Couple new Ones

Discussions, Bug Reports and Issues related to Beta versions of SharpCap
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DirtyRod
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 3:08 am

Couple new Ones

#1

Post by DirtyRod »

Downloaded the latest 8949 64 bit beta and noticed two things.

When doing 50 flats, the histogram will sometimes freeze. No errors and it will continue capturing flats and save them OK. The flats work fine but this is new behavior from the last 64 bit 4.0 version I was running from 4 months ago. Sorry don't remember the old version. Windows 10 laptop with lots of RAM and disk space.

In the same version, the Auto-Stretch function when running the sequencer sometimes just does not auto-stretch. The log will state it's successful but it doesn't stretch. It happened maybe 10% of the time in the old version so, in the sequencer I just ran it twice with a 2 sec pause between it was fine. During my run yesterday it ran the auto-stretch routine six times and failed to stretch twice even though each time I executed the commend 2X separated by a pause. Again, the log indicated the command was successful.
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Re: Couple new Ones

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

thanks for the report - had a couple of other reports of histogram stopping during flat capture, but haven't tracked down the problem yet. Do you think you can find the SharpCap log file that includes the problem flat capture session? Maybe that would have some helpful info in it.

The only reason I can see for auto-stretch not working is if there is no histogram data in the mini histogram for it to work on. That might be the case if you have just opened the camera, but otherwise should be OK. I will put some extra logging in the places that it could fail for next week's update so we can try to catch the problem happening.

cheers,

Robin
DirtyRod
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 3:08 am

Re: Couple new Ones

#3

Post by DirtyRod »

Attached is the log where I created the Flats.

I also attached a log where the autostretch failed. Did some testing and focusing early but around 21:54 I run the sequence and cancelled at 22:55 because the autostretch failed. The prior night the same sequence ran twice and failed on the 3rd loop.

Let me know if you need anything else.
Attachments
Log_2022-05-11T19_56_49-30276.log
(368.02 KiB) Downloaded 58 times
Log_2022-05-12T05_30_37-15500.log
(97.4 KiB) Downloaded 60 times
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Re: Couple new Ones

#4

Post by admin »

Hi,

on the histogram freezing issue, I can see that you are running SharpCap in 'Classic' UI mode rather than 'New' UI mode. The Histogram has been re-implemented in New UI mode (looks pretty much identical - new technology behind it). Please could you try new UI mode to see if that helps (first page of SharpCap settings, tick 'Use new user interface with improved dark mode' and restart). In the not too distant future (a few months), classic UI mode will be going away, so I am not really fixing any bugs with it.

On the auto-stretch - try putting a delay between the change of exposure/gain and the auto stretch - maybe 5 seconds to allow at least one frame to be captured at the new settings that can therefore be used for the auto stretch. The way it is at the moment, it's possible that the auto stretch might try to run on a nearly black frame that can sometimes get created when the exposure is changed.

cheers,

Robin
DirtyRod
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 3:08 am

Re: Couple new Ones

#5

Post by DirtyRod »

Will do on both. Thx
DirtyRod
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 3:08 am

Re: Couple new Ones

#6

Post by DirtyRod »

Follow Ups ....

Since moving to the newest version, changing over to the New UI, and adding the 5 second delay after the auto-stretch it's been rock solid. Ran it over the last 3 nights and it was just about perfect. Appreciate the advice and follow up!!

If I could add one thing to my Christmas list ....

It would be to add in the option of not terminating the sequence if the auto-focus routine fails. During my second night, although the sky was clear almost all night, an errant cloud came through right during the focus routine so it failed and stopped the sequence. If, upon a AF failure, it would have just gone back to the previous settings and continued, it probably would have been fine and I wouldn't have lost the last 4 hours. At worse, those 20 subs would not have been as sharp as the next 20.

Just my thoughts for Santa.

Regardless - Worth every nickel of that lifetime license!!!!
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Re: Couple new Ones

#7

Post by admin »

Hi Rod,

Santa is here already...

If you look in the 'advanced' block section of the full sequence editor, you will find the following :

'Ignore any errors when running these steps'
'Retry up to <n> times if there are any errors running these steps'

You could put your refocus inside one of these (or even the retry inside the ignore) and get the effect you are looking for.

cheers,

Robin
DirtyRod
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Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 3:08 am

Re: Couple new Ones

#8

Post by DirtyRod »

Thank you Santa!
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