I've been using the SharpCap sequencer for a copuple of years and thought I had a nice fool-proof set of sequences. However, I've just discovered a potential bug with the Preserve Camera Settings command in the Sequencer.
Last week, I decided to experiment with bin 2 for some housekeeping tasks. Plate-solving and focussing were very slow (10s exposures at max gain) when using narrow-band filters,so I thought I'd try setting the camera to bin 2. My sequence looked like this :
- Specify the target
- MOUNT MOVE to the target
- Call a dedicated sequence for Plate-solve Synch and Goto
preserve camera settings
LOAD PROFILE "533mc plate-solve"
RETRY ERRORS UP TO 500 TIMES
MOUNT SOLVEANDSYNC camera set to 5s images, gain 600 and bin 2)
END RETRY ERRORS
restore the camera settings
- Call a dedicated sequence to establish guiding
- LOAD PROFILE "533mc imaging"
- STOP AFTER 63 MINUTES
take images (camera set to 600s images, gain 100 and bin 1)
- End STOP AFTER
- GUIDING STOP
- Call a dedicated sequence for auto-focus
preserve camera settings
LOAD PROFILE "533mc auto-focus" camera set to 5s images, gain 600 and bin 2)
do the auto-focus run
restore the camera settings
What happens is that when the auto-focus run completes, it restores the camera settings but that makes the camera immediately re-start a 600s image in bin 1 mode. On going back to the start of the sequence (outer loop, not shown), a fatal exception occurs when the sequencer reaches the plate solving sequence. It can't put the camera into bin 2 mode because that would entail re-starting the camera and that can't happen because an image is in progress. That exception kills the whole sequence - very annoying when it is half way through the night.
My tip to get around this is to simply eliminate the use of the PRESERVE and RESTORE camera settings commands. Just use the command LOAD PROFILE immediately before using the camera, rather than trying to restore a previous setting.
Dave
PS I haven't confirmed this workaround yet will do so tonight.
Sequencer - 'restore camera settings'
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BucketDave
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Re: Sequencer - 'restore camera settings'
Success! The simplified sequence ran properly to the end, without generating the previous fatal camera exception.
As i was thinking about this, it reminded me that if I terminate a sequence early, SharpCap reverts to Live View and will sometimes go straight in to a 5 minute exposure (that being the exposure setting in the Sequencer, before being interrupted). It can be difficult to break out of that exposure and is annoying if you are trying to run the auto-focus! i wonder if this behaviour has a common cause with the unwanted restarting of an exposure, described in my post above?
Dave
As i was thinking about this, it reminded me that if I terminate a sequence early, SharpCap reverts to Live View and will sometimes go straight in to a 5 minute exposure (that being the exposure setting in the Sequencer, before being interrupted). It can be difficult to break out of that exposure and is annoying if you are trying to run the auto-focus! i wonder if this behaviour has a common cause with the unwanted restarting of an exposure, described in my post above?
Dave
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Re: Sequencer - 'restore camera settings'
Hi Dave,
could you please send me the full sequence that causes the error to happen (you can send by email if you want using the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the page). Something is not quite doing what it should, since the restoring of settings should cancel the long exposure frame in progress and then work fine... Actually, you may also have log files from the times when the crash occurred - if you can get those to me then it would be interesting to see if there is any detail about what went wrong...
When the camera switches to live mode, SharpCap is just going to start taking exposures with whatever value is set - that is how it is supposed to work. Breaking out of a long exposure should be easy - just change the exposure to the value that you want now (say 5s) and SharpCap will automatically cancel the long exposure that is in progress and start a new exposure of the new length. The only exception to this I can think of is that some camera ASCOM drivers in theory might not implement either 'StopExposure' or 'AbortExposure', but I don't think that is relevant as you are not using ASCOM to control the camera.
cheers,
Robin
could you please send me the full sequence that causes the error to happen (you can send by email if you want using the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the page). Something is not quite doing what it should, since the restoring of settings should cancel the long exposure frame in progress and then work fine... Actually, you may also have log files from the times when the crash occurred - if you can get those to me then it would be interesting to see if there is any detail about what went wrong...
When the camera switches to live mode, SharpCap is just going to start taking exposures with whatever value is set - that is how it is supposed to work. Breaking out of a long exposure should be easy - just change the exposure to the value that you want now (say 5s) and SharpCap will automatically cancel the long exposure that is in progress and start a new exposure of the new length. The only exception to this I can think of is that some camera ASCOM drivers in theory might not implement either 'StopExposure' or 'AbortExposure', but I don't think that is relevant as you are not using ASCOM to control the camera.
cheers,
Robin