Folder Monitor Camera and Live Stacking Revisited

[larry46506]

I believe this is a bug, and I read the entire late 2018 thread concerning this issue, so lets revisit please.

I select Folder Monitor Camera, and then BROWSE to the folder and select ALL FILES.
I drop IMAGE1 into the monitor folder.
Everything works as expected.
Status changes to 1 of 1.
Current frame reads correctly.
One frame stacked and picture is showing.

Now, from the late 2018 thread on this topic, Robin said to go into the monitor folder and copy and paste over and over.
Did that and everything works exactly as expected.
HOWEVER...........

If I don't copy and paste, but just drop IMAGE2 from the series......
Status changes to 2 of 2. (as expected)
Current frame continues to read the name of the IMAGE1. (should have recognized the new jpg)
Still only one frame stacked. (Should have either two frames stacked or 1 stacked and 1 rejected)

So now I reset and do it all again, but drop in IMAGE2 first, instead of IMAGE1, and the exact same thing happens.
So it's not a bad photo that is causing the issue, but I just can't get past one picture stacked.

Help!!!!!!!

[admin]

Hi,

Firstly, do check that both the images have the same size, bit depth and number of colour channels. If they don't then SharpCap will automatically reject the second image as not being a match for the first one. Basically SharpCap treats the first image that it processes as a template that all the other images must match.

I just gave this a try with some images and I did notice that there seems to be a bit of a problem with the second image not being picked up by the live stacking. The first image works fine and the third and subsequent ones seem to work, but the second one seems to add to the count in the folder monitor camera progress but not to the previewed frames count or to the live stacking. Does this match with what you see?

Cheers, Robin

[bemo47]

hi, i just add on this post because i have a similar issue with the folder monitor.
I am with 64bits version 3.2.6248, but i had the same previously.
I select the folder, click on all files.
My imaging tool is imaging so images comes one by one every 3 minutes in this folder.
All images present when i open the folder and start the live stacking are immediately read and stacked except the last.
Then all new images comes to the folder, but the status in the folder monitor windows stays : waiting for new frame
If needed i can do a separate post.
I have also tried to open the folder at the 1st step, and choose all fits files, but its exactly the same.

[larry46506]

As to the JPG file size, WIndows properties show 2 sizes, SIZE and SIZE ON DISK.
Here are the M31 JPG sizes.

Image1
9.13 MB (9,579,846 bytes)SIZE
9.13 MB (9,580,544 bytes)SIZE ON DISK

Image2
9.01 MB (9,451,722 bytes)SIZE
9.01 MB (9,453,568 bytes)SIZE ON DISK

Image3
9.01 MB (9,448,846 bytes)SIZE
9.01 MB (9,449,472 bytes)SIZE ON DISK

Image4
9.04 MB (9,485,026 bytes)SIZE
9.04 MB (9,486,336 bytes)SIZE ON DISK

I checked these same files with Deep Sky Stacker live and they stack fine as I put them in the capture folder.

[admin]

Hi,

Sorry – a bit of a misunderstanding there – I was thinking about the size in terms of pixels – width and height - rather than the size of the file in megabytes.

Anyway, I've been looking into this and found at least two small issues. One could cause the frame count not to update after the last frame was processed under some circumstances, so the count would not show the full value even though all the frames had really been processed. The other issue could allow frames to be lost and not get sent to the live stacking. Both would have been more likely to happen if a live stacking is progressing quickly (many frames per second) than slowly.

I'm just uploading a new update to SharpCap 3.2 that contains fixes for both of these problems – it also contains additional logging around the folder monitor camera file detection code, so that if there are still problems we have a better chance of tracking down the reason.

Look out for SharpCap 3.2.6292 on the downloads page later today

Cheers, Robin

[roelb]

Still problems with latest V 3.2.6292.0:
- Live Stacking count
- stack crash when "Save individual frames" is selected (fits)

[admin]

Hi,

please try this version to see if it resolves all the issues : https://d.sharpcap.co.uk/download.html? ... 3.2.6293.0

thanks,

Robin

[larry46506]

Thanks for the update but the problem remains.

Would it be possible to send you the three jpegs I am trying to stack and maybe you can see what might be the issue?
They are only 130K-ish each.

Larry