INDI support

[Ryther]

Thank you very much for the head up!

I'm trying to debug the problem (I have an ASI294 MC-Pro), is there a way to check some logs to understand what's going on?
SharpCap is also not recognizing the sensor, asking me to run the Sensor Analysis to use the Smart Histogram, if this can be an hint.

Now I'm trying to resolve the problem on the Linux side, starting by removing the INDI drivers and leaving only the INDIGO ones.

EDIT: cannot have Kstars withouth INDI, so I'm reinstalling it
Edit2: when I try to enable the Debayer fix I get images like this:
Edit3: I'm trying to run the sensor analysis but looks like SharpCap cannot change the gain while testing the gain range
Edit4: I've tried different things, but without results. Now I'm trying to load the INDI driver on the INDIGO server (I'm having problems connecting to the INDIGO driver even from kstars on the same machine)

Regards,
Edoardo

[admin]

Hi,

did you try all four 'force XXXX' debayer options? There is a possibility that the image orientation is not being preserved in its journey from the camera to SharpCap, and a horizontal or vertical flip of the image changes the effective bayer pattern. When I am unsure of the right pattern for a camera, I shine a red torch into the sensor and look for the setting that gives me a red image.

Looking at the image you've got, the pink colour would arise from saturated red and blue pixels, which seems unlikely as the cameras are usually most sensitive in the green. That could mean you have selected (say) RGGB but need GBRG - the incorrect choice will mean that the value of the red/blue pixels is used for green and the value of green is used for red/blue.

As to the gain, can you change it manually?

cheers,

Robin

[Ryther]

Hi,
I've tried all the debayering options and the RGGB (the one reported from the camera) it's the correct one.
I've tried to use the PixInsight implementation for the Indigo CCD module and I get a different result.

The only thing that change is the type of image under "Image Format": for PixInsight I set the type to "FITS Format" while SharpCap force that value to "RAW Format". I've also tried to use the "XISF Format" in PixInsight and I get another result. The "FITS Format" image seems the right one.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11fsEZO ... drive_link
In this zip you can find a screenshot and 2 frames produced by:

• SharpCap: Capture_00003.fits

• PixInsight: INDICCDFrame.fit

• The screenshot show which menu in Indigo CP I'm refering to.

The frames are taken with the same gain, offset, temperature and exposure time.
If you try to zoom a lot you can see that the SC image has some strange patterns in the pixels:


EDIT:
I've tried to use the INDIGO Imager to look at the images created by the camera from the Control Panel preview, one as RAW and one as FITS and both looks identical.
From the server logs looks like the imager shows the preview from RAW Format:

Code: Select all

15:59:31.514165 indigo_server: RAW to preview conversion in 1.20012s
15:59:31.537599 indigo_server: Client upload in 1.22499s

These the logs from the FITS Format preview:

Code: Select all

15:59:44.364144 indigo_server: RAW to preview conversion in 1.1852s
15:59:44.381775 indigo_server: RAW to FITS conversion in 0.01418s
15:59:44.406102 indigo_server: Client upload in 1.23536s

The 2 previews are the same, so the RAW data is correct.

Regards,
Edoardo

[Ryther]

As to the gain, can you change it manually?

Forgot to say that yes, manually I can change the gain value.

Regards,
Edoardo

[admin]

Hi,

thanks for sharing the images - I loaded the FITS file back into SharpCap and then force set the pattern to GRBG (which seemed the most sensible - it gives a red peak above the blue peak - RGGB and BGGR give identical green and blue curves, so are almost certainly wrong).

Now the red and blue look fine, but the green is weird - normally I would expect the green to be roughly level with the red channel in that sort of image, but it is very low instead, and most oddly it looks like it wraps round to maximum brightness values (see histogram below)

Capture.JPG (55.95 KiB) Viewed 22041 times

I think somehow the values of the green pixels are being offset downwards (or upwards and then wrapping round past zero) before the data gets to SharpCap, leading to the weird effects.

I have a colour ZWO camera I can test with via Indigo to see if I see the same effect

cheers,

Robin

[Ryther]

The green is correct, the images created by my camera are all skewed toward it as you can see from some of my data here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link.

