I got it working like this
1. Run ethernet out to the RP3
2. Save images to the RP3, FTP them over
3. Avoid autofocus. Just capture, make a focus adjustment, then capture again.
The issue seems to be how the commands are being sent to the cam over Wifi, when it is hard wired to the router it works. Packets are being lost or something. It seems like its related to when an exposure finishes.

It may work normally without doing the FTP and manual focus over ethernet, I haven't it yet.

Edit:

Still having issues.

We're almost there with the latest update. I found that fxload is present again and it works with USB3. However, the 85-qhy.rules file has /usr/bin/fxload listed as the path for a number of cameras farther down on the list (older cameras at the top of the list correctly had /sbin/fxload). Once I did a search/replace to make them all /sbin/fxload, plug-and-play with the 163M was restored.

Good catch. Fixed.

This is extremely frustrating. Few months later and still getting random disconnects with the QHY163M in INDI. I may just sell the camera. Is there a comparable camera other than the ASI1600 that actually works with INDI?


Thanks

How does it disconnect exactly? No response? Is it a crash? or what? Do you have to do some action to get the disconnect?

Same as detailed in the posts above. It just stops responding to Ekos. Other equipment works fine still. In the driver, the camera won't let me disconnect, connect, ect, all the little lights turn yellow.

If I restart just Ekos, it says the QHY Camera not found. The only way to get it to reconnect is to restart the RP3. It seems to happen after the camera completes an exposure, the exposure never registers in ekos as complete, then it freezes up and wont to anything else until the RP3 is restarted. I have no indication as to what is causing the issue expect that the USB traffic setting seems to affect it. If I set the USB traffic to 29, it will crash sooner. If I set it to 40, it will crash sooner. I can get it to go for a while on setting 32 but it still eventually crashes.

The RP3 is hardwired to the router, and I'm saving the images local to the PR3.

I had an ATIK 414EXM working on this same system without issue.

Does the disconnect problem happen on a laptop/PC with USB3 ports?
I think what you are experiencing is related to the high bandwidth of the camera. I too would have the 163M drop out on my Pi3, no matter what the USB speed setting. I don't see that problem when commented to my Linux PC through. Also, my (new) Rock64 which has USB 3 does not seem to drop the 163M (only have been testing for 2 days).

Yes, it would happen when I connect to the PR3 with USB3 as well so I switched to USB2 because it was more stable.

The Rock64 runs INDI okay? I may give that a shot then.

It seems like the last update has made this issue worse. Last night I had 2 disconnects. I updated INDI before starting tonight and I'm up over 10 now.

The issue does seem to be when the image is captured. It finishes the exposure but the image never writes when a crash happens.

I just took 30x10s images from QHY 168C on StellarMate (RPI3) from my PC and it went without a hitch. Only problem I saw is that if you disconnect, you cannot reconnect. I will try to investigate this issue in the QHY SDK.

I just took 30x10s images from QHY 168C on StellarMate (RPI3) from my PC and it went without a hitch. Only problem I saw is that if you disconnect, you cannot reconnect. I will try to investigate this issue in the QHY SDK.

When my 163M drops from the RPi3, you have to unplug and replug the usb cable and relaunch Indi in order for Indi to see it again. I was having this problem fairly regularly with the Focus module, possibly because my manual focusing takes a while.

I wonder if a watchdog could be put in place? Something that could watch for a lost connection and then reinitialize?

Still, the 168 is a larger sensor, so it would be throwing more data over the bus. @knro, are you connected wirelessly to the RPi?

Regarding the Rock64, there is a thread here about that. So far, I have not encountered a disconnect. However, the available Linux distributions are not up to RPi standards. I’m working through a routing issue with having WiFi and eth0 at the same time. Also, full images transfer slower across the usb3 than RPi’s usb2, 10s vs 7s, but I’ll take that over instability. Another variable, since the Rock64 only has 3usb, I am using a powered hub. I hadn’t tried a powered hub on my RPi.