CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#11

Post by admin »

Hi,

Good to hear that you have something working – from the date of the post that you quote I can see that I made some changes to the code after 22 August 2018 that are in the github code base but would not be in that build. I wouldn't have expected those changes to break it, but you never know. One thing I did find when I was playing with this myself was that it was always reluctant to work the first time you used it and once you had it working once intended to be a few better behaved.

Cheers, Robin
jmrp
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#12

Post by jmrp »

Robin - I have run more test with SharpCap and ASCOM.DSLR - I can run your version of ASCOM.DSLR - capture several frames and stop the frame capture by deselecting the ASCOM.DSLR option - images are saved as Raw in the Pictures directory - can SharpCap use these RAW frames to polar align?

I have noticed that when I then exit SharpCap and view the Task Manager - SharpCap is still running as a background process - is this normal? - in another test I have started SharpCap without selecting a camera option and then exit - Task Manager does not show any SharpCap background process
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#13

Post by admin »

Hi,

I can't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to run the polar alignment if the camera is working and taking images. Because the process is interactive you won't be able to make it work by capturing images in advance I think.

SharpCap shouldn't continue to run in the background after closing down, I suspect it is related to the DSLR driver as I don't think that happens with any of the other cameras.

Cheers, Robin
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#14

Post by jmrp »

Robin
FYI ASCOM.DSLR will "not" work on my Canon Rebel XS if Canon "Mirror lockup" is "Enable" - works with "Disable"

Finally had a clear night to test your version of ASCOM.DSLR with the Canon Rebel XS (Mirror lockup Disable)
- you were right - Sharpcap works with the ASCOM Camera Driver for DSLR(SharpCap test version) option for
polar alignment - no need for third party options or downloading captures to the "Folder Monitor Camera" option
- I had to increase exposure and gain using the Camera Control Panel option in the right side panel - I think
that the Canon Rebel XS sensor is not as sensitive as modern guide cameras

So far Sharpcap/ASCOM.DSLR.dll only works for the ASCOM.DSLR.Setup.exe version(2018Aug22) you provided - I can
succesfully compile the source code you provided - but I can not reproduce the dll you have - my compiled dll
(339KB,does not work) is not the same as your dll (338KB,works) - I have decompiled the dll of both your version and
my compiled versions and see that there are changes to ThisAssembly,MaxADU,SetCameraSettings and ReadRaw

My compiled version does not show these changes - for example I can see values inserted into the ThisAssembly with your
dll but not my compiled dll - the problem my be in my GitInfo/GitHub install - I have placed a report to the
Visual Studio help desk which was acknowledged but have not received a reply in over two weeks

I have tried the latest update for Visual Studio 2019 and a fresh download of the GitHub repository for ASCOM.DSLR
with no difference - I am not an experienced programmer and I can not see where your compile makes these changes that
I have listed above - I suspect that the extensions and packages you used (2018Aug) with Visual Studio 2017 may not be
the same as my Visual Studio 2019 with latest NuGet and GitHub packages - possible? if you still have this information
I would be grateful if you could find the time to provide me with the version numbers of the extensions and packages you
used - I appreciate your patience with my newbie questions - any directions you may have would also be appreciated -
hopefully I will not have to bother you with more questions
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#15

Post by admin »

Hi,

I don't think that the build tools will have a big impact here, but one thing that does occur to me is that initially I created my own branch of this code which I think is called 'dev' in the github repository. I'm fairly sure that's what I built the test version from. Later on I decided it would be better to get my changes into the main code base so I created feature branches for the major things that I done by cherry picking some of the commits and then made pull requests to bring those into the main code base. I do wonder if somewhere along the way I didn't quite make all the changes that I'd made in my 'dev' branch.

Cheers, Robin
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#16

Post by jmrp »

Robin - In Sept 2019, I had described that with your help I was able to successfully compile and run your version of ASCOM.DSLR for the Canon Rebel XS camera. However I was unable to run the same version for the Canon 70D - recently I have tried testing different Canon EDSDK.dll in recompiled versions of the ASCOM.DSLR program. Using a more recent EDSDK.dll version I am now getting a connection to the Canon 70D camera that takes one image but then SharpcCap displays the following error code :
"Void CheckDotNetExceptions(System.String, System.Exception) @ ASCOM.DriverAccess.MemberFactory"

All my compiled versions still work for the Canon Rebel XS camera

Can you tell me if this exception call is from SharpCap or is a result of the ASCOM.DSLR driver - looking for any direction from your insights

Bob
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#17

Post by admin »

Hi Bob,

The text indicates that that error is coming from somewhere within the Ascom driver – the usual reason you see that message about CheckDotNetExceptions is that the Ascom driver has thrown an exception and then the Ascom platform has intercepted it (leading to that message) before the error is passed onto SharpCap.

I saw another report recently from someone having similar issues and it looks like the Ascom driver was going back into the disconnected state by itself after the first image was taken. That would certainly lead to this sort of error as SharpCap would send a command to the camera to do something like start a new exposure and you would almost certainly get an error from the driver if it thought it state was disconnected.

Cheers, Robin
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#18

Post by jmrp »

I wanted to give you an update on my progress - I now have successfully used ASCOM.DSLR.Camera for both
my Canon RebelXS and Canon 70D - previously only the Canon RebelXS and not the Canon 70D connected
properly - I was able to modify your last GitHub installment (2018) with only a few small changes after
reviewing code from the FearL0rd GitHub version as a guide line - I was able to extract only a few
lines of code from the FearL0rd version to make your version work well

Now I would like to address the issue of continuous image captures when using ASCOM.DSLR.Camera
in Sharpcap - while both cameras now work well with SharpCap this is not an ideal setup - I am
looking at alternative Canon methods - "Canon EOS Utility" and "EOS Camera Movie Record" - I am
asking if it would be possible to use these apps in SharpCap - specifically would the LiveView
option "real time" display that I see in these apps be used in a SharpCap video display?

Recently there is also "EOS Webcam Utilty Beta" available - I have installed this app and see
that it does show in the "Camera" pull down menu - however I get this SharpCap error message:

"This camera does not provide Control over resolution and color space. It cannot be used in this
version of SharpCap"

can you provide me with any suggestions on how I could proceed
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#19

Post by admin »

Hi,

SharpCap 3.3, which will be coming in alpha form in the next few weeks hopefully (or even sooner with a bit of luck) will offer a still mode where images are not taken continuously.

For the WebCam driver, that error message appears if the driver doesn't implement the IAMStreamConfig interface. Modern versions of SharpCap require that interface in order to determine and control the resolution. If you go back to much older versions of SharpCap (3.0? 2.9?) Then you may find that it works, but you will lose a lot of the functionality that is currently available with WebCams.

Cheers, Robin
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Re: CanonSDK ASCOM.DSLR

#20

Post by FearL0rd »

We had made the driver work with Nikons also implementing official SDK from Nikon. (Nikon uses the nikon API, NikonLegacy Works with Old and Cheap WIA Nikons) also support to CR3


We have Canon, Nikon and Pentax working now.

we have a discord channel and a wiki page with instructions.

Project: https://github.com/FearL0rd/ASCOM.DSLR

Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/Q8GtTKW

Installation Guide: https://github.com/FearL0rd/ASCOM.DSLR/ ... stallation

This project is active and a lot of people are contributing. I hope I can count with you

I wish I could make sensor Analysis work with the DSLR. It fails
Last edited by FearL0rd on Sat Jun 20, 2020 3:54 am, edited 3 times in total.
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