ZWO 120MC-S. Obsolete for allsky imaging?

[BoskoSLO]

So I built this project like 9 months ago or so when the 8.0 version was released and tried every single one since then and I never got the ZWO 120MC-S to work decently at night. The image brightness (50-160) doesn't do anything, auto stretch doesn't work and if I do dark substraction then like 70% of all pixels are clipped to 0 on a new moon night and can barely see any stars. I recorded darks with a cap on in a dark room at night.
And if I capture without darks All I can see are hot pixels at 20sec exposure 50 gain and 20C sensor temp and even then there are clipped pixels to 0.

I wonder if the player-one cameras are going to be supported in the near future.

I've seen some words that this camera is slightly outdated to be a allsky camera so this might explain it. So any work-arounds for this camera to make it somewhat work?

[Dentonknifeworks]

I would just replace that 120 with an HQ pi cam. The HQ is a lot better and for $50 you can't go wrong.
That was what I did with mine. I also have an ASI224MC that works good a lot fewer issues but my HQ cams are a lot less trouble. I have 3 of them running at times two are for when I go camping one is set up at the home.
Brad

[BoskoSLO]

Actually not a bad idea. Since I need a new guide camera for one of my imaging rig anyway (old one is 1 step from being dead).

[EricClaeys]

@BoskoSLO Many people with the 120 have it working, although there are some people who gave up on it (like @Dentonknifeworks) and got a newer camera. The 120's tend to have a lot of dark pixels.
I agree with @Dentonknifeworks that a RPi HQ camera is the way to go, due to the cost. The quality is very good for the price. In the US you can get one for $70 at Amazon, and they are in stock: see here.

@BoskoSLO, @Dentonknifeworks,
I'm looking for a 120 I can use for testing, ideally one that has problems with Allsky. If either of you want to donate or see yours real cheap, I'd appreciate it.

[Wieslaw1952]

My ASI120MC-S is working without any problem (except for zillions of hot pixels). All you need to do is correctly set up your camera ie. enter latitude and longitude, correct paths to picture folders store it and restart system - from web page. Then wait around 20-30sek.

[BoskoSLO]

I'm pretty sure latitude and longitude as well as picture folder path can't effect how the camera operates in regards of image quality. 2 days ago I received the RPi HQ camera and I can already tell it's 5 times better than 120MC-S. Higher dynamic range, way less hot pixels.

But there are issues with this camera like auto stretch that doesn't work for this camera too and for some odd reason even if I have turned on auto exposure during day time it get's limited by manual exposure so when the sun is setting the image goes pitch black. To fix that I need to match max auto exposure and manual exposure.

[Wieslaw1952]

If you set your time zone during installation and longitude is not matching it you may have a problem - program is trying to calculate if it is day or night and..... It was my case anyway.

EDIT: Upss... I did not read your first post till the end :-) Was thinking you cannot connect at all. Sure - quality has nothing to do wit settings.

[EricClaeys]

@BoskoSLO The problem with RPi cameras limiting exposure the Manual Exposure versus Max Auto Exposure will be fixed in the next release. It's a know problem.
To be honest, I've never used the "STRETCH" option in config.sh so can't comment on that. Maybe after the next release is out and I have some time I'll try it and add something to the Wiki about how to use it.
Unless of course a nice user wants to do that and pass me their notes...

[creno1111]

I own a 120mc-s and have had nothing but problems with it. Until.... I downloaded and setup the v2024.xx.xx branch of the code. For the first time the camera has been 100% reliable. I hope support for this camera will continue now that I see it running good. Also cannot wait for the official release of v2024.xx.xx.

[EricClaeys]

@creno1111, switching to Snapshot mode to take pictures instead of Video mode got rid of 99.99% of the ASI_ERROR_TIMEOUTs. I can also use my 120 camera now - before it was totally useless.

FYI, v2024.xx.xx isn't ready for testing yet. If it's working for you now I suggest not updating it until it's official, hopefully in a month or two. It doesn't support setting up a remote Websites yet - the installation routine is just a placeholder.