SharpCap crashes following Remote Desktop connection

[Hans Joakim]

Hi there,

I am using SharpCap v4.1.13852 (64 bit), and I am absolutely in awe of what this software can do. I currently use a Mele Quieter 2Q mini PC mounted on the scope, and use Remote Desktop to logon to the Mele from an iPad Pro, using the Windows app. I use a router to establish the connection between the iPad and the Mele.

During a typical night I will run SharpCap in Live Stack mode, and save individual FITS files for possible post-processing. The last two nights, SharpCap has terminated after several hours of capture, and both instances appear to coincide with me logging onto the Mele using Remote Desktop/Windows from the iPad. The first night, SharpCap did display an error message, which I (in the heat of the battle) forgot to take notice of. The second night, SharpCap closed without showing an error message. I attach the logs from the two nights in question, with the error stated toward the bottom. I had graphics card acceleration activated as default in the SharpCap settings. Appreciate any suggestions that I can try the next time out!

Thanks again,
Hans Joakim

[admin]

Hi Hans,

glad that you are enjoying SharpCap, but sorry to hear about this issue

It's an awkward one by the look of things - the logs reveal that the crash is related to some problem in the underlying Microsoft graphics/user interface libraries that SharpCap uses related to pen input. I suspect that it is trying to get things set up to deal with the new connection having pen/stylus support and gets it wrong. So, we know roughly what is wrong, but unfortunately it is in code that I have no real control over

Pretty much the only thing I can try is to ignore the error and hope for the best. I have a nasty suspicion though that other errors would pop up in different parts of the UI framework soon after because things will be in an unexpected state. You never know though, so I will try to implement that for the next update just in case we get lucky...

Because the error is related to pen input, I am guessing that if you remote desktop connect from another PC which doesn't have any pen/stylus input system then the problem won't happen, but of course that is much less convienient than using an iPad/tablet

cheers,

Robin

[Hans Joakim]

Thanks so much for diagnosing the problem, Robin!

Fortunately it has only happened on these two occasions, so mostly when I logon using Remote Desktop/Windows app from iPad, SharpCap keeps on functioning as it should. It is not a big issue for my use of SharpCap either, as I can simply restart it and resume capturing FITS for post-processing.

Thanks again!