Images stacked in random order

Discussions of Electronically Assisted Astronomy using the Live Stacking feature.
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Avocette
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Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:11 pm

Images stacked in random order

#1

Post by Avocette »

Live stacking works fine from camera folder but I notice that the numerical order of images stacked on reruns (nonreal time) is apparently randomised. Is this a bug or a feature? - just curious - it’s working well!
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admin
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Re: Images stacked in random order

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

the designed behaviour here is that existing files that are already in the folder when you select it should be processed in order of their file creation time. This would normally mean that if you have a folder full of capture files then they will be processed in the order that they were created.

If you catch it doing something that doesn't seem to agree with this then please let me know :-)

Cheers, Robin
Avocette
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:11 pm

Re: Images stacked in random order

#3

Post by Avocette »

Hi Robin,
So I checked this out with 18 images captured last night. My capture rig processor is a 'headless' Raspberry Pi 4 running Astroberry Server (Astroberry.io) of whose collections of applications I am using KStars/Ekos/Indi. I control the capture using a Windows laptop via VNC Viewer. At various stages during the session, I transfer images across to the laptop using VNC File Transfer, and then use SharpCap on the laptop to view and live stack the images from the VNC transfer folder. Last nights images were captured by the RPi4 in strict numerical order, but as presented in the live stacking control window today they begin with image 005, and the order of presentation is 002, 012, 014, 003, 004, 007, 013, 009, 015, 016, 010, 018, 001, 017, 006, 008, and 011. In the Windows file explorer properties there are timestamps for 'created' and 'modified' and these seem to follow the order of presentation to the live stack sequence. So I guess that the the randomising took place during the VNC file transfer process. A couple of examples:

Image 001 RPi 'Modified' 21:07 Windows File Manager properties 'Created' 22 48 33 'Modified' 22 49 11
Image 002 RPi 'Modified' 21:11 Windows File Manager properties 'Created' 22 47 59 'Modified' 22 48 33
Image 005 RPi 'Modified' 21:24 Windows File Manager properties 'Created' 22 47 59 'Modified' 22 48 33

I did for a while use Syncthing on the RPi and laptop so that the folder on the laptop was synchonised with the RPi within a minute or so of an image file being recorded. In that case the files were real-time live stacked by SharpCap in numerical order.
Ed
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Re: Images stacked in random order

#4

Post by admin »

Hi,

yes, a file copy operation from another operating system could definitely cause the problem. Using a different copy tool may well help, or alternatively you could try making the files on the RPi available as a network share to the computer running SharpCap.

Cheers, Robin
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