A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

Discussions, Bug Reports and Issues related to Beta versions of SharpCap
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chromus
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:40 pm

Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#41

Post by chromus »

Exposure Number Limit -> Max 100 :(

Hi Robin,
I live in a bortle 7/8 environment and as a result I get the best results at the lower end of the exposure time and then stacking lots of images.

In Ver 4.0.7529 there is a limit of 100 exposures in the sequencer wizard which wasn't immediately obvious. I set it manually to 130 in the tool (which worked out as finishing just before meridian), but as you move thru the tabs you don't realise that when you change tabs this gets trimmed down to the 1st 2 digits of 13.

Its 3am and I just got up to check the data and found I lost a nights imaging with just 13 exp to my name, it's beta and I know it's part of the risk, but could have been avoided.

Sitting here double checking things I used the up/down arrows in the dialog and found the limit is 100 that way. If this limit was more obvious I could have set repeats.

Remedy possibilities:
  • Don't allow manual entry in the box
    Text note saying max 100
    Auto parsing of the value in (near) realtime, rather than when you change tabs
    Auto parsing of the value creating multiple lines as necessary to stay under 100 per line but giving lines as required to get the value.
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admin
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#42

Post by admin »

Hi,

sorry to hear that - apologies :(

As you say it accepts longer numbers and then changes them to one within range when you move away from that control - you have to be eagle eyed to spot it and even more so if you are switching tabs.

There wasn't really a good reason for the 100 frame limit - it was just a default, so I will change it to be much larger (10000). As far as I can work out this was the only number editor that was accidentally picking up the 100 default limit.

cheers,

Robin
chromus
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:40 pm

Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#43

Post by chromus »

Great news that it’s such an easy fix.

I’m lucky to live in Australia and get 200ish clear nights a year so not a big stress. I lose more nights to apathy than clouds.
sangon
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:44 am

Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#44

Post by sangon »

Hi Robin

First, congratulations for that big improvement, this is something I was hoping to be added into Sharpcap at some point... I'm eager to test it in real-time... Meanwhile I'm just exploring it and here my suggestions:

- Is it planned a meridian-flip feature to be added? I haven't seen it in the options

- Is there a way to take a Dark frame (for example, setting the filter as Dark, which is what I use) and then auto-apply such dark to the next images recorded? The only way to do that now is to take the Dark manually before creating the sequence and then adding the block which loads it from its folder path.

- If I want to take for example, 0.5s frames during 20min, is there any recommendation regarding performance between Live and Still modes in order to avoid drop frames? Will some options like "Hi speed mode" or "Hardware binning" be useful for that purpose as well?

- Is there an estimated date to release the version 4.0?

Thanks for you nice work!
KR
Miguel
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#45

Post by admin »

Hi Miguel,

glad you like the idea of the sequencer :)

To answer your questions...

Meridian flip - yes, eventually, but not yet - this is something I plan to think about after the 4.0 release (4.1?)

Take and use a dark frame - not yet - the sequencer is targeted more at conventional 'capture now and process later' imaging.

For frames of <2s, live mode is probably best (unless you want to dither - that requires still mode). The amount of time lost between frames in live mode depends a lot on the brand of camera - for some it's not much, for others it's significant. At 0.5s frames, I would hope that frame drop would be non-existant.

Release... my target is April to May at the moment. Unlikely to be early April, mind you!

cheers,

Robin
Ddaniel84
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2020 1:31 pm

Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#46

Post by Ddaniel84 »

Hi Robin
I'll plan to use this evening the sequencer to prepare a real imaging sequence next tuesday. It will be the first time. It seems to be very easy to use, with a learning added value on how SC works! Greats!
My objective is to image an exoplanet transition. It will begin at 11.30 pm to end à 4am. I'll be ready at 8pm with setup operational and I will have to wait 3.30 hours! So it would be so funny to add a "at 'time' " option at the RUN Command or to add a WAIT 'elapsed_time' before running the sequence.
I think not to be alone in this situation.. good conditions for imaging are often late in the night.


Another suggestion is to manage picture serial numbers independantly of folders. I read that it seems difficult to put all picture of several series in the same folder. But to avoid to have several files having the same name (a problem when merging folders), a solution qhould be to have control of resetting picture serial number. CCD Autopilot works in this way. It's very usefull.

What do you think of all of that?

Cheers, Dominique
From France (84)
Skyvision T250 Newton on CGX with PrimaLuce Sesto Senso motor focus - ZWO motor filter wheel
C8 XLT Evolution with Celestron Motor Focus
ZWO ASI 2600 MC pro - ZWO ASI 224 MCS
CPWI -PHD2 - Sharpcap - Siril - Stellarium - NINA
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#47

Post by admin »

Hi,

Good luck with your imaging!

You may already be able to get some of the things that you are looking for with the full sequence editor -

1) Waiting until a specific time is available - there is a 'Wait Until' step, so you can have 'WAIT UNTIL LOCALTIME 23:30' in your sequencer.

2) Grouping all captured files in a folder is possible - use the 'arrange file and folder names to keep sequence capture files together' step.

If you are using the sequence planner then set up your plan first, then use the 'advanced edit' button to move the plan into the full editor and fine-tune.

Finally, while I know that this isn't the file numbering you are looking for, consider using the {FrameTime} template parameter in your file names - that will make the file names unique even if the file numbers are duplicated.

cheers,

Robin
Ddaniel84
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#48

Post by Ddaniel84 »

Well done! Thanks a lot it's really fine.
Bravo. All expectations are satisfied!
Good luck for V4 activement.
Best Dominique
From France (84)
Skyvision T250 Newton on CGX with PrimaLuce Sesto Senso motor focus - ZWO motor filter wheel
C8 XLT Evolution with Celestron Motor Focus
ZWO ASI 2600 MC pro - ZWO ASI 224 MCS
CPWI -PHD2 - Sharpcap - Siril - Stellarium - NINA
Ddaniel84
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2020 1:31 pm

Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#49

Post by Ddaniel84 »

Hi Robin
here is the feedback of this first test. Most of orders were correctly ran.
Problems come with:
1. mounting the mount (CGX thru CPWI) . All messages say OK, but the mount was not mounted. Unpark does'nt work too, no more "park mount"
2. Guiding in general (start guiding, wait guiding is active, monitor guiding appli..). I use PHD2
3. Automatic focus use FWHM multi stars. It doesn't work. It's OK with FWHM of one star
I join the sequence I create. May be somethings is wrong.

Best, Dominique
Attachments
SIRIL DOD sans flip.scs
(875 Bytes) Downloaded 86 times
From France (84)
Skyvision T250 Newton on CGX with PrimaLuce Sesto Senso motor focus - ZWO motor filter wheel
C8 XLT Evolution with Celestron Motor Focus
ZWO ASI 2600 MC pro - ZWO ASI 224 MCS
CPWI -PHD2 - Sharpcap - Siril - Stellarium - NINA
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#50

Post by admin »

Hi,

do you have the SharpCap log files showing the problems that you encountered? That would help me understand what went wrong and what I can do about it.

thanks,

Robin
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