SharpCap 4.0 Beta Now Available

[wunni]

Hi Robin,

Thank you for the explanations!
Even if my problem might have something to do with SC 3.3, it is a bit off-topic here - sorry.

Yesterday I wanted to observe an occultation. Again the image froze when switching to 16bit mode. After restarting the camera and SC (3.2.6433.0) I could use 16bit, but it was still faulty. I got an bright zone on the top of the image:


I guess the QHY-drivers are damaged in some way. I know, it's a bit tricky with QHY-drivers: One must not use the wrong version...
On https://www.qhyccd.com/download.html they offer a "System Pack". I'm not sure that this is the correct choice, but there isn't an alternative on the web site.
What would you recommend for a fresh installation of the whole package?

Cheers,
Niko

[admin]

Hi,

yes, the system pack is probably the place to start – it's the system driver itself that is the important bit. Be very cautious about allowing it to try to update SharpCap – I'm never convinced that doing this is a good idea.

Cheers, Robin

[SteveInNZ]

ADC tool goes nuts if not using full area of sensor.

Version 3.3.6882.0 32 bit, Win10 x64, ASI1600MC. Capturing in RAW16.

It works fine if the using at the full resolution of the sensor but if I select a smaller capture area (eg. 1024 x 768) it goes into a death spiral (so I couldn't generate a crash report) and requires Task Manager to close program.

Steve.

[admin]

Hi,

thanks for that report – I obviously didn't try those two things together

Cheers, Robin

[admin]

ADC tool goes nuts if not using full area of sensor.

Version 3.3.6882.0 32 bit, Win10 x64, ASI1600MC. Capturing in RAW16.

It works fine if the using at the full resolution of the sensor but if I select a smaller capture area (eg. 1024 x 768) it goes into a death spiral (so I couldn't generate a crash report) and requires Task Manager to close program.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

just tested with the ASI071MC (closest camera I have to the 1600MC) and can't get it to break - put it in 1024x768 and RAW16, select ADC and all is well. Move the ROI for the camera around is fine, using the area selection tool also fine.

I am testing indoors as the clouds are here, but I don't think that should matter as the exact layout of the image is (probably) unimportant.

If you can break it again, could you send a screenshot?

cheers,

Robin

[SteveInNZ]

Finally got one !

SharpCap ADC.gif (24.66 KiB) Viewed 5116 times

It seems to be if you have used the ADC tool once and then change the resolution, either to a larger (including maximum) or smaller size.
The first time works OK but a resize breaks it.
I also tried it with both RAW8 and RAW16 and with the ASI1600MC and QHY5ii-C with the same results.
It's cloudy here too, so it's not that.

Steve.

[umasscrew39]

Hi Robin

I was able to duplicate what Steve got by using my ASI2600MC Pro indoors.

Bruce

Screenshot (99).png (784.06 KiB) Viewed 5109 times

[admin]

Excellent, those reports are going to be very helpful.

Cheers, Robin

[admin]

Hi,

here are the links for another updated version of the SharpCap 3.3 beta. Unfortunately progress on feature development has been slow recently, but I fixed a large number of bugs (both those reported here in the forums and also those reported by sending in crash reports – so thank you to everybody who has taken time to report a problem).

32 bit version : https://d.sharpcap.co.uk/download.html? ... 3.3.6917.0
64 bit version : https://d.sharpcap.co.uk/download.html? ... 0&arch=x64

Aside from a lot of bug fixes, there are updates to both the ZWO and Altair SDKs, which will add support for new models and new camera features.

Cheers, Robin

[SteveInNZ]

I've tried the ROI feature tracking a couple of times and haven't had any success.
I'm testing it by turning off the tracking on the mount while imaging Mars so maybe the rate of movement is too high (EFL = 5600mm). I've tried both Center of Mass and Image Features and can see that SC has captured the object and follows it across the screen but the ROI doesn't follow it. I've tried a couple of ROI sizes.
It feels like I need to turn something obvious on, but I've overlooked it. Any ideas ?
Of course, the forecast is for clouds for the rest of the week.

Steve.

PS. No crashes with the ADC tool.