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oaCapture 0.8.0 released

JamesF

By JamesF
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JamesF

JamesF

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There aren't too many new features in this one.  The main changes are partial support for the Celestron Neximage cameras and potentially Imaging Source USB2 CMOS cameras, support for the cooler controls in ZWO ASI cameras and support for Point Grey GigE cameras.  There are also bugfixes for the ARM7 build, Point Grey IIDC cameras, the limit selection box not functioning intuitively on OSX and a few others.

I have tested the Neximage Burst C on Linux and OSX.  On Linux it appears to work fine.  On my (non-unibody) Mac Mini it appears to work fine on both Snow Leopard and Yosemite.  However, on my 13" 2013 Macbook Pro it appears to lock up the USB subsystem completely which requires a reboot to restore it regardless of which OSX release is used.  I thought this was a hardware compatibility problem, but booting the MBP into Linux allows the camera to work happily, so it looks like some strange issue with OSX on my MBP.  There do seem to be a number of reports of people experiencing hangs with USB devices on the 2013 13" MBP, so it may just be my model.  I would suggest however that if you're going to give this camera a try on OSX, make sure all other applications are closed first and be prepared to have to turn off the power to recover the machine if it hangs.

The Burst M is untested but I believe it should work as well as the Burst C.  The Neximage 5 may work with restricted functionality or may not work at all.  Other Neximage cameras are not supported by this release.

The Imaging Source USB2 CMOS cameras (DFK22, DFK42, DFK72, possibly a few others and their mono counterparts) may work as the Neximage cameras are based on some of these models, with the same caveats for OSX.

ZWO cooler support is obviously not properly tested as the production cameras are not yet available.

At the moment Point Grey GigE cameras are supported using their Flycapture2 SDK.  I can't distribute this, so anyone wishing to use it will need to download and install the latest version themselves.  You'll then either need to build from source (the build system will find the libraries and use them if they're present) or I can perhaps make binaries available that are linked against the necessary shared objects.  I believe mono cameras should work, but colour cameras are not tested.

Feedback on which of these cameras work or don't and particularly which Apple hardware the Celestron/Imaging Source cameras work on will be gratefully received.

Downloads from http://www.openastroproject.org/downloads/

James

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Faust

Faust

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James,

I just downloaded 0.8.0 and tested with a QHY 5-IIm and a Skyris 274M. This was with a Mid 2012 15' Retina running 10.9.5.

The QHY connects and works well until I try to change the exposure. At that point the camera display freezes and I need to disconnect and reconnect (via the software, not physical). If I change the range parameter for exposure, say from 1-10 to 10-100, the display freezes again but even after reconnection the proper exposure is not set. I need to quit the application and restart it in order for it to display/capture.

The various options all seem to work with the Skyris once it connects; gain, framerate, exposure, exposure range. Changing things doesn't cause any issues.  However, about half the time after starting the application and trying to connect to the Skyris, it fails to display anything in the preview. At this point trying to disconnect the camera crashes the application. After a force quit and restart, one is back to the 50/50 chance of connection.

I hope this is helpful.

Michael

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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Hi Michael, I'm using V0.8.0 a MB Pro mid 2012 OSX 10.9.5 and Skyris 274M  it all works fine but can take up to 30secs to connect, if you try to disconnect / reconnect during this time it can get a bit confused.

Dave

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JamesF

JamesF

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I'll have a look at the QHY5-II problem.  I know the driver isn't perfect and there's no real useful documentation for the camera.

The Skyris cameras do seem to take a while to connect for some reason.  Something strange seems to be going on inside Apple's USB code.  I have this on my list of things to investigate one I can work out how to get some insight into what OSX actually thinks it is doing.

James

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alberto76

alberto76

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good morning .... I state that I do not speak English and use google translator .... oacapture as specified on the site does not work well with the celstron Nextimage 5 ... for the event you are planning to make it work properly or do I change it?

