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Runaway Exposure

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:08 pm
by jdaliix
Greetings. I installed Sharpcap recently, got into the manual, started the software, got to know it a little. It's all simple and straightforward. I tested a lot of exposure lengths, nothing over 35 seconds, took snaps, tested .fit stacks, etc. I'm using a Mallincam Skyraider with ASCOM. It was all working beautifully, then it abruptly decided to run away with the exposure. Nothing I do stops it. None of the exposure settings change it. It would run forever as a single frame if I let it. I noticed it when I made lunch and came back and it was at 1500 seconds, while the exposure setting was 4 seconds.

Is there any hope of using the software?

Thanks,

-- Jason

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:04 pm
by admin
Hi,

the cause of stuck frames for ASCOM is usually the camera driver failing to ever report the 'ImageReady' state after SharpCap has asked for an exposure to start. This can be caused by failure of communication between the ASCOM driver and the camera or perhaps a bug in the ASCOM driver you are using.

Some ASCOM camera drivers support an ability to abort exposures or stop exposures and SharpCap will try to use those if the camera supports them when you change the exposure value, so that might help. Cameras do not have to offer those abilities though, so it's possible that yours doesn't.

Some ASCOM camera drivers have the ability to produce a verbose log file of all the commands that are sent to them - if yours can do this then it may be worth enabling the log and then seeing if you can make the problem happen again. Please share any logfile that shows the problem with me and I may then be able to work out what is going wrong.

cheers,

Robin

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:19 pm
by jdaliix
OK, but FYI, it's never not doing it now. It worked great for several hours, and then just abruptly started doing it. So, simply opening the program starts the runaway exposure, and nothing I do stops it. As an example, I'll start a 4 second exposure. It will count up/down to the 4 seconds, and then just continue on. I'll look into the log.

Thanks very much,

-- Jason

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:52 pm
by turfpit
Jason

If it did work, it might be worth deleting the profile and trying again? See viewtopic.php?f=5&t=683&p=3227&hilit=de ... file#p3227.

Dave

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2018 3:37 pm
by jdaliix
I'd never saved a profile, and none was automatically saved. There weren't any to delete. Maybe this will help with troubleshooting. I opened Sharpcap just now to check the Manage Profile function, and the frame picked up at 31 seconds, which is where it was when I closed the program yesterday.

I wonder if anybody else who uses a Mallincam could comment.

Anyway, thanks very much for the suggestions, guys. I don't think this is going to work.

All best,

-- Jason

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:31 pm
by admin
SharpCap 3.1 automatically saves your camera settings when you close and re-loads them when you re-open the camera. There is an option to disable this functionality in the settings and you can also disable it on one-off basis by holding down CTRL while opening the camera.

cheers,

Robin

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:56 am
by jdaliix
That worked. I suppose that could remain as an easy workaround for me whenever (or if ever) it decides to do that again. I'm about half-way through the manual, so I have to admit to not having seen that.

Thanks so much,

-- Jason

Re: Runaway Exposure

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:08 am
by admin
Hi,

that trick is not in the manual yet since we have not had time to update the manual to include it yet. Hopefully an update of the manual will arrive over the summer/early autumn.

Robin