ToupTek ATR2600C Color Camera User Manual

: August 15, 2024
: TOUPTEK

Table of Contents

ToupTek ATR2600C Color Camera
Description and Features
ATR2600C Specifications and Performance
Product Package and Connections
ATR2600C and Its Software
Service
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

ToupTek ATR2600C Color Camera

All materials related to this publication are subject to change without notice and its copyright totally belongs to ToupTek Photonics. Please download the latest version from touptek-astro.com.

Description and Features

The ATR2600C(ATR3CMOS26000KPA) camera is designed specifically for astrophotography. It is mainly used for deep sky photo shooting, since the camera has cooled CMOS sensor, ultra-low readout noise and zero amp-glow. It can be also used for planetary photo shooting. Its extraordinary performance and extensive usage will give you great astrophotography experience.

The features of ATR2600C are listed below:

IMX 571 Color CMOS Sensor
Resolution: 6224 x 4168
3.76μm Square Pixel
APS-C Optical Format
16-bit ADC
512 Mbyte Memory
Precise Temperature Regulation
G Sensitivity: 484.6mv with 1/30s
Zero Amp-Glow
Ultra-Low Noise: 0.79 to 2.77e- (Low Noise Mode)
Support Low Noise Mode/ High Frame Rate Mode (6.8 FPS at all Pixel Readout 16 bit)
SNR Max: 47.1 dB (Low Noise Mode)
Dynamic Range: 86.8 dB (Low Noise Mode)
-35ºC below ambient under short exposure/ -42ºC under long exposure time (> 1s)

ATR2600C Specifications and Performance

Camera Specifications

Sensor	Sony IMX571 back-illuminated sensor
Diagonal	28.3 mm
Image Resolution	26 mega pixels (6224*4168)
Pixel Size	3.76mm ´ 3.76mm
Image Area	23.4mm ´ 15.7mm

Max FPS at Resolution (USB 3.0)

| 16bit| 8bit
6.8 FPS @ 6224*4168

28 FPS @ 3104*2084

63 FPS @ 2064*1386

| 13.2 FPS @ 6224*4168

37.1 FPS @ 3104*2084

110 FPS @ 2064*1386

Max FPS at Resolution (USB 2.0)

| 16bit| 8bit
0.6 FPS @ 6224*4168

3.6 FPS @ 3104*2084

8.5 FPS @ 2064*1386

| 1.2 FPS @ 6224*4168

7.0 FPS @ 3104*2084

15.7 FPS @ 2064*1386

Max FPS at Resolution (Low Noise, USB 3.0)| 16bit| 8bit
3.4 FPS @ 62244168 ( Low Noise Mode is only available in All Pixel Readout Mode )| 12.7 FPS @ 62244168 ( Low Noise Mode is only available in All Pixel Readout Mode )
Max FPS at Resolution (Low Noise, USB 2.0)| 16bit| 8bit
0.3 FPS @ 6224*4168 ( Low Noise Mode is only

available in All Pixel Readout Mode )

| 1.2 FPS @ 6224*4168 ( Low Noise Mode is only

available in All Pixel Readout Mode )

DirectShow, Twain, etc.);

Supported OS

| Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11 (32 & 64 bit) OS x (Mac OS X)

Linux

Sony IMX571 Sensitivity
The sensor G Sensitivity of ATR2600C is 484.6mv with 1/30s. Its spectral sensitivity is shown in Figure 2.

16bit ADC and ROI
ATR2600C has built in 16bit ADC. It also has 12bit output mode for hardware binning and smaller resolution. The camera also supports hardware ROI, and the smaller the ROI size is, the higher the frame rate is. Table 2 shows the frame rate of ATR2600C in 16/8bit mode, USB3.0 / USB2.0 data transfer interface at different resolutions: Table 2 ATR2600C Frame Rate at Different Resolution/Data Bit/Data Transfer (USB3.0/ USB2.0)

Bit & Interface

FPS

Resolution

| 16bit ADC| 8bit ADC
---|---|---
USB3.0| USB2.0| USB 3.0| USB 2.0
6224 4168| 6.8| 0.6| 14.2| 1.2
6224 4168 (Low Noise)| 3.4| 0.3| NA| NA
31042084| 28| 3.6| 37.1| 7.0
20641386| 63| 8.5| 110| 15.7

DDR3 Buffer
The ATR2600C camera has a 512MB (4Gb) DDR3 buffer, which helps maintain the stability of data transmission, and effectively reduces the amp-glow caused because image data can be temporarily buffered without being sent hastily to the receiver.

