Difficulties with Sequencer

[astrorunner]

Using v3.3.7253
Camera is ZWO ASI-294 with Orion Atlas Pro mount. OS is Windows 10 professional.
This is something that is a bit elusive to track down. When I go through the dialog to set up the sequence, when I go to run the sequence all the values go back to the default (I guess what was populated before I changed the settings). It seems that a possible work-around is to save each screen of the sequencer settings as you go, before running it. Also after completing a sequence successfully, I experienced the software locking up on me one time. I had to control-alt-delete and kill SharpCap.
Unfortunately I don't have any log files from the crash, unless it saves old logs and I can dig it up for you another day. It did not prompt me to send a bug report.
The sequencer helps me a lot because of the dithering option. It's great to not have to manually do this, especially in 16F winter nights!

Bert

[chongo228]

Have you saved the sequence and tried loading it back? Do all the fields go back to what you set them at when you load your sequence back in?

[admin]

Hi,

first, the version you are using is two weeks out of date (will be 3 weeks out of date when I release a new update tomorrow) - please update to 3.3.7351 or newer from https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/sha ... s/3-3-beta - maybe the bug is already fixed.

If that doesn't fix it then it may be that SharpCap cannot load the previously saved settings. SharpCap will try to auto-restore both the last sequence used in the sequence editor and the last settings used in the sequence wizard/planner. These are saved in files in the folder

Code: Select all

C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\SharpCap

If the problem is with the sequence editor (viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3109) then look at the fule Autosave.scs - please post a copy of it here.

If the problem is with the sequence planner/wizard (viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3620) then look at the file <CAMERANAME>_Autosave.ssw - please post a copy of that here.

thanks,

Robin

[astrorunner]

Thank you Robin. I will definitely upgrade SharpCap and try that first. I will then give it a try and if I run into any more problems will post back here as you mentioned.

[astrorunner]

Robin,

I upgraded to 3.3.7351 as mentioned and the problems persist.

When I bring up the "Deep Sky Sequence Planner" tool, several of the settings do not "stick" when I click on the "run" button. In my case, I never shoot PNG files, always FITS, and I specified FITS in the "Capture Setup" and "Capture to" dropdown (with adjacent box checked). But when I clicked "run" it began recording PNG files. Another odd problem is that within this planner tool (wizard) itself, on the "Target" tab for the target name (on the line "the telescope is already pointing to...") I will enter a new name (changing the old one that shows up) and then work my way to the next tab over to enter settings for cooling, guiding, etc. When I click back to "Target", that original name is back and not the new name I just gave. Note that this behavior is also not consistent. In subsequent runs, sometimes the new name DOES stick on the wizard tool, but usually when I click "run" it will write the old filename.

On the "Capture list" part of the screen, the software wants to revert to the "override exposure", which (the default) is a very short exposure time of 3.2E-5 s. This box is checked, which is not what I had set. It will look the way I want (box not checked) when I click "run", but what ends up writing to the hard drive is the override setting and quick exposures. Then when I cancel the sequence session and bring up a new planner wizard, I see that the override box is checked again.

As I said before, it seems that if I "save" the config (to a file) before clicking "run", most of these problems are solved (I think). It seems that in order to be foolproof I need to save with each tab on the wizard as I make changes. The other thing I've had to do is make sure that the FITS file type that I want is specified in the main window "Capture format and area" box at the right. It seems that the wizard pulls file type from there and not from the wizard's capture setup.

As a side note -- any reason we can't go beyond 100 frames in a given capture list line item?

Here is a copy of my sequence planner/wizard <CAMERANAME>_Autosave.ssw file.

Thanks,
Bert
________

RepeatCaptures:Enabled=False|Repeats=2
EnsureStillMode:Enabled=True
CoolDown:Value=-10|Enabled=False
ColourSpace:ColourSpace=RAW16|Enabled=True
OutputFormat:SelectedFormat=FITS files (*.fits)|Enabled=True
ManualCamSettings:Enabled=True
LoadCaptureProfile:Enabled=False|ProfileName=
MeasureSkyBackground:Enabled=False
ConnectGuiding:Enabled=False
Unpark:Enabled=False
TargetName:TargetName=641 pm|Enabled=True
GotoCatalogTarget:TargetName=M1 (NGC 1952,Crab Nebula)|Enabled=False
GotoCoords:Coordinates=|TargetName=|Enabled=False
PromptTarget:Enabled=False
PlateSolveAndSync:Exposure=5|GainChoice=|Gain=0|Enabled=False
Autofocus:Range=250|Enabled=False
Capture:PauseBefore=False|Filter=|FrameType=Light|Count=100|Exposure=|Gain=|GainChoice=|PauseAfter=False
Park:Enabled=False
WarmUp:Value=10|Enabled=False

[admin]

Hi Bert,

thanks for the additional info - I can see the cause of the target name not being saved sometimes and can fix that - the rest is still a bit of a mystery.

Can I ask what camera you are using and also if you are using a non-English language on your PC (perhaps one that uses ',' as a decimal separator instead of '.').

I will have to add some more logging to the loading of the planner file to see if I can work out what is going on.

cheers,

Robin

[astrorunner]

Hi again Robin.

First -- many thanks for new update! I just ran the sequencer again on my camera (the ZWO ASI-294) and it seems you fixed the bugs! The sequencer wizard options "stuck" this time and wrote to the file! Wow, this is true customer support!

I will hopefully test it "in the field" tomorrow night, we're expecting clear skies and I need to also test the plate solver problems again.So I will let you know if there are still any issues.

Thanks again man, this is awesome.

Bert

[astrorunner]

Robin,

I'm sorry to report that I encountered the same problems again with the Sequencer Planner (wizard) tool. I think the sequencer Editor works fine but I'm still putting it through it's paces. The Sequencer Planner wizard continues to revert to settings not set in the wizard. I could not get it to work at all last night so I went with the editor instead. Tonight I'm doing another run and using the editor.

I have also upgraded to the latest beta version I believe, the 4.0.7438, prior to these tests.

[admin]

Hi,

can I just check that you are always using the same camera? The sequence planner Wizard remembers the settings separately for different cameras, which might be part of the problem.

Cheers, Robin

[astrorunner]

Sorry for late reply (weather not clear lately, not doing AP last week).

Yes I'm always using the same cameras for my AP.