This is using the June 26th beta release...
I had been running without guiding, so had SC settings set to Dither only. Then I started up PHD2 and got guiding running on my current target and then started a live-stack sequence. The sequence script send a dither command after each live-stack was completed. I could see the dither attempt as the live image moved and then it went back to its original guiding position. PHD2 didn't mark in its guide graph that it had received a dither command, so after some fiddling, I relealized it must be SC. When I looked at the SC log, it showed that it was sending an unguided dither command to the mount, which of course then PHD2 proceeded to fight against and null out. It probably said in the guide window in SC in live-stack that PHD2 wasn't being used, but the text is kind of small, and I just didn't notice that.
A restart of Sharpcap got SC to honor the dither setting in its control panel and start using PHD2.
One additional note: I tried testing this out just using dither every N frames in live-stack without a sequence. If you have live stack set to dither every 20 frames, and the live stack reset time will produce a save and reset of the live-stack every 20 frames, no dither occurs. This seems kinda wrong. It should dither in this situation, as I did want it to dither every 20 frames. If my live stack reset every 40 frames, but had it dither every 20 frames in live-stack, I would only get a dither every 40 frames. Very strange behavior...
Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
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lowenthalm
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
Hi,
when you were getting the wrong sort of guiding, did you happen to notice whether the guiding setting in SharpCap's settings window had changed to be dither only guiding as shown below?
That should be the only reason that dither only guiding gets selected, although I wouldn't like to place money on what happens if you change that setting *after* SharpCap has already started doing something that requires guiding. It's quite likely that it would continue using the old option until (at the very least) you close whatever feature is using guiding and restart it.
As to the save/reset/dither - both are checked after each frame, but right now the save and reset is checked first, which means that when you get to frame 20 the save and reset activates and sets the frame count back to zero before the dithering code gets to check. Unfortunately just switching the order isn't enough since the dithering just starts the dither operation, which would then be running when the stack resets and possibly get cancelled or give unpredictable results at that point. I think I am going to leave this as-is for now to avoid introducing new errors - the best bet would be to set your dither for perhaps 10 frames - then it would dither in the middle of every 20 frame stack. It still will not dither at frame 20 for the same reason, so you will still get the same number of dither operations.
cheers,
Robin
when you were getting the wrong sort of guiding, did you happen to notice whether the guiding setting in SharpCap's settings window had changed to be dither only guiding as shown below?
- Capture.JPG (58.78 KiB) Viewed 499 times
As to the save/reset/dither - both are checked after each frame, but right now the save and reset is checked first, which means that when you get to frame 20 the save and reset activates and sets the frame count back to zero before the dithering code gets to check. Unfortunately just switching the order isn't enough since the dithering just starts the dither operation, which would then be running when the stack resets and possibly get cancelled or give unpredictable results at that point. I think I am going to leave this as-is for now to avoid introducing new errors - the best bet would be to set your dither for perhaps 10 frames - then it would dither in the middle of every 20 frame stack. It still will not dither at frame 20 for the same reason, so you will still get the same number of dither operations.
cheers,
Robin
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lowenthalm
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
In the screen snap you posted:
The circled setting was what I had been using, as I was doing some imaging without guiding, but wanted to dither. The next day, I started PHD2 guiding and Sharpcap live-stacking and noticed dither wasn't happening (it actually was but PHD2 was undoing it), closed live-stacking went into settings and clicked the PHD2 option. Then re-opened live-stacking, and started again. After a few minutes of imaging with dithers that should have happened, I saw that there were still no dithers. I went back into the control panel and saw that PHD2 was still clicked, but the SC logs were clearly showing that PHD2 wasn't being used, either in the from the capture sequence I was running or in live-stack. I tried changing it to dither only and then back to PHD2 and SC still refused to use PHD2. I know I did this because I didn't want to quit and have to wait for the cooler to stabilize again. I finally gave in and quit and restarted SC and that cured it.
I really wish I had thought to consciously notice what SC said it was using for guiding in the live-stack guiding panel. I suspect it did not say PHD2 in the live-stacking guiding panel because I only noticed it said "PHD2" in the live-stack guiding panel after the restart as if I unconsciously noticed the change. I had spend some time in this panel prior to the restart when I was debugging what was going on.
I closed stopped the sequence sending dither commands in one case and then also closed live-stacking (which I was running when I tried to debug the problem) before changing to PHD2 guiding in the SC guiding settings panel, so as far as I could tell, SC was not actively using guiding when I changed the guiding setting panel.
Hope that clarifies my 2am post!
The circled setting was what I had been using, as I was doing some imaging without guiding, but wanted to dither. The next day, I started PHD2 guiding and Sharpcap live-stacking and noticed dither wasn't happening (it actually was but PHD2 was undoing it), closed live-stacking went into settings and clicked the PHD2 option. Then re-opened live-stacking, and started again. After a few minutes of imaging with dithers that should have happened, I saw that there were still no dithers. I went back into the control panel and saw that PHD2 was still clicked, but the SC logs were clearly showing that PHD2 wasn't being used, either in the from the capture sequence I was running or in live-stack. I tried changing it to dither only and then back to PHD2 and SC still refused to use PHD2. I know I did this because I didn't want to quit and have to wait for the cooler to stabilize again. I finally gave in and quit and restarted SC and that cured it.
