Auto WB not working

[donboy]

Well I was on again last night for 4 or 5 hours with the ASI1600MCC and again I couldn't get Auto WB to work. I tried what you said and it never would adjust even though I was able to get it to work in the procedure you described when exposed to ambient daylight. I've yet to have it work under the stars with the beta version.

Don

[admin]

I think that narrows it down to the white balance procedure (which is in the ZWO SDK, not in SharpCap) not being able to cope well with astro images, since it is working with non astro imaging. Any white balance algorithm requires a good area of image that is neither white (all channels saturated, you can't work out white balance from white pixels) nor black (no or very little signal in any channel). If you have a decent area of nebulosity like M42 then you might be in luck, but otherwise it could be tricky.

Probably best to leave the white balance on default and fix to taste in post-processing.

cheers,

Robin

[donboy]

OK - Tnx

[donboy]

Robin, I found this to be odd. When I am able to get Auto WB to work either Red or Blue WB activation will cause the other channel to adjust but the numbers won't change for the other channel. If I activate the other channels Auto WB button the adjusted number will be reported but the WB won't change, it was already set when the first Auto WB was activated.

Example set both Auto WB to off. Press the Red WB button and the red channel will move to it's new level and display a number and the blue channel WB will change but the number won't. If I then turn on the blue channel Auto WB the number changes but the balance has already been set when the Red WB was activated. This works the same if only the Blue Auto WB is selected.

Don

[admin]

Hi Don,

yes, you've found me out... The ZWO cameras have 2 white balance adjustment channels (red and blue) but just one 'auto white balance' option which adjusts both. Designing the UI to reflect that exactly would have been a lot more work than the way I've done it which is to have two separate controls with two auto buttons but the auto buttons both control the single auto white balance option. This approach let me re-use the standard slider control UI that most other controls use rather than designing something special from scratch.

Hope that makes sense,

Robin