Start video or sequence at a given time.

[TimHaymes]

Hello,
In the Configure Capture it would be very nice to see means of entering a start time, and duration. I guess the time limit could be used here, and when start capture is initiated, SC will only start the recording at the system time entered. I anticipate starting videos (SER) like this. With this feature I could set up in advance in the knowledge that i dont have to be there. Thanks for considering. (Maybe this is in the pipeline?)

Tim (QHY174m-GPS)

[procyon12]

Hi,
for unattended occultation work I would welcome such a feature too.

@ Tim: Maybe it is already in the pipeline ? viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2075

Christian

[procyon12]

Hi,

because of bad weather I did some tests for scripting (as an absolute newbie) - it seems to be very interesting.
Here is a very unprofessional attempt to solve Tim's task, basing on viewtopic.php?f=14&t=102.

Rename the attached file SimpleSequence.txt to SimpleSequence.py
Run SC with your camera and all the settings you need.
Go to Scripting/Run Script and chose SimpleSequence.py, start it with enter.

With the script running, you get a capture of 1min immediately and a second one 10h later. With an editor you can it modify. Maybe you must change the camera name as it is shown in SC/Select Camera.

Good luck!

Christian

[admin]

Hi,

Yes, the Python scripting is the best way to do this in the current version of SharpCap (3.2). The next version will have a much more user-friendly sequencing engine that will allow this sort of thing to be set up without needing programming skills.

Cheers, Robin

[TimHaymes]

Thanks Christian and Robin, I will try this out.
Most grateful - Tim

[TimHaymes]

Hello,
I have been playing with V4.0.8395 advanced sequencer, and i was hoping to see a Start capture at <Time>. There is a stop, but no start. I would use this to schedule a video for occultation observations. If this was available I could set up the telescope to record unattended, and allow me to operate a second mobile telescope. I would not want to rely on loop counters. To set a specific time would be ideal.

Is this possible?

Thanks

Tim
QHY174m-GPS

[procyon12]

Hi Tim,

See the picture.

Cheers, Christian

[TimHaymes]

I tried this sequence with the camera simulated. Is there there a better way? The frame rate was 1.9 fps and not the 3fps expected.
To have to enter two times is not ideal. In a real situation i would load a config file and leave out the SET commands. Im assuming the loaded configuration will be used ? (format, exp, gain, binning, etc).

Cheers - Tim

SEQUENCE
DELAY 1
SET OUTPUT FORMAT TO "SER file (*.ser)"
SET EXPOSURE TO 0.33
PROMPT FOR TARGET
WAIT UNTIL LOCALTIME 12:30
CAPTURE START
WAIT UNTIL LOCALTIME 12:32
CAPTURE STOP
PLAY SOUND Alert
END SEQUENCE

[admin]

Hi,

I wouldn't worry about the frame rate from the deep sky test camera - that code is designed around simplicity rather than performance, so it may wait longer than expected between each frame. Of course you can get the same effect with some real cameras if they are in still mode (meaning they need to be sent a signal to start each frame).

As for the sequence, you can simplify it somewhat by replacing the second 'wait until' with a 'DELAY XXX' step - for instance DELAY 120 will wait for 2 minutes.

The load of a capture profile will indeed set all the required parameters, exposure, output format, etc.

cheers,

Robin

[TimHaymes]

Thanks Robin, The command worked fine. The sequence is now

SEQUENCE
PROMPT FOR TARGET
WAIT UNTIL LOCALTIME 12:20
CAPTURE START
DELAY 240
CAPTURE STOP
PLAY SOUND Alert
END SEQUENCE