I really wish I had thought to consciously notice what SC said it was using for guiding in the live-stack guiding panel. I suspect it did not say PHD2 in the live-stacking guiding panel because I only noticed it said "PHD2" in the live-stack guiding panel after the restart as if I unconsciously noticed the change. I had spend some time in this panel prior to the restart when I was debugging what was going on.
I closed stopped the sequence sending dither commands in one case and then also closed live-stacking (which I was running when I tried to debug the problem) before changing to PHD2 guiding in the SC guiding settings panel, so as far as I could tell, SC was not actively using guiding when I changed the guiding setting panel.
Hope that clarifies my 2am post!
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
Hi,
well, oddly I decided that I would test this out and as far as I can see it re-creates the guiding connection when you press 'Apply' or 'OK' in the settings window having changed the guiding options there. In fact, if you do that with Live Stack guiding panel showing behind the settings, you can watch the 'Guiding Using : ' text change as the option is changed.
So, I'm confused - it looks like the change in guiding application should be activated immediately, and seems to work that way in my testing.
If you catch it misbehaving again, please send me a log and I will dig further.
cheers,
Robin
well, oddly I decided that I would test this out and as far as I can see it re-creates the guiding connection when you press 'Apply' or 'OK' in the settings window having changed the guiding options there. In fact, if you do that with Live Stack guiding panel showing behind the settings, you can watch the 'Guiding Using : ' text change as the option is changed.
So, I'm confused - it looks like the change in guiding application should be activated immediately, and seems to work that way in my testing.
If you catch it misbehaving again, please send me a log and I will dig further.
cheers,
Robin
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lowenthalm
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
Ok. I will try to recreate the problem in a couple of days. I need to keep my scope closed for the next a two days to keep Fourth of July celebration firework smoke out of my optics. People go kinda nuts for setting off fireworks in the Portland-Vancouver area. The ground level smoke is startlingly bad.
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lowenthalm
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
So, reproduced the problem with the first try. See attached log.
1) I changed the guiding setting to "dither only" and quite SharpCap.
2) Quit Sharpcap and restarted Sharpcap
3) Started guiding in PHD2
4) Ran a sequence to capture a few live stacks and dither in between each (see log for sequence script)
5) let it run for a couple of loops so I could see unguided dither in SC fight with PHD2.
6) Stopped the sequence
7) Went into settings and switched to PHD2.
8) Ran the sequence again, but it still only did unguided dithering (PHD2 was guiding the entire time since I started in step 3).
9) Stopped the sequence. Went back into settings to verify that it showed PHD2 as the guiding app. It did.
10) Ran a live stack directly (not in a sequence) and checked the guiding tab. It showed unguided dithering still too.
11) Tried various combinations of resetting the live stack, closing live stack, going back to settings (still showed PHD2 selected in settings). Hit apply settings again in settings panel to get it to switch to PHD2 in Live stack. No luck.
12) Restarted Sharpcap, and immediately started live-stack. It now showed PHD2 in the live stack guide tab.
1) I changed the guiding setting to "dither only" and quite SharpCap.
2) Quit Sharpcap and restarted Sharpcap
3) Started guiding in PHD2
4) Ran a sequence to capture a few live stacks and dither in between each (see log for sequence script)
5) let it run for a couple of loops so I could see unguided dither in SC fight with PHD2.
6) Stopped the sequence
7) Went into settings and switched to PHD2.
8) Ran the sequence again, but it still only did unguided dithering (PHD2 was guiding the entire time since I started in step 3).
9) Stopped the sequence. Went back into settings to verify that it showed PHD2 as the guiding app. It did.
10) Ran a live stack directly (not in a sequence) and checked the guiding tab. It showed unguided dithering still too.
11) Tried various combinations of resetting the live stack, closing live stack, going back to settings (still showed PHD2 selected in settings). Hit apply settings again in settings panel to get it to switch to PHD2 in Live stack. No luck.
12) Restarted Sharpcap, and immediately started live-stack. It now showed PHD2 in the live stack guide tab.
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
Ok, thanks for the detailed report - I will look into what is going on here when I get back from holiday.
cheers,
Robin
cheers,
Robin
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Re: Turing on PHD2 guiding isn't honored until SC is restarted
Ah, OK, when I debugged through it, it all became clear...
The issue is that the sequencer was not properly disconnecting the guiding at the end of the sequencer run (whether it finishes normally or is cancelled). Because the guiding was still connected, changing it doesn't take effect.
I have a fix, ready for the next 4.1 update.
cheers,
Robin
The issue is that the sequencer was not properly disconnecting the guiding at the end of the sequencer run (whether it finishes normally or is cancelled). Because the guiding was still connected, changing it doesn't take effect.
I have a fix, ready for the next 4.1 update.
cheers,
Robin