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NickK

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Blog Entries posted by NickK

  1. NickK
    I looked at 16GB originally when I first bought this MBP after the demise of my long serving previous MBP.. but decided that the update from 4GB to 8GB was better at that time than the ridiculous prices they charged for 16GB.. now with time 16GB is reasonable and so I took the plunge.
    Firstly everything is naturally quicker.. now HD limited on initial loading but after that everything is in memory making the machine pretty much instantaneous in normal use.. however this also means that compiling is exceptionally quick and processing large sets of images (stacking and the like) is lightning fast with the i7 running maxed out without waiting for the HD.
    So for ~£100 for 16GB (Crucial memory) for my early 2011 MBP this is a great move :D Most people would be fine with 4GB.. APers need a bit more ram and 8GB is a good size to help stacking etc.. 16GB still offers good additional gains in performance.
  2. NickK
    Big difference in speed between the 16IC and the Titan! (the 16IC is USB 1.1, the Titan is USB 2.0 High Speed)
    I've had a 5 minute play.. I've got a tweak or two and I should be able to get the images off it. :evil6:
    Can't wait to point this at M42!
  3. NickK
    I've been playing with the 383L+ again for a couple of hours and one aspect may be a sticking point of ATIK support in AOSX - the copyright of the CCD firmware.
    In short, each time the ATIK driver initialises the ATIK high speed cameras, it downloads a small application that runs on the 383L's 8051 microcontroller.
    I'm assuming this firmware is written by ATIK, or at least not by Cypress, and therefore I suspect this would be copyrighted to ATIK (although no copyright is present in the code).
    Thus if we take the firmware and provide it as part of AOSX support for ATIK cameras - it could place me and others in the legal firing line..
    I'll ping ATIK an email but, given the zero response to my previous emails - I'm not expecting that ATIK will authorise it.
    Technically it's possible.
  4. NickK
    Many thanks to those that helped with testing the OSX ATIK drivers at SGL8!
    Added Legacy camera: 16HR
    Added Modern cameras: 460ex OSC, 314L
    More dogfooding with the Titan with whitelight solar too!
  5. NickK
    I'm sure you thrilled to learn that AOSX is progressing with the redesign.
    Principally the work refactors (tech speak for rework/design) the communications and the class hierarchy for the plugin management/plugins so that each class is now considerably smaller and more focused on doing it's specific job.
    Yes this means a delay however it also means the code base is smaller and easier to maintain.
    From experience it always take three attempts to get something right.. the prototype/test that is thrown away, the initial bringing together and then the rework where the emphasis is more on development principles rather than getting the thing to work together.
    If you've developed for long enough then you know there's a gut instinct that something is 'beautiful' as a software design is like a sculpture.
    I've lost time due to work and a 6 hour round trip to pick up a lovely Pentax.
  6. NickK
    Well it's cloudy.. and what do we do when it's cloudy? That's right - we probe USB devices..
    The 383L+ seems to be:
    a) using a non-standard USB vendorId
    b) doesn't seem to support VCPs (virtual serial ports)
    c) doesn't have the same USB-bus chatter as a FTDI et al..
    d) transfer speed well over serial.. indicating block speed.
    So they're using a USB block device to give them high speed communications.. bets on the very popular Cypress chips (just so happens that Apple give a USB block example using a cypress chip in their dev sample code for USB development..).
    Now on windows, nebulosity uses the ATIK DLLs to interact with the atikhub driver which then interacts with the standard windows USB hub drivers.. well that's what the USB sniffer seems to think.
    It also shows a close similarity to the ye-olde protocol of the 16ic. Now the 16ic uses an FTDI serial and so it seems to be in 8bit hell (I'm assuming the PIC controller is 8bit too).
    Now usually as the PC has more cpu power it attempts to communicate in a more friendly form for the poor low power onboard processors.. it seems the 383 is no exception.. with the messages appearing in 16bit numbers - including the numbers that had appeared in 8bit previously.
    So given this... with a little jiggery pokery we should have some very basic control of the 383 soon..
  7. NickK
    After an uneventful week, a few days of clear nights - I'm dodging tonight's clear night (possible cold ahead of a job interview).. AOSX is now start taking the plugin of USB devices again after the refactoring.
    It's slow.. but I'm getting there! Unfortunately with the interview looming the next few nights will be revision nights. :/ However this weekend seems like a good shot to get more done :D
  8. NickK
    Got a bit distracted in the last week with work and my birthday yesterday, however the AOSX re-architecture now detects ATIK (and other USB devices), along with serial and firewire.