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bilbo-le-hobbit

bilbo-le-hobbit

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Hi, I installed the latest version of OaCapture to test the DFK 51AU02.as. It appears in the list of cameras: (V4L2) DFK 51AU02.AS
But when I select, I have a message: Unable to connect camera.
  lsusb says: Bus 003 Device 003: ID 199th: 8102 The Imaging Source Europe GmbH.
Guvcview arrives to start the camera but colors are wrong (with BA81). Is there something we can do to correct the problem? I do beta tester if necessary ...

Eric

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bilbo-le-hobbit

bilbo-le-hobbit

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Only in v4L2

You mean   lsusb -vv -d 199e:8102, not  lsusb -vv -d 199e:8202 ?

lsusb -vv -d 199e:8102Bus 003 Device 009: ID 199e:8102 The Imaging Source Europe GmbH Couldn't open device, some information will be missingDevice Descriptor:  bLength                18  bDescriptorType         1  bcdUSB               2.00  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device  bDeviceSubClass         2 ?  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association  bMaxPacketSize0        64  idVendor           0x199e The Imaging Source Europe GmbH  idProduct          0x8102   bcdDevice            1.00  iManufacturer           1   iProduct                2   iSerial                 3   bNumConfigurations      1  Configuration Descriptor:    bLength                 9    bDescriptorType         2    wTotalLength          281    bNumInterfaces          2    bConfigurationValue     1    iConfiguration          0     bmAttributes         0x80      (Bus Powered)    MaxPower              500mA    Interface Association:      bLength                 8      bDescriptorType        11      bFirstInterface         0      bInterfaceCount         2      bFunctionClass        255 Vendor Specific Class      bFunctionSubClass       3       bFunctionProtocol       0       iFunction               2     Interface Descriptor:      bLength                 9      bDescriptorType         4      bInterfaceNumber        0      bAlternateSetting       0      bNumEndpoints           0      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class      bInterfaceSubClass      1       bInterfaceProtocol      0       iInterface              2       ** UNRECOGNIZED:  0d 24 01 00 01 5d 00 10 27 00 00 01 01      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  12 24 02 01 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 0a 00 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  0b 24 05 02 06 00 00 02 20 02 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  09 24 03 03 01 01 00 02 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  08 24 02 04 00 02 00 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  07 24 04 05 01 02 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  1b 24 06 06 0a ba 49 de 5c 0b 49 d5 8f 71 0b e4 0f 94 a6 7a 0e 01 01 02 1b 63 00    Interface Descriptor:      bLength                 9      bDescriptorType         4      bInterfaceNumber        1      bAlternateSetting       0      bNumEndpoints           1      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class      bInterfaceSubClass      2       bInterfaceProtocol      0       iInterface              0       ** UNRECOGNIZED:  0e 24 01 01 00 00 81 00 03 00 00 00 01 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  1c 24 10 02 01 42 59 38 20 00 00 10 00 80 00 00 aa 00 38 9b 71 08 01 04 03 86 00 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  26 24 11 01 00 40 06 b0 04 00 e8 6e 03 00 80 fc 0a 2a 2c 0a 00 03 40 06 00 00 35 b7 0c 00 55 58 14 00 aa b0 28 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  1c 24 10 01 01 59 38 30 30 00 00 10 00 80 00 00 aa 00 38 9b 71 08 01 04 03 86 00 00      ** UNRECOGNIZED:  26 24 11 01 00 40 06 b0 04 00 e8 6e 03 00 80 fc 0a 2a 2c 0a 00 03 40 06 00 00 35 b7 0c 00 55 58 14 00 aa b0 28 00      Endpoint Descriptor:        bLength                 7        bDescriptorType         5        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN        bmAttributes            2          Transfer Type            Bulk          Synch Type               None          Usage Type               Data        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes        bInterval
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JamesF

JamesF

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Yes, my mistake with the USB product ID, but you worked it out :)

It looks very much like it has a similar setup to the DxK21 through DxK41 models, in that it appears to implement a UVC interface, but the USB descriptors don't indicate that it does.  The Linux UVC kernel driver has a special configuration entry to work around this and recognise 199e:8102 as a UVC camera as far as I recall.  However, what the driver can't cope with as far as I recall is raw colour frames.  It could do mono or RGB, but doesn't know what to do with raw colour (as far as I can see the second set of UNRECOGNIZED data says the camera produces "BY8" style frames).  I think that's why the camera refuses to open.