Binning
ATR2600C supports digital binning from 1×1 to 8×8 in either the stacking or averaging method and hardware binning from 1×1 to 3×3 in the averaging method. Hardware pixel binning is much faster than software binning.

Conversion Gain Switch
ATR2600C supports HCG and LCG mode switch, the Gain ratio is 3.01.

Power and Cooling System for Precise Temperature Regulation
Please remember, that the Camera can be powered only by a DC12V 3A power source. The cooling system of ATR2600C is two-stage Thermoelectric Cooling (TEC) with a controllable electric fan assisting heat dissipation. The TEC system is controlled by the PID algorithm, which allows the TEC to be precisely regulated towards the target temperature with 0.1ºC deviation. The working temperature can be regulated to a specific number, and the effective temperature drop can be -42ºC from the ambient temperature. Such an efficient cooling system guarantees the stability of ultra-low noise mode and the quality of the camera image.

Zero Amp-Glow
ATR2600C has been carefully designed and can achieve zero amp-glow photo shooting. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the different cameras at 20ºC and 5-minute exposure time with and without amp-glow. By comparison, the image captured by ATR2600C shows zero amp-glow.

Camera Performance Analysis
Camera performance can be evaluated with e-/ADU, Read Noise, Full Well, and Dynamic Range.

e-/ADU: The sensors found in cameras used for vision applications have pixels that convert incoming photons into electrons. Gain on a CCD /CMOS camera represents the conversion factor from electrons (e-) into digital counts, or Analog-Digital Units (ADUs). Gain is expressed as the number of electrons that get converted into a digital number, or electrons per ADU (e-/ADU).
Read Noise: Read Noise is created within the camera electronics during the readout process as the electrons are subjected to the analog to digital conversion, amplification, and processing steps that enable an image to be produced.
Full Well: The electrons are held in each pixel and are converted into electrical charge which can be measured to show the amount of light that has fallen on each pixel. The maximum electrical charge possible is termed “full well capacity”. Under the same conditions such as noise and A/D converter quality, the greater the full well capacity a sensor has, the wider dynamic range the sensor has. As there is a limit to the depth to which pixels can be made, the full well capacity is often proportional to the frontal area of the light-gathering element of the pixel.
Dynamic Range: Dynamic range is the ratio between the maximum output signal level and the noise floor at minimum signal amplification (noise floor which is the RMS (root mean square) noise level in a black image). The noise floor of the camera contains sensor readout noise, camera processing noise, and the dark current shot noise. The dynamic range represents the camera’s ability to display/reproduce the brightest and darkest portions of the image and how many variations in between. This is technically an intra-scene dynamic range. Within one image there may be a portion that is in complete black and completely saturated.

For the ATR series camera, the Gain Value is in xxx% mode. Here xxx is used as the x axis (Gain Value) for the description of the camera performance

??? ????(??) = 20 ∗ ???10[???(???? ?????)/100]
???(???? ?????) = 100 × 10(??? ????(??)/20

Read noise is the most important reference to measure the performance of a camera. Lower read noise usually means better SNR and better quality of image. It is impressive that ATR2600C comes with Low Noise Mode, which means users could get even lower readout noise by selecting Low Noise Mode while the frame rate is reduced as sacrifice. Its significantly low read noise is: 0.79-2.77 e-(Low Noise Mode).

All following data were acquired in SharpCap with ASCOM driver:
(The ASCOM Driver version for camera TEST in Low noise mode & High full well mode was relatively new) Camera setting used for HCG performance analysis is shown below:

Full resolution
RAW 16-bit mode
Temperature: -10ºC

Figure 5 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Table 3

The camera analysis data is shown in Table 3:

Table 3 Camera Analysis Data

SensorAnalysis Data

Gain Value| 100| 158| 251| 398| 630| 1000| 1584| 2511| 3981| 6309| 10000
Rel Gain (dB)| 0.00| 3.99| 8.03| 11.90| 15.89| 19.90| 23.87| 27.81| 31.83| 35.84| 39.83
e- /ADU| 0.25| 0.16| 0.10| 0.06| 0.04| 0.03| 0.02| 0.01| 0.006| 0.004| 0.002
Read Noise (e-)| 0.94| 0.86| 0.84| 0.86| 0.86| 0.87| 0.87| 0.82| 0.80| 0.76| 0.70
Full Well (ke-)| 16.5| 10.4| 6.6| 4.2| 2.7| 1.7| 1.1| 0.7| 0.4| 0.3| 0.2
Dynamic Range (stop)| 14.1| 13.6| 12.9| 12.3| 11.6| 10.9| 10.3| 9.7| 9.1| 8.5| 7.9

