SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

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rkbren
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SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#1

Post by rkbren »

My Orion G3C camera appears to work fine via the ASCOM driver except for controlling the camera's TEC. When I try to set the temperature, the value resets to 0 immediately after I hit return. I can set (sort of) the temperature by using the slider but the value never matches the target value shown in the "Previewing etc." line. Also, setting the temperature using the slider is a very hit or miss proposition. Sometimes it produces a reasonable value, sometimes not. Finally, turning the TEC on and off doesn't appear to have any effect. For example, the "Previewing etc." line and the "Thermal Controls" section still show 100% TEC power. Thanks for your help.
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admin
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

I don't have an Orion camera to test with, but I do have a cooled ZWO camera and that works correctly (including all cooling functions) in SharpCap. This make me think that the issue may be with the Orion ASCOM driver for this camera not behaving properly.

Are you using the latest version of the Orion ASCOM driver? If yes, does the cooling work correctly when using the ASCOM driver inside any other applications?

cheers,

Robin
rkbren
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#3

Post by rkbren »

As far as I know, I'm using the latest ASCOM driver. The TEC does work correctly with Orion Camera Studio.
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#4

Post by admin »

I wouldn't have thought the Orion software would use the ASCOM driver (rather it would talk to the camera directly). I'm thinking about other software that uses ASCOM - maybe APT (AstroPhotographyTool) is a good one to try?

cheers,

Robin
rkbren
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#5

Post by rkbren »

Yes, you're right about Camera Studio not using the ASCOM driver. Therefore, I tried APT as you suggested and the TEC seems to work fine.
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#6

Post by admin »

Ah, OK, that at least means I have a chance of fixing it, if I can work out what the ASCOM driver is doing that I don't expect. I will have a look through the ASCOM thermal code to see if anything looks dodgy.

cheers,

Robin
rkbren
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#7

Post by rkbren »

Many thanks, Robin. I really appreciate the effort.
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#8

Post by admin »

I looked into what I thought was the most likely cause - that SharpCap was writing the new value to the camera, then reading it back again but the camera was not sending back the new value - that would have explained the number changing and then changing back... But, when I looked, the code doesn't do that - it just sends the number to the camera, so I am now even more confused :(

Can you please confirm what version of SharpCap you are using - 3.0.something I presume?

I think maybe this will require a special version that logs all the interactions with the ASCOM camera thermal controls so that I can see what is going on. That will probably have to wait until after I have the 3.1 beta build out at the end of next week.

cheers,
Robin
rkbren
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#9

Post by rkbren »

Sorry, Robin. I dropped the ball on this issue. I gave up using SharpCap for the Orion G3C camera, mainly because I hadn't been sure the camera was working at all, even with the poor Orion software. However, I recently confirmed that the camera IS working properly and would like to start using SharpCap with it. I'm using SharpCap 3.1.5193.0 on Windows 10 Home. In addition to the TEC cooler issue, I've noticed that SharpCap detects the G3C camera as an "Orion G3 camera (under "ASCOM cameras")", but will not allow me to select any other Colour Space than "MONO16". I don't know if this was the case when I first contacted you. Could either or both of thses issues be related to the ASCOM driver?
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Re: SharpCap and Orion G3C camera TEC

#10

Post by admin »

Hi,

so ASCOM drivers are supposed to report whether the camera is colour or RAW colour or mono, but *lots* of them fail to do this correctly for colour cameras in RAW mode - they just report mono. When the ASCOM driver reports mono, SharpCap shows MONO16 as the only option, but because this bug is common you will also see a 'Debayer Preview' control with which you can override the default MONO and specify the bayer pattern to use to debayer the image to colour.

cheers,

Robin
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