That's the bad news :)

The hopefully rather better news is that oacapture has its own user-space UVC interface that does handle this group of Imaging Source cameras properly.  At the moment it only recognises cameras with 199e:8101 as the USB VID/PID, but it should be trivial to add 199e:8102 and try again with that.

I can build a new binary for you to test if you like.  What distribution are you using and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

James

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chboss

chboss

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Hello James

Thank you for your hard work.

Here some feedback for version 0.8.0.

On Mac with OS X 10.11:

Both the QHY5L-IIc and the ASI 120MC work well without major problems when changing settings and resolutions.

The startup of the application takes a long time. The connection of cameras takes also a lot of time.

On Raspi2 with Wheezy:

The ASI 120MC works well settings can be changed on the fly without major problems.

The frame rates are acceptable but worse than on the Mac.

The QHY5L-IIc on the other hand runs not very stable, showing crashes when changing settings such as the resolution.
The frame rates are really low even when running at reduced resolution.

best regards

Chris

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JamesF

JamesF

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good morning .... I state that I do not speak English and use google translator .... oacapture as specified on the site does not work well with the celstron Nextimage 5 ... for the event you are planning to make it work properly or do I change it?

Sorry, I missed this one last week.

I need a camera to make this one work.  I don't think I can do it without.  If you think you can modify the EUVC driver to get the driver to work partially then please do and I'll incorporate any patches you have.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Hello James

Thank you for your hard work.

Here some feedback for version 0.8.0.

On Mac with OS X 10.11:

Both the QHY5L-IIc and the ASI 120MC work well without major problems when changing settings and resolutions.

The startup of the application takes a long time. The connection of cameras takes also a lot of time.

On Raspi2 with Wheezy:

The ASI 120MC works well settings can be changed on the fly without major problems.

The frame rates are acceptable but worse than on the Mac.

The QHY5L-IIc on the other hand runs not very stable, showing crashes when changing settings such as the resolution.

The frame rates are really low even when running at reduced resolution.

I think the ASI120MC drivers might be doing some firmware-related stuff causing it to take a while to start up.  There used to be different firmware for the USB2 ASI120 models for OSX, but I have the impression that it's handled in the driver now.

Not sure why the QHY5L-IIc should be an issue though.  I'll look into that.

I must admit that I haven't tried anything on El Capitan yet.  I'm being a bit chicken about installing it (and in fact I think it will only run on one of my Macs).

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Ok, i'm back... :smiley:

I currently use Kubuntu 15.04 64-bit for all my astro stuff.

Thank you for your job! To paraphrase Terminator,  I'll be back... tomorrow evening ! :grin:

Can you give this executable a try?  http://www.openastroproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/oacapture

I hope that will recognise the camera with the user-space UVC driver.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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can you recommend a ccd planetary well supported for mac osx 10.5 with USB 2 ? thank you

You specifically want CCD, or just a high frame rate planetary camera?  (Given that there are plenty of CMOS cameras out there now.)

And by "10.5" you mean Yosemite, not Leopard?

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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With oacapture all of the ZWO cameras should work, though the USB2 ASI120MM and MC models can be a bit picky sometimes.  I believe all the Celestron Skyris models should work too and the Imaging Source CCD cameras (DxK21 through DxK41, and perhaps the 51 as well from the next release...).  The QHY5L-II should work too (though the QHY5-II is less stable).

James

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