Camera setting used for HCG performance analysis is shown below（Low noise mode & High full well mode）:

Full resolution
RAW 16-bit mode
Temperature: -10ºC

Figure 5.1 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Table 3.1

The camera analysis data is shown in Table 3.1:

Table 4.1 Camera Analysis Data

SensorAnalysis Data

Gain Value| 100| 177| 316| 562| 1000| 1778| 3162| 5623| 10000
Rel Gain (dB)| 0.00| 5.0| 10.03| 15.02| 20.02| 25.03| 30.04| 35.10| 40.14
e- /ADU| 0.53| 0.30| 0.17| 0.09| 0.05| 0.03| 0.02| 0.01| 0.01
Read Noise (e-)| 1.18| 0.99| 0.98| 0.97| 1.00| 0.94| 0.93| 0.94| 0.79
Full Well (ke-)| 34.8| 19.5| 11| 6.2| 3.5| 1.9| 1.1| 0.6| 0.3
Dynamic Range (stop)| 14.85| 14.27| 13.45| 12.63| 11.76| 11.01| 10.20| 9.34| 8.76

Camera setting used for LCG performance analysis is shown below:

Full resolution
RAW 16-bit mode
Temperature: -10ºC

Figure 7 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Error! Reference source not found.

The camera analysis data is shown in Error! Reference source not found.:

Table 5 Camera Analysis Data

SensorAnalysis Data

Gain Value| 100| 158| 251| 398| 630| 1000| 1584| 2511| 3981| 6309| 10000
Rel Gain (dB)| 0.00| 3.96| 8.00| 12.03| 16.02| 20.04| 24.02| 27.98| 32.03| 36.02| 39.96
e- /ADU| 0.77| 0.49| 0.31| 0.19| 0.12| 0.08| 0.05| 0.03| 0.02| 0.01| 0.008
Read Noise Low Noise (e-)| 2.35| 2.04| 1.99| 2.05| 2.08| 2.06| 1.99| 1.93| 1.8| 1.64| 1.16
Read Noise (e-)| 2.6| 2.27| 2.2| 2.21| 2.31| 2.22| 2.16| 2.12| 1.97| 1.79| 1.14
Full Well (ke-)| 51.3| 32.5| 20.5| 12.9| 8.1| 5.1| 3.2| 2.1| 1.3| 0.8| 0.5
Dynamic Range (stop)| 14.4| 13.9| 13.3| 12.6| 11.9| 11.3| 10.6| 10.0| 9.5| 8.9| 8.8

Camera setting used for LCG performance analysis is shown below（Low noise mode & High full well mode）:

Full resolution
RAW 16-bit mode
Temperature: -10ºC

Figure 7.1 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Error! Reference source not found..1

The camera analysis data is shown in Error! Reference source not found..1:

Table 6.1 Camera Analysis Data

SensorAnalysis Data

Gain Value| 100| 177| 316| 562| 1000| 1778| 3162| 5623| 10000
Rel Gain (dB)| 0.00| 4.96| 10.00| 15.03| 19.92| 25.09| 30.12| 35.18| 40.19
e- /ADU| 1.56| 0.88| 0.49| 0.28| 0.16| 0.09| 0.05| 0.03| 0.02
Read Noise Low Noise (e-)| 2.77| 2.19| 2.19| 2.17| 2.24| 2.00| 1.99| 2.01| 1.46
Full Well (ke-)| 102.5| 57.9| 32.4| 18.2| 10.3| 5.7| 3.2| 1.8| 1
Dynamic Range (stop)| 15.17| 14.69| 13.85| 13.03| 12.17| 11.48| 10.65| 9.79| 9.42

Product Package and Connections

Packing List

Table 7 ATR2600C Packing List

Standard Package

A| Carton L:50cm W:30cm H:30cm (20pcs, 12~17Kg/ carton, 0.045m3), not shown in the photo
B| 3-A safety equipment case: L:28cm W:23cm H:15cm (1pcs, 3.9Kg/ box); carton size: L:28.2cm W:16.7cm H:25.5cm ( TBD ), not shown in the photo
C| ATR series camera (M42x0.75 Mount+2” adapter)
D| Power adapter: input: AC 100~240V 50Hz/60Hz, output: DC 12V 3.3A
E| Power cable
F| High-Speed USB3.0 A male to B male gold-plated connectors cable /1.5m
G| M48-M42 extender 0mm
H| M42M-M42F extender 21mm ( TBD )
I| M48F – M42M extender 16.5mm ( TBD )
J| M42M adapter 12.5mm
K| Cover

