Sharpcap crashes

[Astrogate]

Hi Robin

Finally got a clear night to test Sharpcap and my new ZWO ASI183 mono camera (purchased the Pro license today) and Sharpcap just crashed constantly. Upon connecting to the camera was fine but when loading my camera profile settings I received an error message even though it seemed like my settings were loading correct. I was able to run the camera using 4 seconds that kept repeating but as soon as I tried to use the Polar alignment feature or live stack the program Sharpcap would stop after several seconds and want to shut down/crashes. I could not run the camera again until I restarted the computer because I was losing the USB connection. I tried both USB 3.0 & USB 2.0 with no luck. I uninstalled the both ASCOM & Native most recent drivers and reinstalled them several times with no luck. I am using an Intel i3 quadcore with 12 GB of ram and WIN7 Pro with all windows updates to date.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Chris A

[Astrogate]

I forgot to mention Robin that I tried both Shrapcap versions 3.0 and 3.1 (latest releases) and registered my Pro license information with both.

Chris A

[admin]

Hi Chris, I will go look see if there are any uploaded bug reports that match your description - with luck there will be and that will let me see what is going on.

cheers,

Robin

[Astrogate]

Hi Robin

I am currently out here now in my observatory trying things out. I now tried in both 3.0 & 3.1 the camera test and only camera test 1 ( deep sky) & camera test 2 (solar) is highlighted. The first camera test is greyed out. When I try camera 2 it works good but when I try camera 1 (deep sky) Sharpcap stops works and wants to close. I will uninstall both version and install again to test.

Chris A

[admin]

Hi,

ok, I can see at least one crash uploaded that looks like it is your camera (183MM Pro, WIn7, 12Gb ram, early this morning). That looks like USB issues to me as I am seeing things in the log like

Code: Select all

Fetching still frame from ZWO camera failed with ExpFailed, exposure is 1939.85, timeout is 7133
Fetching still frame from ZWO camera failed with ExpWorking, exposure is 1939.85, timeout is 7133
Exception of type CameraException from Opening Camera : Camera not found - has it been disconnected? 

All of these are the sort of things I would expect to see when the camera connection to the computer is not reliable. I'd suggest a starting point of working through the USB troubleshooting tips (viewtopic.php?f=18&t=349&p=1556#p1556), particularly things like short cables, turn down the 'Turbo USB' option, etc.

hope this helps,

Robin

[Astrogate]

Sorry Robin that was test cameras is greyed out and test camera 2 (high speed) works but test camera 1 (deep sky) does not.

Chris A

[admin]

Hi,

it's OK for test cameras to be greyed out (it's just a heading really), but it should not crash when loading either of those test cameras). Is the ZWO ASI Cameras missing from your menu? That would indicate the camera is not talking to the PC properly.

When SharpCap is crashing on the Test Camera 1, is it offering to send a bug report?

cheers,

Robin

Capture.PNG (24.01 KiB) Viewed 3489 times

[Astrogate]

Thank you Robin and I will try what you have suggested. BTW, I reinstalled both versions of Sharpcap and the test camera 2 (deep sky) now works.

Cheers,

Chris A

**The ZWO ASI183 camera is showing up in the cameras menu fine and there is no bug report coming up to send.

[Astrogate]

Robin, is there a way to test the ZWO ASI183 during the daytime since I cannot try out polar alignment or live stack. I know I can take darks and that works fine. *Also when I load my capture profile I am getting an error message saying that it cannot load the profile correctly and to check the log, however, it seems to load the camera setting fine. This is not a top issue like the crashing but I thought I should let you know. Thank you!

Chris A

[admin]

Hi Chris,

I use a C mount lens for testing cameras - one like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25mm-f1-4-C- ... SwmOJaLDuC. Most ZWO cameras come with a circular threaded plate that brings the T thread of the camera down to the C thread used by this sort of lens. You may also need a 5mm C thread spacer if the back-focus from the plate is only 12.5mm not 17.5mm. You can get these from UK sellers too, but they are more expensive.

The warning about not loading the profile correctly is down to at least one control failing to load the saved value - details should be in the log, so if you post that to me I will check it out.

cheers,

Robin