ZWO ASI 183MC on W10 HP PC. Got the Pro SharpCap a few days ago for use in Apr8 solar eclipse. Worked through most of the learning curve, but ran into a bug.
Using DeepSkySequencePlanner. Attempting to take 200 short (50ms) exposures, then 20 or so long 20s exposures, then back to short exposures. Got the sequence to run, but after the long exposures system refuses to set the exposure back to 50ms, and continues to take 20s exposures indefinitely. At this point main screen shows LX engaged. I have tried a variety of things, including dividing the whole sequence into three, then running each in succession, each with sequence settings to set up the camera. Nothing works to stop the long exposures. One test however is to use quick choice to choose short exp, then long, then short..this works ok as shown by live screen.
HELP--if I can't fix this I can't use the software (which has lots of good features).
Maybe need a sequence control to definitively set/unset LX mode?
Here is long sequence having all three different exposure sequences:
SEQUENCE
LIVE MODE
*****start setting camera
SET CONTROL "Timestamp Frames" TO On
TARGETNAME EclTest1
SET CONTROL "Capture Area" TO 1600x1200
SET OUTPUT FORMAT TO "FITS files (*.fits)"
SET COLOUR SPACE TO RAW8
SET BINNING TO 2
SET CONTROL Pan TO 734
SET CONTROL Tilt TO 658
SET CONTROL Gain TO 273
PLAY SOUND Alert
**Set camera for 50ms
ADJUST CONTROL "Auto Exp Max Exp MS" BY 50
CAPTURE 200 LIVE FRAMES
**set camera for 20s exp, two frames
ADJUST CONTROL Exposure BY 20
CAPTURE 2 LIVE FRAMES
** now attempt to completely reset camera to get back to 50ms..this FAILS
STILL MODE
LIVE MODE
SET CONTROL "Timestamp Frames" TO On
TARGETNAME EclTest1
SET CONTROL "Capture Area" TO 1600x1200
SET OUTPUT FORMAT TO "FITS files (*.fits)"
SET COLOUR SPACE TO RAW8
SET BINNING TO 2
SET CONTROL Pan TO 734
SET CONTROL Tilt TO 658
SET CONTROL Gain TO 273
PLAY SOUND Alert
ADJUST CONTROL "Auto Exp Max Exp MS" BY 50
CAPTURE 100 LIVE FRAMES
CAPTURE STOP
END SEQUENCE
Log of this session is appended (97KB)
long esposure prevents later short exposure
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long esposure prevents later short exposure
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admin
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Re: long esposure prevents later short exposure
Hi,
you are using the wrong steps and settings to adjust the exposure in your sequence. In two places you have
This will adjust the maximum auto exposure time, not the actual manual exposure time, so it is setting the wrong control. Also, the 'Adjust ... By ... ' step offsets the control value, so if the previous value was 1000 then the step above will increase it to 1050, not set it to 50.
You should use the 'Set Exposure To <exposure length>s' step to set the exposure - for 50ms, just set to 0.05s. That step needs to be used in 3 places instead of the 'Adjust' steps you are currently using.
The LX thing is a red herring - it doesn't actually affect the camera, just the display of the exposure slider. When it is checked the exposure range on the slider is from 1s to maximum exposure. When unchecked it's from shorted exposure up to 5s. When in the sequencer, the tick will come and go automatically as the exposure changes to ensure the current exposure is within the displayed slider range.
cheers,
Robin
you are using the wrong steps and settings to adjust the exposure in your sequence. In two places you have
Code: Select all
ADJUST CONTROL "Auto Exp Max Exp MS" BY 50
You should use the 'Set Exposure To <exposure length>s' step to set the exposure - for 50ms, just set to 0.05s. That step needs to be used in 3 places instead of the 'Adjust' steps you are currently using.
The LX thing is a red herring - it doesn't actually affect the camera, just the display of the exposure slider. When it is checked the exposure range on the slider is from 1s to maximum exposure. When unchecked it's from shorted exposure up to 5s. When in the sequencer, the tick will come and go automatically as the exposure changes to ensure the current exposure is within the displayed slider range.
cheers,
Robin
Re: long esposure prevents later short exposure
Hi Robin,
Do you ever sleep? I've never seen such quick, yet complete and useful response.
Re exposure advice. Incorporated your suggestions, now sequence works like a charm. I did go back to recheck the help, but still could not find the basic info to guide this task. However, all is well now.
And it really is pretty good for a reasonably experienced person to come cold into this very powerful program, and be able to exploit it in only three days.
BTW, my application is to do spectroscopy to observe the flash spectrum of the eclipse (before and after totality) then switch to longer exposures to (hopefully) get the spectrum of the corona.
Hemostar (menkescientific.com)
Do you ever sleep? I've never seen such quick, yet complete and useful response.
Re exposure advice. Incorporated your suggestions, now sequence works like a charm. I did go back to recheck the help, but still could not find the basic info to guide this task. However, all is well now.
And it really is pretty good for a reasonably experienced person to come cold into this very powerful program, and be able to exploit it in only three days.
BTW, my application is to do spectroscopy to observe the flash spectrum of the eclipse (before and after totality) then switch to longer exposures to (hopefully) get the spectrum of the corona.
Hemostar (menkescientific.com)
-
admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 13347
- Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
- Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
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Re: long esposure prevents later short exposure
Hi Hemostar,
good to hear that you got it working and good luck getting it all to work correctly live during the eclipse!
On the subject of sleep, I do manage to get enough - usually... I tend to answer forum questions once a day, which helps keep the amount of time I spend on them under control and lets me get other stuff done. It always helps when I get good questions with plenty of information about what has been tried, what the results are, etc - those can usually be answered fairly easily and well. The ones that just say 'it doesn't work' with no details are more of a problem
By the way, the documentation on the available sequencer steps is here : https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Camera . Actually there are a number of new ones since the documentation was written, but hopefully most of them are fairly self-explanatory.
cheers,
Robin
good to hear that you got it working and good luck getting it all to work correctly live during the eclipse!
On the subject of sleep, I do manage to get enough - usually... I tend to answer forum questions once a day, which helps keep the amount of time I spend on them under control and lets me get other stuff done. It always helps when I get good questions with plenty of information about what has been tried, what the results are, etc - those can usually be answered fairly easily and well. The ones that just say 'it doesn't work' with no details are more of a problem
By the way, the documentation on the available sequencer steps is here : https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Camera . Actually there are a number of new ones since the documentation was written, but hopefully most of them are fairly self-explanatory.
cheers,
Robin