SOLVED: QHY9 driver for Linux

Last week I compiled KStars and INDI on Raspbian and all is working fine with the EqMod driver and GPhoto2 driver (on my Canon EOS 700D). Tonight I tried my QHY9 CCD camera and the driver crashed. Ekos adviced me to go to the Device Manager for more info but I couldn't find anything there.

So I swithced to a Raspberry Pi3 with Ubuntu 16.04 and KStars/INDI from Jasem's PPA and there the camera works fine. Can anyone enlighten me as to what my Rasbian RPi is missing?

Cheers, Wouter

At first I thought this was due to the Linux HEX file for QHY9 missing, but it is not present in KStars Bleeding (from the regular ppa, not nightly) either so that seems unlikely. I'll check tonight when I am at home and will try to get some debug logs to help me sort this out.

The problem seems to be that Raspbian doesn't recognise the QHY9 device when I plug it in. What I see with dmesg is

[144901.027633] usb 1-1.5: new high-speed USB device number 19 using dwc_otg
[144901.157912] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=1618, idProduct=8300
[144901.157927] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[144974.719675] usb 1-1.5: USB disconnect, device number 19

On Ubuntu MATE I see

[ 2991.231917] usb 1-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 22 using dwc_otg
[ 2991.332221] usb 1-1.3: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x1 has invalid maxpacket 64
[ 2991.332250] usb 1-1.3: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x81 has invalid maxpacket 64
[ 2991.332519] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=1618, idProduct=8301
[ 2991.332534] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 2991.332547] usb 1-1.3: Product: QHY-9S
[ 2991.332560] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: QHYCCD

So, how do I inform Rasbian that this is a QHY-9S CCD camera?

The udev rule and hex firmware are there:

$> grep -r QHY9 /lib/udev/
/lib/udev/rules.d/85-qhy.rules:ATTRS{idVendor}=="1618", ATTRS{idProduct}=="8300", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -t fx2 -I /lib/firmware/qhy/QHY9S.HEX -D $env{DEVNAME}"
/lib/udev/rules.d/85-qhy.rules:ATTRS{idVendor}=="1618", ATTRS{idProduct}=="8322", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -t fx2lp -I /lib/firmware/qhy/QHY90A.HEX -D $env{DEVNAME}"

$> ll /lib/firmware/qhy/QHY9*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25855 Jun 28 20:48 /lib/firmware/qhy/QHY90A.HEX
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17989 Jun 28 20:48 /lib/firmware/qhy/QHY9S.HEX

I had a closer look at the udev rules and noticed that the /sbin/fxload command is used and that was missing. Once I installed the fxload package the camera was recognised and I could take pictures with it.

wvreeven wrote: I had a closer look at the udev rules and noticed that the /sbin/fxload command is used and that was missing. Once I installed the fxload package the camera was recognised and I could take pictures with it.

Hi, I am seriously considering switching over to Linux to control my QHY9S and CFW2 and came across this conversation. Please may I know which software do you use to actually control the QHY9? I am a total noob and have no clue how to go about all this.

Hi,

I am using KStars (with Ekos and INDI) only. When using the nightly builds the camera and filter wheel work. See

indilib.org/download.html

for how to install this all on Ubuntu.


Clear skies, Wouter

Thank You so much Wouter.

Lol @wvreeven... you've convinced me I'll never be a linux developer!