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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 1:01 pm
by zerolatitude
Hi,
I would like to try out dithering within a sequence.
I do not have any guiding software, so will be using the SC dithering.
File>SharpCap Settings>Guiding>Guiding Application = Dither Only (no guiding)
What I've gathered is that the camera has to be in still mode. Two questions:
1. Should the command Dither every <>sec be within the loop or outside?
2. If I am using SC to dither (and not any guiding software), should the command to capture still frames have REQUIREGUIDING true or false?
My planned sequence is below.
Thanks
SEQUENCE
STILL MODE
SET EXPOSURE TO 15
GUIDING DITHER EVERY 60
LOOP 6 TIMES
MOUNT SOLVEANDSYNC
DELAY 15
CAPTURE 20 FRAMES REQUIREGUIDING False
END LOOP
END SEQUENCE
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 1:23 pm
by admin
Hi,
'GUIDING DITHER EVERY XX' should be outside the loop - running that step sets up a background timer that will trigher the dither to happen every 60 seconds until the timer is stopped using GUIDING DITHER EVERY STOP. Of course the dither doesn't happen exactly every 60 seconds, it happens at the next gap between frames after the 60s timer fires.
REQUIREGUIDING shouldn't matter - if it is set to true then imaging pauses if guiding is lost, but the 'Dither Only (no guiding)' option always reports that guiding is active - basically it pretends that there is a working guiding application.
You will also need to add
GUIDING CONNECT ABORT False
at the start of your sequence (before the dither every step) to get the sequencer talking to the 'guiding'.
cheers,
Robin
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 2:31 am
by zerolatitude
Thank you
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 3:00 pm
by Gordon
Hi Robin,
First go today, I've selected the Gain Value block but cannot set a value don't know if it's me or not!
I've also not spotted anywhere to set USB speed, is there one?
Cheers
Gordon
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 6:12 pm
by admin
Hi Gordon,
try adjusting the gain block with the camera that you intend to work with open in SharpCap - the problem with gain is that for 99% of cameras it is a number (for instance 100 to 3000), but for a small minority it's something like 'ISO 100' or 'ISO 200'. If the camera is open then SharpCap knows which of these to offer - if there is no camera open you may get stuck in limbo - I will try to fix the limbo problem, but still better to have the camera open as it will then know the minimum/maximum values, etc.
For setting the USB speed, there is a generic 'Set <Control Name> to <Property Value>' - again having the camera open means that the control names will be selectable in the dropdown, rather than having to be typed in.
There is also a block that loads a saved capture profile - that's a good way to set a whole range of camera settings in one go.
cheers,
Robin
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Sat May 15, 2021 12:56 am
by sangon
Hi Robin
I'm trying to start the PHD guider using the sequencer but I had no success. I attach a picture with the details.
It seems that if PHD is not in Looping state, it fails to start. Whoever, if the PHD is already Looping, it seems to start guiding ok.
Is that the expected behavior? or Am I doing something wrong? Because I'd expect that PHD remains stopped (not looping) until the sequence starts (or it reaches that step).
Thanks
KR
Miguel
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Sat May 15, 2021 4:39 pm
by admin
Hi,
as far as I can see that should work - to test just the guiding startup you could run this sequence
Code: Select all
SEQUENCE
GUIDING CONNECT ABORT False
GUIDING START
END SEQUENCE
That works for me with PHD setup to use the built in simulator (daylight here, and cloudy, so that is the only way I can check). I do notice that you are using a pre-release (dev3) of PHD 2.6.9 - it would be worth updating to the full release version of 2.6.9 to see if that helps
cheers,
Robin
- Capture.JPG (39.84 KiB) Viewed 3844 times
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 7:43 pm
by Flyingdockp
Hello,
I'm still waiting for the clouds to dissapear, struggling with this beautiful sequencer to get it make sense to me.
I'm very interested in the live stack possibilities, that's also the topic of my question.
