

Fay, the camera was plugged into a usb 2 port on it's own wasn't it?

[Whitters]

I guess that would depend on the illumination source. Fay, how do you take your flats?

[Fay]

With the Atik or Canon, they are very fast, with the QSI they take 20 sec to download each sub. Same time as downloading a long exposure sub. It takes the image in the given time & then takes 20 secs to finish off.
I use a light panel

[Mike]

Fay, do you have the latest firmware?

http://www.qsimaging.com/firmware_updates_beta.html

They claim download times with it should be 1 or 2 seconds.

[Fay]

Yes, the camera came with 5.5  updated

[Fay]

From QSi Forum



Re: [QSI-ccd] Just purchased a 583WS

Fay,

You're running the latest software and firmware. 

It will take about 20 seconds to download a full-frame bin 1x1 image, or about 2 seconds for a small subframe for focusing.

Regards,
Kevin

On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:51 PM

[Mike]

Oh dear. 

[mickw]

Are you connecting the QSI to a USB2 port ?
How many USB leads go to the QSI ? Only the download cable needs USB, the control should only need 1.1

If you don't know if a port is USB2, download this - USBView, it's the 7th one down - make sure you download the Microsoft one
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Utilities.htm

*Correction*
The above will tell you what the device is, not the port/controller
The USB host controller (Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager) should be listed as Enhanced for USB2

[Fay]

Well I am ok with the main lights taking that long, but the flats are a nuisance. I am glad that I can frame a subject in 7 secs doing 4x4, and as long as I can get a star in the focus box, I am happy.