    It shouldn't be too long until we start seeing images and mount control that the V1 architecture had :D
  9. NickK
    If you've not been following - we have been working on a re-architecting (v2) of AOSX which is starting to appear. Just plugged my Titan in and it's recognised it. Early days but it's always a good feeling to see something to reassure you!
    I'm also taking delivery of ATIK 4000 carcass for testing. Electronically working to allow testing of the 4000/11000 support in the driver.
  10. NickK
    AOSX has had a little bit of a backseat recently with ATIK and the wedding.. over the last few days I've been discussing and finalising some ideas with OzDave and I'm progressing nicely with the architectural changes we've been thinking about for a while.
    The focus of AOSX is the user, so we've been building in some heavy duty crash protection. This means now that each device in service has it's own process - a heavy approach but one that means if the driver "blue screens" or crashes then it will not affect any other part of AOSX or the client application. Most cameras that support reconnect could then conceivably reconnect and recover the sub in the camera. This may not be a problem with 30 second shots but 30 minute shots.. that's a different matter!
    This will be the last iteration before it appears for general consumption *hurrah*. Now that OSX 10.8 means additional Parallels costs to run PC-based solutions.. I have decided to go 100% OSX in my astronomy so I have no choice to get this working before my trip to Olly's place! (optimistic me!) OzDave is really looking forward to integrating EQMac to allow EQMac to support different mounts and Crag Stark is interested for PHD and Nebulosity.
    I may have some additional holiday left to take - if so as Sandrine doesn't.. I'll spend the time on driving this forward!
    Enough.. back to the grindstone!
  11. NickK
    Last night I managed to trip up and take out the USB cable and the centre plastic pin inside the USB socket.. so I'll be arranging a repair trip for the 383L. Perfect conditions but ho-hum!
    The additional downside is that the 383L support will have to wait for it to be fixed but it does mean I can continue with the 16IC :D
    I've also just found out that there's an open source project that allows connection for my little Garmin Geko 301, a RS232 serial connection... GPS support :D But 16IC first!
  12. NickK
    Well.. at least to support ye-olde 3.3 fully! (3.3 is basically like DX11.. the latest is something like 4.2..) - supposedly it runs 3.2 but I'm not convinced.. I can see the logic of avoiding 4.x as it's too new and a mess...
    Which basically means that the only thing buying a higher end graphic GPU in an apple is that it goes faster by clock speed and number of pipelines.. nothing about using the (now standard) features available - a PC and linux have more advanced graphics sub-systems!
    I'm having to use OpenCL to render 3D volume visualisations rather than OpenGL!
    Oh.. yes.. it is astronomy related ;)
  13. NickK
    Thanks to Steve & co at ATIK, we should have good support for ATIK cameras on AOSX :D :hello2:
    Steve, under NDA, has allow me access to the source code to develop support for the ATIK camera range. The resulting runtime AOSX plugin will then be useable freely for ATIK owners.
    When AOSX source becomes public, the AOSX ATIK plugin source will remain closed. Naturally ATIK will have the source so If I get hit by a bus then all is not lost!
    I have the popular 383L+ and 16ic along with the EFW2, so I can get those tested easily enough.
    Once we go alpha, I'll be looking for volunteers for the other cameras such as the 11000, 4000, 314 etc to try AOSX with a basic image capture 'example' application.
  14. NickK
    I've spent the time between the last release focusing on the 4000/11000 - with some fixes that also apply to other series cameras. Many thanks to Olly for allowing me access to his 11000M for testing during my stay there.
    Before releasing I just want to regression test the existing cameras and I'll package the new drivers along with a small demo application (including a pre-built version for people to try themselves).
    This will probably be the last alpha release (with it's specific functionality and associated bug fixes) before I move on to the beta release with it's additional functionality.
    Edit: added screen snap of the test application:

    Here's a test shot with the 383L against the wall.. (I've not added icons for the cameras yet):

    You can zoom in, change the contrast etc
  15. NickK
    Just finishing the final testing on the 10.6.8 build and I'll put together the 10.8+ 64bit build..
    The Example App has had an overhaul in the graphics display system. It's far faster and I have a couple more optimisations todo but I thought this would be a good point to release.
    You'll note that it lacks the ability to adjust the display brightness etc.. but I'll add that later.. however it scrolls, zooms etc and has a reticule...
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