If you want I can setup my INDIGO server to be reached from outside my home. I have an ASI294 MC-Pro. If you also need some testing from me we can hear each other directly.
With a good INDIGO support, SharpCap could be a really complete tool!

Regards,
Edoardo

[admin]

Hi,

OK, I've just discovered that at least part of the problem is that the Alpaca bridge makes the modes of the camera (bit depth, resolution, etc) available via the ASCOM ReadModes property. I've never implemented support for that as all I've really seen it used for before is fast/full readout modes on CCD cameras.

So, for instance my ASI071C starts up in (I think) RAW8 mode, but at the same time reports a maxadu of 16384 (which really only applies to high bit depth mode). It still doesn't quite explain the green effect you are seeing, but I think if I implement read mode adjustment we will get a lot closer.

cheers,

Robin

[Ryther]

Hi,
That's a nice finding! I've never used ASCOM drivers other than my fiddling with SharpCap, I'm sorry not being able to be of more use other than testing. If there is anything I can do to help, I'm here!

Regards,
Edoardo

[Kopa]

Hi Vince,

at the time that I wrote the documentation, it didn't quite work, since there was a bug in the Indigo implementation of the Alpaca agent that made it incompatible with the ASCOM libraries in SharpCap - nothing got detected unfortunately. This bug was fixed in Indigo in October (https://github.com/indigo-astronomy/indigo/issues/504), so the fix should be in the most recent Indigo releases (ie 2.0-264).

With the latest Indigo, it seems to work (just tested). Steps required are

* Install Indigo and latest SharpCap 4.1
* In Indigo Control Panel go to Server, Main, Available Drivers and enable 'ASCOM Alpaca Bridge Support'
* Also enable your actual devices or some simulators in Indigo
* Make sure Alpaca agent discovery port is default (32227)
* Ensure Indigo server and SharpCap PC on same network with no firewall blocking access.
* Run SharpCap, check Cameras menu and Hardware dropdowns in the settings for Indigo devices
* If nothing shows up, try 'Rescan for remote hardware' on SharpCap file menu

Screenshot 2023-12-31 160210.png

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin thanks for your very prompt response.

I have the Raspberry Pi to which my equipment is attached and wirelessly accessed via KStars/Ekos.

If am not mistaken INDIGO and ASCOM Alpaca are two distinct ways of accessing equipment on the RPi.

1. For ASCOM Alpaca I downloaded Alpaca Workbench for Raspberry Pi (https://ascom-standards.org/AlpacaDeveloper/Index.htm) and installed on the RPi and includes the Alpaca simulators.
when activated I can successfully access the simulators in Sharpcap 4.1. ( Although unable to access my attached equipments -not sure if separate Alpaca drivers need to be installed on the RPi ).

2.For INDIGO I downloaded INDIGO Control Panel setup file ( https://www.indigo-astronomy.org/downloads.html) and added the RPi service (192.168.X.X:7624) and started the server via web manager (192.168.X.X:8624) for the selected profile.
In windows INDIGO Control Panel I added the service (192.168.X.X:7624) and all the equipment are visible as below:



The problem I have now is how to have all this available to Sharpcap. When I follow the step " *In Indigo Control Panel go to Server, Main, Available Drivers and enable 'ASCOM Alpaca Bridge Support", the steps are not available in my INDIGO Control Panel (framework 2.0 -250).

I have followed the link for the latest V2.0 -256 to try but could not find the setup file for windows like I found for version 250.

So as of now I am not able to use INDIGO in Sharpcap 4.1. Any additional help highly appreciated.

Kind regards

Vince

[admin]

Hi Vince,

for the Alpaca Workbench, unfortunately I have never used it, so cannot advise.

For the Indigo, I was running the control panel on my Linux box itself, so I have an extra 'server' section at the bottom of the control panel where I can enable/disable drivers

Capture.JPG (91.96 KiB) Viewed 21883 times

I am guessing that somewhere (probably in the server config) there will be a way to enable remote administration to allow you to add the alpaca bridge agent driver. I also just discovered that you can use the web UI to manage the server - point your browser to http://servername:7624

Hope this helps,

Robin