SC3.3.7313 livestacking via sequencer

[DocHighCo]

Hello,

At the moment I am trying to do some livestacking at -15°C outside with the latest SC3.3.7313 beta version. Cooling of the camera is not an issue at the moment.
I noted that while using livestacking with the sequencer it is not possible anymore to change seetings via the GUI . Before I could. I found this quite usefull. When the sequencer is running setting changes seem to be only possible via the sequencer. However, some setting changes while livestacking are quite usefull (i.e. histogramm, filter limits etc.)
Also, I noted that livestacks are only saved as 16-bit files now. Before they were saved as 16-bit and 32-bit fits-files. Did I miss a setting somewhere?

Best Regards

Heiko

[DocHighCo]

Something else strange I found after looking at the livestacks today. After a few livestacks with SC V3.3.7146.0 I had changed to SC V3.3.7313.0 in the night after experiencing some hanging issues again when applying dark and flat correction. This issue was solved with the newer version. No hanging anymore when using dark and flat frame correction.
However, V3.3.7313.0 seems to "eat" the bluechannel:

Blue channel with SC V3.3.7146.0 (no dark and no flat):


Blue channel with SC V3.3.7313.0 same stretch (dark and flat):


Red and green channels look normal. Unfortunately I don't have the raw frames. Other settings seem to be the same.

Regards

Heiko

[admin]

Hi,

I've deliberately knocked out the menu during the sequencer run, and the side effect of this is that the controls and live stacking are gets locked too. I'm not sure what the right solution is here – allowing the controls to be adjusted increases the scope for breaking the sequence by tinkering - changing the colour space or the save format for instance or closing live stacking or something.

The workaround that will give you access at the moment is to put a 'Prompt' step into your sequence – while the prompt is showing the live stacking area and the camera control should be unlocked. This is deliberate to allow people to do things like show a prompt while adjustments are made to capture a correctly exposed flat frame.

Not sure about the blue frame issue - will probably have to look at data and run the same data through the code in both versions (folder monitor camera) to track down what is going on. I've looked at the code changes between the two versions and there isn't much in the live stacking and a couple of changes in each of dark and flat correction. If we could narrow it down to 'happens with darks but not flats' (or the other way around) that would help.

Robin

[admin]

BTW, it would be possible to add an 'Unlock Controls' block to the sequencer - while it was running (including any sub steps) the controls would be unlocked - would that help?

cheers,

Robin

[DocHighCo]

Dear Robin,

yes this might be usefull.
I will have to try again and also adjust my sequencer scripts. I used a script written for a previous sequencer version which might cause unexpected results now. No problem here, because I am happy that the sequencer gets more and more functionality. I just have to keep up with the changes. It is still beta after all.
I will have a look out for the "blue channel eater".

Best Regards

Heiko

[DocHighCo]

And one more feedback: In V3.3.7313.0 there is an issue with saving 32-bit stacks. I tried now offline as well. The 16-bit stacks are saved but 32-bit stacks are not. I tried "Live Stack for x frames then save as FITSRawStack32Bit" from the sequencer and I tried "Save as Raw (32-bit) stack" from the pull down menu in the GUI. There is no 32-bit stack saved - only the settings file. The 16-bit file saving however works as expected.

Heiko

[admin]

Hi,

Ok, thanks for the update on the 32 bit save - I can see what's going wrong and will fix it.

Also, thanks for your patience as the sequencer evolves - I am trying to only make breaking changes when absolutely necessary (although sometimes it's hard to spot the ways that things might break - like the disabled UI thing).

cheers,

Robin

[DocHighCo]

I did some more livestacking with the latest SC3.3 version.
The sequencer works well. However I get a lot of these:

This means I have to restart SC3.3. At the same time SC3.2 works like a charm though.
My blue channel eater is also present when I stack the recorded raw frames with SC3.2 or Pixinsight. It must be the darks frames or the way the dark frames were taken then. I still have to figure out what is wrong there.
An one more finding. In SC3.2 the first line in the settings file indicates the camera used (i.e [ZWO ASI120MC]). In SC3.3 this seems to be gone.

Best Regards

Heiko

[admin]

Hi,

it looks like there may be a memory leak in the new version – have you been pressing the 'Send and Quit' button to send the bug report? I can't seem to find any uploaded reports that match the screenshot below. If you can submit the bug report then it will help me track down what is going wrong.

Cheers, Robin

[DocHighCo]

Hello Robin,

no I didn´t send the report as I do not have an internet connection when I am outside. I know the report is saved offline somewhere. Next time I will keep it and send it later.

Regards

Heiko