SharpCap Forums

I had been used SharpCap to capture images of planets with ASI662MC for more than 1.5 years. The other day, suddenly the image transfer speed became extraorinarily slow (became around 1.0 ~ 10 fps) while I was caputuring JUPITER. I did not change any camera settings. To see what was happening, I tried ASI462MM instead and found that it worked well without any problem. In case of ASI662MC with SharpCap, I found that so many files were dropped (it became more than thousands easily and quickly). Then, I tried this camera with ASI cap and found that it works well without any problem. I re-installed SharpCap but nothing changed. My PC performance should be goood enough. There should be any problems for USB connections. Would you give me any information if you have about it? Thank you.

Hi,

it sounds like you might have set the output format for the 662 camera to a still file format (like PNG, TIFF, FITS, etc) for some reason and then left it set that way. So, when you start to capture Jupiter, it will try to write thousands of PNG files with one frame each, rather than one SER file with all the frames in it.

By default the output format in SharpCap is in 'Auto' mode that will switch between video and still file formats automatically (short exposures create video, long create still images). However, there is also an option to have SharpCap re-load the last used settings for a camera - if that is enabled and you change the output format manually, it will be re-set to that manual option each time you open the camera.

You can prevent the reload of old settings once by holding the <CTRL> key while opening the camera, or turn off the option to restore the last used camera settings in the SharpCap settings. Alternatively, you can just manually change the output format to 'SER' or turn the 'Auto' setting back on. That should get you back to recording video files rather than thousands of still images.

cheers,

Robin

Hi,

Thank you very much for your response. I understand well what you are saying. But, I did not make a mistake like what you mentioned about. I used ASI662MC with SER mode but not any still mode. Please see the attached screen shot of the previewing window. You can see how many files are dropping. As I said, I have this probelem only with ASI662MC. No problem at all with other cameras like ASI462MM and or ASI533MC pro. And, I tried and found that this ASI622MC can work well with other capture softs like ASI cap and Fire capture.

Hi,

Ok, sorry, I misunderstood the 'dropping'. My mistake.

Since you are losing frames while just viewing the camera image, I would suggest that the first thing to do is to adjust the 'Turbo USB' setting for the 662 camera. The default 'Auto' setting works nicely in most cases, but if you have this sort of problem, try turning off 'auto' then gradually reducing the value to see if that resolves the problem.

thanks,

Robin

Hi, Robin

Thank you. I shall tri it. I hope it will work.

Ueda

Hi, Robin

I just adjusted 'Turbo USB' value as you advised. However, unfortunately nothing was changed. I read about Troubleshooting USB Issues and I know that all the things are O.K. My this ASI662MC can work well with other capture softs such as ASI cap and Fire Capture using the same PC, cable and so on what I use for Sharpcap. I now think that this problem happens for my particular camera only. Thank you.

Ueda

Hi,

OK, one more thing to suggest - hold down the <CTRL> key while opening the camera - that will prevent SharpCap from reloading the last set of camera control values you used with the camera. Maybe - just maybe - you set some other option that is contributing to the problem, and going back to defaults will help.

cheers,

Robin

Hi, Robin

I did it and I works we. I could fix it. So happy! Thank you very much for your help. I now do not need to buy a new camera.

Ueda

Sorry I made a mistyping. It should read "It works well" Thanks.

Hi,

good to hear that it is sorted - clear skies!

Robin