Out of Memory Error

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rparry51
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Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:44 am

Out of Memory Error

#1

Post by rparry51 »

I was doing the Sensor Analysis for my Mallincam DS26c camera. All was going well
until it got to the gain analysis. This is when the out of memory error occured. So
I tried the 64 bit version but it said my processor does not support AVS (I think that
was the accronym) and it was required to run.

So I am back with the 32 bit version. Am I going to have issues with this 26 MegaPixel camera
with the 32 bit version?

If you have any suggestions to allow me to complete the sensor analysis that would be great.

Bob Parry
Chilliwack Observatory
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Re: Out of Memory Error

#2

Post by admin »

Hi Bob,

I'm afraid you are :(

A full colour frame at 26 megapixels is 150Mb (16 bit). SharpCap needs memory for frames, the ASCOM driver has it's own memory, the SDK which the ASCOM driver is built on allocates even more memory and it all adds up. Live Stacking would need 300Mb for simple stacking and 600Mb for sigma clipped stacking. What tends to happen is that it's not so much that memory runs out, it comes down to not being able to find a continuous free block big enough.

The problem with the 64 bit version is that it requires a processor that has the AVX instructions otherwise it will crash when you do any image processing in SharpCap (star detection is the most common place, but other things too). This isn't deliberate - it's a bug in one of the libraries that SharpCap uses, but so far I've not been able to work out a way to fix it. AVX has been present in Intel CPUs (except low power ones) since ~2011 models and AMD ones since ~2014.

Turning on 2x2 binning will reduce the memory usage considerably and make normal imaging work much better, but won't help you with sensor analysis. You may be able to get that to work by putting the camera into ROI mode (say 1600x1200 pixels).

Robin
rparry51
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Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:44 am

Re: Out of Memory Error

#3

Post by rparry51 »

I will try the ROI method. I tried again and it ran out of memory again. Keep on doing the
same thing and expecting different results?

Bob Parry
Chilliwack Observatory
rparry51
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:44 am

Re: Out of Memory Error

#4

Post by rparry51 »

ROI, did not help, however it sure sped up the process.
So unless I am doing something fundamentally wrong than
I guess I will have to forgo the sensor analysis. Too bad.

Bob Parry
Chilliwack Observatory.
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Re: Out of Memory Error

#5

Post by admin »

Hi Bob,

that's a shame – the ROI would probably only reduce the SharpCap side of the memory usage and not the amount used in the ASCOM driver or the SDK, so maybe it's not enough.

Did you try going past the warning in the 64 bit version to see if it manages to run the sensor analysis? It will definitely crash on your CPU if you try to use things like live stacking or FWHM focus measurements, but it's just possible that the sensor analysis might avoid that code and work in the 64 bit version for you. Certainly worth a try. Another thing you could consider doing is running the analysis on a different PC if you have a newer one somewhere else - the analysis file can be found and transferred to your observatory PC after the analysis is complete.

Cheers, Robin
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