I'm testing exposure times/Capture Area settings in Sharpcap with a QHY174GPS camera.
Q1. After reducing the Capture Area, the "live view" no longer works. Is that be design?
Q2. After changing the Capture Area to 640x480 and invoking the FOI, I recorded a minute of data at 10ms to see how the faster exposure time held up on my computer. Once I did this, I am not able to resect the Capture Area back to the full 1920x1080 (native camera resolution). The software only allows me to drill down to smaller FOIs. Again, is this by design or is there a way to start over? I tried disconnecting the camera and restarting it. This did not work. I had to shut down SharpCap and restart it in order to reset the Camera Area to full size.
Regards,
DrAstro
Capture Area issues
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Re: Capture Area issues
Hi,
can you check that your version of SharpCap is right up to date (https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/downloads) please. The issue with not being able to go back to larger ROI or full resolution sounds like a problem that was introduced and then fairly rapidly fixed about 3 to 6 months ago.
I have just tested my QHY174MGPS with the latest version and it seems to be running fine, allowing the ROI to be reduced and then enlarged and the live view works after ROI change, so hopefully the latest version will work fine for you too.
thanks,
Robin
can you check that your version of SharpCap is right up to date (https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/downloads) please. The issue with not being able to go back to larger ROI or full resolution sounds like a problem that was introduced and then fairly rapidly fixed about 3 to 6 months ago.
I have just tested my QHY174MGPS with the latest version and it seems to be running fine, allowing the ROI to be reduced and then enlarged and the live view works after ROI change, so hopefully the latest version will work fine for you too.
thanks,
Robin
Re: Capture Area issues
Robin,
I updated to 4.1.1804.
The menu now works correctly when I change the FOI, but....
The live view still only works if I select 1920x1080, selecting any other camera area and the live view freezes.
Is this user error?
I updated to 4.1.1804.
The menu now works correctly when I change the FOI, but....
The live view still only works if I select 1920x1080, selecting any other camera area and the live view freezes.
Is this user error?
Re: Capture Area issues
A bit more information.
As I mentioned, the live view on the screen doesn't change, but the histogram does change, such as when I cover up the front of the camera.
Vince
As I mentioned, the live view on the screen doesn't change, but the histogram does change, such as when I cover up the front of the camera.
Vince
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Re: Capture Area issues
Hi Vince,
that's interesting - it sounds like the main display is failing to update but everything else (frames coming from the camera, histogram updating, etc) must be working. Does any error/warning get recorded in the log when you change to a lower ROI? Do you get correct recorded files if you capture to SER and play that back.
cheers,
Robin
that's interesting - it sounds like the main display is failing to update but everything else (frames coming from the camera, histogram updating, etc) must be working. Does any error/warning get recorded in the log when you change to a lower ROI? Do you get correct recorded files if you capture to SER and play that back.
cheers,
Robin
Re: Capture Area issues
Robin,
Sorry it took so long to get back to this....it has been a busy spring/summer.
Where is the error log located?
As a test during an occultation run the other night, I recorded full frame, but afterwards, I lowered the ROI to 640x480. I then use PYMOVIE to read the FITS files and yes, the stars were visible as expected.
Once I know where to look, I'll check the log file.
Regards,
Vince
Sorry it took so long to get back to this....it has been a busy spring/summer.
Where is the error log located?
As a test during an occultation run the other night, I recorded full frame, but afterwards, I lowered the ROI to 640x480. I then use PYMOVIE to read the FITS files and yes, the stars were visible as expected.
Once I know where to look, I'll check the log file.
Regards,
Vince
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Re: Capture Area issues
Hi Vince,
for the log, the easiest way is to go to Help->Show Log in the SharpCap menu, then press the 'Locate on Disk' button, which takes you to the folder with the current log in it (and all the previous ones are in the same folder too).
Looking back over your posts, the version you were using 4.1.11804 is now very old (over a year), and it's worth updating to the latest version from the downloads page as there have been lots of bug fixes over the last year. No point in investigating an issue on an old version that might already be fixed in the new one.
cheers,
Robin
for the log, the easiest way is to go to Help->Show Log in the SharpCap menu, then press the 'Locate on Disk' button, which takes you to the folder with the current log in it (and all the previous ones are in the same folder too).
Looking back over your posts, the version you were using 4.1.11804 is now very old (over a year), and it's worth updating to the latest version from the downloads page as there have been lots of bug fixes over the last year. No point in investigating an issue on an old version that might already be fixed in the new one.
cheers,
Robin
Re: Capture Area issues
I tested with v4.1.13332.0
I attached a log file that contains ROI requests. I'm not sure how to read the results.
I attached a log file that contains ROI requests. I'm not sure how to read the results.
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- Log_2025-07-03T11_05_22-1012.log
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Re: Capture Area issues
Hi,
I can't see anything obviously bad happening in that log - you seem to have changed the camer to various resolutions and had frames from the camera on all but one try (once, when you changed to 1024x768, you got zero frames over a few seconds, but after the next change of resolution there were frames again).
So, I'm a bit unsure what to suggest - there is nothing going repeatedly wrong in that particular test.
cheers,
Robin
I can't see anything obviously bad happening in that log - you seem to have changed the camer to various resolutions and had frames from the camera on all but one try (once, when you changed to 1024x768, you got zero frames over a few seconds, but after the next change of resolution there were frames again).
So, I'm a bit unsure what to suggest - there is nothing going repeatedly wrong in that particular test.
cheers,
Robin
Re: Capture Area issues
frame capture is not my issue. if I set an ROI, the frames will be captured correctly.
The issue is with the "live view". once I set an ROI, I can't see the live view in the ROI window. It is difficult to "guess" where I should place the ROI window when I can't see the star field.
I was switching between resolutions to see if any of them would work. Basically the definition of insanity, you know, keep trying things expecting different results! LOL
Vince
The issue is with the "live view". once I set an ROI, I can't see the live view in the ROI window. It is difficult to "guess" where I should place the ROI window when I can't see the star field.
I was switching between resolutions to see if any of them would work. Basically the definition of insanity, you know, keep trying things expecting different results! LOL
Vince