So, the sequencer routine can only be programmed when a camera is connected, but unfortunately, the simulator cams seem to be limited in their possiblities.(no cooling, no gain settings). This makes toying around a bit more difficult, but I'll manage.
Then there is the sequencer. The sequencer is a very nice starting point. Unfortunately, it is only for still images. So, being an absolute beginner, I'd love to be able to also 'sequence' live stacking in the sequencer, eeehm, being able to set up a simple run just from the sequence planner.
So, that would include 'take 20 exposures, save as ..., ' dither, start again and repeat for x sequences.
Yes I know, most of these things are already possible. ANyway.
Looking at all settings, I can only find options to set dithering after x seconds. For this, it might be handy to be able to dither after x exposures. Is it possible to set that as well?
ANd finally... as a beginner... oooo I'd love a sort of example of how to program this...
regards, KP
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 9:45 am
by Tiago Ferreira
Flyingdockp wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 7:43 pm
Hello,
I'm still waiting for the clouds to dissapear, struggling with this beautiful sequencer to get it make sense to me.
I'm very interested in the live stack possibilities, that's also the topic of my question.
So, the sequencer routine can only be programmed when a camera is connected, but unfortunately, the simulator cams seem to be limited in their possiblities.(no cooling, no gain settings). This makes toying around a bit more difficult, but I'll manage.
Then there is the sequencer. The sequencer is a very nice starting point. Unfortunately, it is only for still images. So, being an absolute beginner, I'd love to be able to also 'sequence' live stacking in the sequencer, eeehm, being able to set up a simple run just from the sequence planner.
So, that would include 'take 20 exposures, save as ..., ' dither, start again and repeat for x sequences.
Yes I know, most of these things are already possible. ANyway.
Looking at all settings, I can only find options to set dithering after x seconds. For this, it might be handy to be able to dither after x exposures. Is it possible to set that as well?
ANd finally... as a beginner... oooo I'd love a sort of example of how to program this...
regards, KP
I've recorded a video with my experience with the sequencer and how i built my main sequences step by step. I hope this help:
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4134
Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer
Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 1:33 pm
by admin
Flyingdockp wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 7:43 pm
Hello,
I'm still waiting for the clouds to dissapear, struggling with this beautiful sequencer to get it make sense to me.
I'm very interested in the live stack possibilities, that's also the topic of my question.
So, the sequencer routine can only be programmed when a camera is connected, but unfortunately, the simulator cams seem to be limited in their possiblities.(no cooling, no gain settings). This makes toying around a bit more difficult, but I'll manage.
Then there is the sequencer. The sequencer is a very nice starting point. Unfortunately, it is only for still images. So, being an absolute beginner, I'd love to be able to also 'sequence' live stacking in the sequencer, eeehm, being able to set up a simple run just from the sequence planner.
So, that would include 'take 20 exposures, save as ..., ' dither, start again and repeat for x sequences.
Yes I know, most of these things are already possible. ANyway.
Looking at all settings, I can only find options to set dithering after x seconds. For this, it might be handy to be able to dither after x exposures. Is it possible to set that as well?
ANd finally... as a beginner... oooo I'd love a sort of example of how to program this...
regards, KP
Hi KP,
I've been working on the documentation for using both the sequence planner and the main sequence editor over the last week or so. Hopefully once that's available (within the next week or two) the learning curve for getting started won't be quite as steep. I will certainly include some examples to help people get started.
The sequence planner does require a camera to be connected and as you've noticed it's for still captures only. In the future there might be separate sequence planners for video captures the moon or planets or even 1 to help plan and EAA session, but those will happen later.
The main sequence editor can be used for both video capture and for running live stacking. You'll find the live stacking related steps in the processing tab of the available steps area.
At the moment there isn't a way to do dithering based on the number of frames. It's definitely something I want to add in future, but it's a big enough change that I'm going to leave it until the first full release of SharpCap 4.0 is completed rather than try to squeeze it in before then.
Cheers, Robin