Camera Dimension and Its Mount

Table 8 Dimension and Mount of ATR2600C

Item	Specification
Diameter	Æ80mm
Height	107.1mm
Mount	M42Fx0.75mm

Camera Outline and Interface

Table 9 Camera Outline and Interface List

Item	Specification
1	Protective window, AR window for mono camera, IR-cut filter for color

Camera Mechanical Connection with Adapter
ATR2600C can be connected to a telescope with proper adapter, or the camera lens. The most common adapters are already included in the package, but we also provide some specific adaptors based on the requirement. The female flange to the sensor is 17.5mm. ATR2600C comes with M42x0.75 mount and can connect to telescope with the M42x0.75 thread in a direct way. ATR2600C can also connect to the telescope who use 1.25” or 2” eyepieces by M42M-1.25” or M42M-2” adapter. Figure 12 shows the connection of the camera and the adapter. After the adapter is screwed to the camera, the camera can insert into the telescope’s eyepiece tube. Table 10 list the details of the camera and adapter parameters.

Table 10 Camera and Its Adapter Connections

Item	Specification
Back Focal Distance	17.50mm
M42M-1.25” Adapter	M48M-1.25” adapter for 1.25” telescope
M42M-2” Adapter	M42M-2” adapter for 2” telescope

Camera Mechanical Connection with Lens
Figure 13 shows the connections of the ATR camera and the lens.Table 11 list the connection’s parameters.

Table 11 Camera and Lens Connection

Item	Specification
1	Nikon F-M42 adapter ( TBD )
2	EOS EF-M42 adapter
3	Nikon F-mount lens
4	Canon EF-mount lens
5	ATR camera with M42Fx0.75 mount

Camera Electric Connection with Accessories

On the back side of ATR2600C, there are 3 connection ports: DC 12V/3A power port, USB3.0/ USB2.0 port, and USB-HUB. Due to the significantly larger power consumption of IMX571, ATR2600C (including the cooling system) is now booted up only by 12V/3A power supply. USB3.0 no longer works as a power source but only as a data communication method. The USB-HUB provides a connection with other devices, which allows user to avoid the mess of cable management. Once another device is connected through the USB-HUB, it will be connected to PC device through the USB3.0/USB2.0 port.

Table 12 Camera Electric Connection Details

Item	Specification
USB3.0/USb2.0 Port	To computer with USB3.0/USB2.0 cable

USB HUB for Accessories

| To filter wheel with USB2.0 cable
To guiding the camera with USB 2.0 cable
Power Port| DC12V/3A

ATR2600C and Its Software

Application Installation
For software, customers are welcome to go to our software website: <https ://touptek-astro.com/downloads/>, to download the latest ToupSky. The ATR can also be used with ASCOM and DirectShow SDK. If the third-party software is compatible with these SDKs, customers can also download the software driver from our website and install the drivers into the third-party software.ToupSky is ToupTek astronomy camera’s Windows application. ToupSky is a professional software integrated with camera control, image capture & process, image browsing, and analysis functions. ToupSky is born with the following features:

Windows

x86: XP SP3 or above; CPU supports SSE2 instruction set or above
x64: Win7 or above

Features

Full control of the camera
Trigger mode and video mode support (raw format or RGB format)
Automatic capture and quick record function
Multi-language support
Hardware ROI and digital binning function
Extensive image processing functions, like image stitching, live stacking, flat field correction, dark field correction, etc.

Supported Camera:

All ToupTek astronomy cameras

User-friendly UI Design

Well-arranged menus and toolbars ensure quick operation;
The unique design of 3 sidebars — Camera, Folders, Undo/Redo are orderly classified；
Convenient operating method (Double click or right-click context menu) as much as possible;
Detailed help manual;

Professional Camera Control Panel

Capture & Resolution| Set the live and snap resolution and snap the image or record video;
---|---
Exposure & Gain| Auto exposure (exposure target preset) and manual exposure (exposure time can be inputted manually); Up to 5 times gain;
Color Balance| Advanced single-click intelligent white balance settings, temperature, and tint can be manually adjusted;
Color Adjustment| Hue, saturation, brightness, contrast, gamma initialization adjustment;
---|---
Frame Rate| Adjustment of frame rate available for different computer configurations;
Flip| Check the “horizontal” or “vertical” option to correct the sample direction;
Sampling| Bin mode can obtain low noise video stream; Skip mode obtains sharper and smoother video stream. Support video stream histogram extension, Negative and positive switching, Gray calibration, Clarity factor for focusing, etc.
Bit Depth| Switch between 8 bits and 16 bits. 8 bits is the basic Windows image format. 16 bits will have higher image quality but moderate FPS.

