ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

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yzhzhang
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:05 am

ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#1

Post by yzhzhang »

Hi Robin,

I am testing a newly acquired camera ZWO ASI6200mm Pro. I got it connected to SharpCap 4.0.7802 64bit, but upon exposure (framing snapshot) it shows an orange banner on top saying exposure failed. I have not changed anything much (no cooling, no binning, a normal 50ms exposure). Other programs (FireCapture, Voyager, NINA, etc.) talks to the camera fine.

Attached please find a detailed log include camera communication log. Can you please review and see if I am doing anything wrong?

Thanks,
Yizhou
SharpCap v4.0.7806 210523 log.txt
(45.7 KiB) Downloaded 43 times
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Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

thanks for posting - I have seen several bug reports in the last few days with the same pattern of errors as yours. SharpCap is trying to start capturing a frame in still mode, but the camera says it is already busy. Initially I thought this was a previous exposure still running, but with the latest reports I can see that is not the case. I now wonder if the camera may unexpectedly be in video mode.

I have added code to the next update for SharpCap 4.0 - will publish later - will be 4.0.7824 or so. This new code tries to move the camera out of video mode if the problem is detected - maybe that will be a fix, if not let me know and we can investigate further.

thanks,

Robin
yzhzhang
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:05 am

Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#3

Post by yzhzhang »

Hi Robin,

I just downloaded your v7824 and tried it, same issue.. Attached please see the log.

Thanks,
Yizhou
SharpCap v4.0.7824 210524 log.txt
(47.04 KiB) Downloaded 47 times
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Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#4

Post by admin »

Hi,

ah, that is slightly different - there is a timeout in that error log which may be that I am not allowing enough time for the data to transfer off of the camera to the computer. I will increase the timeout (maybe the values aren't appropriate for today's large format cameras).

On the other hand, it could just be the camera getting stuck in busy mode and never reporting the frame is ready - we will see once we try the longer timeout.

cheers,

Robin
yzhzhang
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:05 am

Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#5

Post by yzhzhang »

Gotcha. Thanks Robin. Just let me know which version I should try.

I can use the camera fine with other programs, such as FireCapture which also acquires frames very fast. I doubt if it's camera stucking issue but let's see.

Thanks,
Yizhou
yzhzhang
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:05 am

Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#6

Post by yzhzhang »

Hi Robin,

I think I recall it was working with version 4.0.7572, but after upgrading it start giving that error. I cannot go back to 7572 because it keeps saying that beta version is expired. Anyway just some thoughts for troubleshooting...
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Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#7

Post by admin »

Hi,

very little change has happened to the ZWO camera code since that version, but there have been SDK updates from ZWO. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what changes are in the ZWO SDK updates - they only publish a very terse summary (usually 'fix some bugs' or similar).

If you want you could set your system clock back to sometime in March to make the old version work again to see if your recollection is correct. If that does work then try taking a copy of the ASICamera2.dll from that version and store it safely somewhere. Then re-install the latest and copy that DLL over the installed version. Once you have done that, start SharpCap by double clicking on SharpCap.exe in the install folder (not the start menu or desktop icon - that would probably trigger an automatic repair of the install putting back the version you have just overwritten). That will put the SDK back to the way it was in 7572 and maybe things will work?

One other thing that might be worth trying is to check both the 32 and 64 bit versions of SharpCap in case one has the problem and the other does not. That shouldn't really happen, but if it does turn out to be that way we might learn something.

cheers,

Robin
yzhzhang
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:05 am

Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#8

Post by yzhzhang »

Ok... Tried that trick and found that 7572 also doesn't work... I remembered wrong. Now probably need your help to another beta version... Thanks!
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Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#9

Post by admin »

I'll put out a new version on Monday which will contain the extended timeouts.

A few things to check that have come to mind too:

Can I just check that you have the very latest ZWO drivers installed?

Can you work through the steps in the USB troubleshooting guide too if you haven't already - it seems possible that a USB related issue might cause the unreliability : viewtopic.php?f=18&t=349&p=1556#p1556

cheers,

Robin
yzhzhang
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:05 am

Re: ZWO ASI6200mm Pro camera exposure failure

#10

Post by yzhzhang »

Hmmm OK Robin... I tried it again tonight, with v7824, but with a USB3.0 cable directly connecting the PC and the camera, and now it all works fine... Liveview at ~10FPS without any frame dropped.

Previously it was going to a USB2.0 port on my PC with an USB cable extension. I guess I can't trust the cable extansion? Anyway I am going to get a longer direct USB cable and try it again. Hope this is the problem!

Thanks,
Yizhou
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