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I purchased the Q-Guider from Gama Electronics in February 2008. My intention was to use this as an upgrade from the long exposure modified ToUCam I had previously been using for autoguiding.
First let me clarify the situation of my equipmentat the time. I had two distinct setups: 1) my observatory which utilised an LX200 with self-guiding ST7. 2) my portable setup which utilised a Losmandy GM-8 with Gemini together with William Optics Megrez 80, Skywatcher 70x700 guidescope, Canon 350 DSLR and autoguider.
The purchase of the Q-Guider as purely for the portable setup. The guider was to to be used for autoguiding exposures taken with the Canon 350D through the Megrez 80 or piggy-back wide-field.
In short, the camera lived up to expectations well and is still in use to this day (May 2008).
Basics about the Camera
The Q-Guider is a CMOS camera built specifically with auto-guiding in mind. It is an entry level astronomy camera built for practicality not pretty pictures. The chip inside the Q-Guider has a resolution of 1280 x 1024 at a pixel size of 5.2u x 5.2u. You can find out more about the camera here.
Sensitivity
The QGuider proved to besignificantly more sensitive than the ToUCam I was using previously. It is true that at the focal lengths of F/6 - F/10 a short (say 2 second) exposure wil always return some stars, most of the time stars that are easily bright enough to autoguide on. This was a significant leap from the ToUCam for me, making it much easier to use straight off.
The relatively high sensitive of the Q-Guider are somewhat offset by the relatively high noise levels it has. I wouldn't even think about using this camera for exposures of more than 30 seconds - there would simply be too much noise. Even at 10 seconds the noise level is very high. The noise can wipe out some stars, or make them not suitable for autoguiding on. I find that there are strong bands of noise across the images from the Q-Guider at set intervals, and I choose to avoid stars in those bands.
Field of View
The fairly large resolution of the Q-Guider makes for a larger FOV. The small pixel size of 5.2u x 5.2u does go some way to counter-acting that larger resolution with regard to FOV, but the larger FOV is still quite apparent compared to the other chips I'm used to (ToUCam, QuickCam, ST7).
The larger FOV makes it much easier to find a suitable guide-star, calibrate your autoguider settings on a suitable guidestar, and recover a lost guide star.
Hardware Installation
The camera comes with very little as standard. This is not surprising considering you are purchasing a budget/entry level camera here. I was lucky enough to have a 1.25" nose peice threaded fora t-thread which went straight on to the camera.
I purchased a 1.25" Astronomik Clear filter from BINTEL to keep dust off the Q-Guider. I thought it worth the trivial cost of the filter to keep the dust where I could easily clean it.
The camera has two ports: USB and Mount. The USB is self explanatory. The mount one is able to connect directly to the CCD/Autoguider port of GoTo mounts. I won't go in to the compatibility of this, there is information elsewhere on the web regarding this. I will however say that I got the wiring of the autoguider cable wrong twice before finally getting it right, and did find the instructions out there somewhat confusing! So if you are not good with cable wiring I would highly recommend buying a cable with the camera when you purchase the camera. I didn't realise it possible until after purchasing the camera.
Having only USB and Mount cables, no power cable, is great. I'm used to the ToUCam which had USB and a big ugly LPT/Parallel cable, and the ST7 which has LPT/Parallel, CCD and large power cable. In contrast the Q-Guider is refreshingly simple and familiar. I do wonder if the USB cable of the Q-Guider could fall out as it's not got a clip but it hasn't yet.
Not relating to hardware installation, but to hardware, this seems like a good place to point out that the Q-Guider has a rather bright red LED on it. This is used to indicate status. This is useful, however it is very bright. I haven't got around to it yet, but intend to mask it, cut the light coming from it.
Software Installation & Compatibility
Software installation was a little hairy. If you are a computer novice there is a reasonable chance you may run into some hitches along the way. You need to pay particular attention to the instructions, follow them step by step, and trust that things will work out in the end. Sounds scary doesn't it! The supplier I purchased my camera from (mentioned above) was very helpful software installation. In short, you need to install some software that comes with the camera, update the software, download license keys for the software. To do that, you hop between several programs, installs, and websites.
For me the installaiton went relatively smoothly, especially compared to what I had heard elsewhere about troubles some people were having. I ended up using the camera in PHD Guider, CCDSoft and QVideo. In those applications the camera functions mostly without problem.
I primarily use CCDSoft for controlling the autoguiding of my Losmandy GM-8. This probably derives largely from the fact I use CCDSoft in my observatory with my LX200 and ST7 so am familiar with it's controls and usage. I tried PHD briefly but did not have success calibrating the QGuider. I am unsure if this problem related to the mount communication or the camera software/compatibility.
In CCDSoft I am able to run calibration routines and autoguiding using the Q-Guider without problem, most of the time. "What?!" you say, "what's this most of the time??". Well I do find that I need to close & re-open CCDSoft in some situations. Unsure exactly when, but it has to do with stopping & re-starting autoguiding several times, and dynamic range of the images. I suppose I am tollorant of the problems, as it's easy to re-start CCDSoft and once it's going, it works very well.
So what's it really like out in the field?
The Q-Guider is a neat little package. It takes up very little space in my boxes for packing up in the car and doesn't take long to plugin and put on the telescope. It's quite simple and straight forward.
Once you have worked out which piece of software you will use, and become familiar with it, using the Q-Guider is straight forward and has been quite stress-free for me. I'll setup the gear, plugin the Q-Guider, start up the appropriate software, and it's working without hassle.
The wide FOV makes the Q-Guider quite nice for portable setups - it's that much easier to find a guide star, and to find where you ware in the sky if pointing accuracy isn't spot on.
The Q-Guider doesn't seem to draw much power, I've found it comparable to the QuickCam I used a while back. I find that the whole setup (Losmandy, Laptop, Q-Guider, Canon 350D) draws around 3 amps. This varies depending on severa factors, but never more than 6 and not lower than 2 amps.
How does the Q-Guider compare to the ST7's autoguiding?
When comparing the Q-Guider to the SBIG ST7-ME there's no doubt the ST7 wins, as you would expect for a camera many times the price. What's different?
The ST7 has no software or hardware bugs. It always works, as it should. The Q-Guider does work but I had to learn a few tricks first, and I didn't get it running in PHD.
The ST7 is easier to deal with in terms of image dynamic range and noise. I find the noise of the q-Guider often rules out some guide stars which are sitting right on a particularly strong band of noise. Youdon't get that with the ST7, noise is not an issue.
Would I buy it again?
Yes. Given the same circumstances and the same options I would choose to buy the Q-Guider. It works quite well as an autoguider. It does what it's supposed to, CHEAP.
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