ROI

| ROI, Region of interest. This function can set the ROI on the video window. When the ROI group is expanded, a dotted

rectangle with “Handles” will appear around the video window that will let you alter the ROI. Use the mouse button to adjust the ROI size. If ROI is ok, clicking Apply will set the video to ROI size, and Defaults will return to the original size.

Dark Field Correction

| To Enable the Dark Field Correction, one should capture the dark field image first. After the images are captured, the

The enable button will be clickable. Checking the Enable button will enable the Dark Field correction. Unchecking it will disable the Dark Field Correction.

Cooling| Set the TE-Cooling target temperature and set the fan On/Off;
Parameters| Load, save, overwrite, import, and export self-defined parameters of the camera control panel (including calibration information, exposure, and color setting information);

Practical Functions with Good Results

Video functions| Various professional functions: Video broadcast; Time lapse capture; Video recording; Video stream grid; Image stitch; Video scale bar, date, etc.
---|---
Image Processing and Enhancement| Control and adjust the image by denoise, sharpen, color toning deinterlace, all kinds of filtering algorithms and mathematical morphology algorithms, range, binary, pseudo color, surface plot, and line profile Ital.
Image Stacking| Image stacking adopts advanced image-matching technology. With the recorded video, regardless of shifting, rotation, or scaling, the high- fidelity image can be stacked to decrease the image noise.

Powerful Compatibility

Video Interface	Support Twain, DirectShow, SDK Package（Native C++、C#/VB.NET）
Operating System	Compatible with Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10

/ 11 (32 & 64 bit), Mac OSX, Linux
Language Support| Unlimited language support, currently available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Russian, German, French, Polish and Turkish

Hardware Requirement

PC Requirements

| CPU: Intel Core 2 2.8GHz or higher
---|---
Memory:2GB or more
USB port: USB3.0/USB2.0 port
Display: 17” or larger
CD-ROM

ATR2600C and Dshow
DshowAstro is an interface driver providing Dshow standard support for the ToupTek USB astronomy camera Supported OS: Windows:

x86: XP SP3 or above; CPU supports SSE2 instruction set or above
x64: Win7 or above

Supported Camera:

All ToupTek astronomy cameras

ATR2600C and the 3rd Party Software

Support Software

No.	Software	Version	WDM	ASCOM	Native
1	PHD Guiding	2.3.0(2014)	√	√	√
2	Nebulosity	3.2.2(2014)	√	×	／
3	MaxIm DL	5.23(2013)	√	×	／
4	SharpCap	2.1(2014)	√	×	／
5	MetaGuide	5.2.0(2014)	√	／	／
6	FireCapture	2.4.05(2014)	√	／	／
7	Astroart	5.0(2014)	√	×	／

N.I.N.A
Powerful open-source astronomy equipment management system for deep sky photo shooting, free.

INDI
A popular third-party driver software for astronomy devices, often used on Linux and MacOS.

ASCOM Platform
All AstroCam telescope camera drivers request to install the ASCOM platform, for free. http://www.ascom-standards.org/index.htm You can download the ASCOM package from: http://ascomstandards.org/Downloads/Index.htm

PHD Guiding
A popular free guide software: http://openphdguiding.org/ ToupTek’s telescope camera supports Native/ASCOM/WDM driver to run the video.

Nebulosity
A popular cooled camera control/image process software directly supported via ASCOM.

MetaGuide
Autoguiding software with a novel method to avoid ttmospheric agitation. The latest version supports GCMOS01200KPB and the guide port: http://www.astrogeeks.com/Bliss/MetaGuide/

MAXIMDL
Famous full-functional CCD Control/Image Process software is. Popularly used in the US.

AstroArt
Famous full-functional CCD Control/Image Process software. Popularly used in Europe.

FireCapture
Great free planetary capture software. Support part of AstroCam series telescope camera.

SharpCap
A nice free planetary capture software supports WDM cameras including the AstroCam series telescope camera.

Registax
A popular free planetary stacking and processing software.

AstroStack
A planetary stacking and process software.

DeepSky Stacker
A free deep sky image stack and process software.

Service

For software upgrades, please refer to “Download” on our official website website: https://touptekastro.com// For customers who purchase the cameras from a local dealer, please contact your dealer for more inquiries. Fort technical support, please contact the email address: astro@touptek.com.