Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

jasonjeremiah
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Re: Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

#11

Post by jasonjeremiah »

Just to be clear, the sensor analysis has already been done. My question is about utilizing the Smart Histogram. So, you're saying the Smart Histogram recommendations should take no longer that 5 minutes?

One more question, will Sharpcap automatically upscale 12bit data to 16bit format? I ask because I have about 9 hours of Horsehead data that's now wasted because the files were being saved in a 16 bit "container" but the data itself was not being upscaled to match the 16bit format. So, I now have several FITS files with 16bit headers (which can't be modified) but only contain data that translates to 4095 ADU. Thanks!
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Re: Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

#12

Post by admin »

Hi,

ah, sorry, the sky brightness measurement rather than the analysis. There were some cases where that was taking a long time to complete, so I made some improvements very recently - these are in version 4.0.8564, so you may not have them yet if you have not updated recently.

SharpCap will scale up 12 bit data to 16, providing that the ASCOM driver properly reports the maximum pixel value as 4095. If the ASCOM driver reports a maximum pixel value of 65535 (16 bit) then SharpCap will believe it and save the image without scaling up the brightness.

You can probably fix any frames that have been captured with 0..4095 range by running them through PIPP with an input gain of 16 and then saving the result back to FITS in a different folder.

cheers,

Robin
jasonjeremiah
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Re: Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

#13

Post by jasonjeremiah »

Maybe updating will help. I'm using a fairly recent version (4.0.8509.0). Not sure what's going on but SharpCap doesn't seem to play nice with this camera. When I open the smart histogram, the screen looks different from what I see with others. Most noticeably, I have an option to measure R, B, G, or darkest? I do not see this when watching other tutorials on using the smart histogram. There's merely a "measure" button. Anyway, log file is attached. Looks like my only resort is to learn how to use NINA as it provides native support and until Sharpcap does so, it's a no go with this camera.
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Re: Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

#14

Post by admin »

Hi,

thanks for sharing the log - what is happening there is that the images are not coming from the ASCOM driver as requested. Some images seem to have worked and then SharpCap requests another image and the camera goes back to the idle state without delivering the image. The cause of that isn't clear, but about 20 seconds later the camera starts giving errors when the temperature is requested, so maybe it is a communications failure.

cheers,

Robin
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Re: Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

#15

Post by jasonjeremiah »

I've been imaging with the camera for a month or so now, and the results have been mixed. I'm still trying to find an optimal gain and offset. I'm using NINA which has native support and the Touptek driver defaults offset to 48. I figured the manufacturers of the camera must know something, so that's the offset I've been using.

I re-ran the sensor analysis (using the ASCOM driver, as that's the only one that will work in SC) and once again got a very strange result. You can see full well is only around 13,600 at lowest gain setting, whereas it should be around 20k. I'm starting to wonder if I should take any of the readings from the SC sensor analysis into consideration as they seem to be all over the place when using the ASCOM driver.

I was trying to find some way to calculate similar settings between the sensor analysis of the ASI-1600 and Touptek since they use the same sensor and could then equate some of the settings from the ASI to the Touptek as far as gain and offset, since there is a LOT more info on the ASI-1600 on the internet. I just don't think it's possible to draw any correlations, though, since the sensor analysis from SC seems to vary so much with this camera when using the ASCOM driver and not the native SDK.
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Re: Sensor Analysis interpretation - Orion Starshoot G16 (same as Touptek ATR3-16000-KPA) - Need Help!

#16

Post by admin »

Hi,

the key thing to know is that for the ToupTek cameras, gain tends to be a relative value, so gain 100 is usually minimum, gain 200 is 2x brighter, 400 is 4x brighter than 100 and so on. For ZWO cameras, the gains are measured in 0.1dB, so the relative brightness (relative to minimum gain) is 10^(gain value / 200). That means that a ZWO gain of 0 is minimum, 60 is about 2x brighter than minimum, 120 about 4x brighter, 180 is 8x brigher, etc.

Now, looking at your figures, it seems likely that for some reason the ASCOM driver is not getting the camera down to minimum gain, giving a smaller than expected FWD. In ZWO terms you are probably starting at gain 20-25 (maybe 1.2 or 1.3 times what should be the minimum gain). Of course from SharpCap's point of view, the ASCOM driver just supplied the minimum and maximum values that can be set - if the ASCOM driver says 100 is the minimum, but it's not translating to the true minimum then there's not much I can do. It may be worth checking the ASCOM driver setup window, just in case there is something in there that you might be able to adjust.

Hope this helps,

Robin
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