Welcome to QHY imaging under Linux.
These pages are subject to changes so please do check back regularly. 

This software GUI (Graphic User Interface) was started by Dan Holler and expanded by Clive Rogers for use of the drivers written for the QHY cameras by Tom Van den Neede of  http://www.astrosoft.be.  

The software you see on these pages will be released once the testing under the night skies has been done and the software works as planned.

By using this software you agree that you accept any and all  responsibility and you use it at your own risk.  The Linux distributions this GUI has been tested on are Ubuntu/Kubuntu 7.04,  8.04 and SuSE 11.0

The QHY camera drivers can be downloaded from http://www.astrosoft.be
At present only the QHY2,  QHY6 and QHY8 cameras are supported under linux but this may change.

Software needed to run these cameras.
fxload  Upload driver to the camera.
GraphicsMagick  Used to convert from fits format to png so that this software can display the image on screen (RealBasic does not understand the fits image)

You will also need either the 43-qhy6.rules or the 43-qhy8.rules.  These files should be in this zip file.  Once you have these files these should be checked for the right numbering for you camera.   For the QHY6 this should look something like this:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="1618", ATTR{idProduct}=="0259", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -t fx2 -D $ENV{DEVNAME} -I /etc/qhyccd/QHY6.HEX"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="16c0", ATTR{idProduct}=="081d", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",OWNER="root",
GROUP="video", MODE="0660", SYMLINK+="qhy6"

If you need to alter this file you will have to do so with root permissions.    I used sudo kwrite 43-qhy6.rules then enter your sudo password when prompted.
Take note of where the QHY6.HEX or QHY8.HEX files are stored.  On my systems this is /etc/qhyccd/QHY6.HEX just in case you have stored this file some place other than in the standard place for it.  In the deb file and rpm files this is already done for you.  The Deb file was converted to rpm file using the package Alien.

The numbers to note are the 1618 and 0259 on the first line and the 16c0 and 081d on the second line.  These are for the QHY6 that I have,  yours maybe different.  To find out which camera you have use the command line lsusb with your camera plugged in.   This should tell you the numbers from the first line. Now issue the command /usr/local/bin/qhy6reset.  This should take about 3 seconds for the hex file to upload to the camera.  Then once again use the lsusb command.  Now this time this should give you the 2 numbers for the second line.  Once you have the numbers for your particular camera then you can copy this into the /etc/udev/rules.d/  by using this command.   One last thing make sure the MODE="0660" so that any user can have access to the camera.

Sudo cp /home/where/you/have/43-qhy6.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

Now you have to reboot the computer to activate the new udev rules.  On some systems this reset is not needed but I have found on both my laptop running Kubuntu 8.04 and my desktop running SuSE 11.0 that I did indeed need to reset the computers.

Now when I plug in the cameras they are seen and programmed ready for use.  One more thing I did was to locate the two files in  /usr/local/bin/qhy6reset and qhy6image and comment out the checking for the root password by putting the # sign in front of the first 6 lines.

NB:  Sometimes I have to tap the Pause Button on the program and unplug the camera.  Count 5 then plug the camera back in.  Count 8 seconds and then tap the Pause Button again.  This is because sometimes the camera is some what stuck or lost.  I have not been able to find the problem as yet.  I also had this with Tom's scripts for capture.  Here though its just a matter of using the command /usr/local/bin/qhy6reset to reset the camera.  I am working on a way to incorporate this into the program.

Navigating around the program while it is running.
You can navigate around the program settings while the program is running but it does take time for the program to react.  On my desktop that is a AMD X2 64 (dual core)  the program answers quickly most of the time but if taking long exposures then the program will wait until that exposure has completed before answering a navigation request.  On my laptop which is a 2.4 gig Celeron (single core) the program takes just a little longer.

Also you can navigate around the program using the  Tab Key and sometimes the Cursor Keys if the highlighted setting is not a drop down menu.  The drop down menu settings will also answer to the Cursor keys.  Start/Stop and the Pause buttons in the program can be started and stopped with the mouse or the Space Bar if the Push Button is highlighted which means a highlight box around it.

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