SharpCap 4.1.11680 64 bit
Beelink Mini PC i5-8259U cpu, Windows 11
Celestron Evolution mount, CPWI 2.5.5
ASI294MC Pro camera
To switch targets, I select 'Pause', then press 'Clear'. SharpCap then usually goes into a 'not responding' state. After some time, Windows displays a menu stating that SharpCap is not responding with the options, 'Wait', 'Terminate SharpCap', or "Submit a Report'. Occasionally SharpCap recovers after some time and is ready for operation again but frequently it must be terminated and restarted. SharpCap 4.0 shows the same behavior.
What is the recommended procedure for switching targets when doing live stacking? From another post it sounds like clearing the live stack is done by default when pausing the live stacking. Is the stacked image automatically saved and cleared when pausing the live stack? It also sounds like terminating live stacking may be necessary and possibly safer when switching targets. Is there a risk of losing the stacked image when terminating live stacking?
A log is attached which I believe contains a 'SharpCap not responding' event.
Ed
SharpCap stops responding when switching livestacking target
SharpCap stops responding when switching livestacking target
- Attachments
-
- Log_2024-01-30T21_15_32-9316.log
- (434 KiB) Downloaded 43 times
-
admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 13347
- Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
- Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
- Contact:
Re: SharpCap stops responding when switching livestacking target
Hi Ed,
thanks for posting the log file - it helps massively with being able to understand the problem
When SharpCap has been unresponsive for 10 seconds, a watchdog event fires internally and SharpCap tries to record information on what it is currently doing to the log file. From that information, I can see that it's actually busy saving a FITS file to disk (probably autosaving the final results of the previous stack). What I am suspecting here is that the disk writing speed has slowed down on your mini PC - I have seen this on the Beelink Mini NUC devices when you have recently written a lot of data to SSD (or the SSD is nearly full) - the writing speed collapses.
To test whether it really is the disk write speed, next time you observe, try clearing a good amount of space on the disk first and then use the Windows 'optimize' function to optimize the SSD before starting. At that point everything should behave, but you may find it slows down again when the disk becomes full (or the total amount written in the last hour or so exceeds 10-15% of the SSD capacity).
cheers,
Robin
thanks for posting the log file - it helps massively with being able to understand the problem
When SharpCap has been unresponsive for 10 seconds, a watchdog event fires internally and SharpCap tries to record information on what it is currently doing to the log file. From that information, I can see that it's actually busy saving a FITS file to disk (probably autosaving the final results of the previous stack). What I am suspecting here is that the disk writing speed has slowed down on your mini PC - I have seen this on the Beelink Mini NUC devices when you have recently written a lot of data to SSD (or the SSD is nearly full) - the writing speed collapses.
To test whether it really is the disk write speed, next time you observe, try clearing a good amount of space on the disk first and then use the Windows 'optimize' function to optimize the SSD before starting. At that point everything should behave, but you may find it slows down again when the disk becomes full (or the total amount written in the last hour or so exceeds 10-15% of the SSD capacity).
cheers,
Robin
Re: SharpCap stops responding when switching livestacking target
Robin,
Thank you for the response. The SSD is an external Samsung T7 1TB USB drive which is 60% full. That is very likely the problem. Unfortunately, Windows reports that optimization is not available due to the type of formatting used on this drive.
I will try it with more free space when we have clear skies again. I will also try using the internal SSD or a smaller SSD.
Thank you for the excellent program. I am frequently exploring other features in this program.
Ed
Thank you for the response. The SSD is an external Samsung T7 1TB USB drive which is 60% full. That is very likely the problem. Unfortunately, Windows reports that optimization is not available due to the type of formatting used on this drive.
I will try it with more free space when we have clear skies again. I will also try using the internal SSD or a smaller SSD.
Thank you for the excellent program. I am frequently exploring other features in this program.
Ed
-
admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 13347
- Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
- Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
- Contact:
Re: SharpCap stops responding when switching livestacking target
Hi Ed,
good luck with the next attempt. I have made a note to try to change the code to stop SharpCap from becoming completely unresponsive during the live stack auto save if it is slow - I probably can't make it faster, but I could make it show some progress or 'auto saving' UI or similar so that it doesn't look frozen.
cheers,
Robin
good luck with the next attempt. I have made a note to try to change the code to stop SharpCap from becoming completely unresponsive during the live stack auto save if it is slow - I probably can't make it faster, but I could make it show some progress or 'auto saving' UI or similar so that it doesn't look frozen.
cheers,
Robin