oaCapture 0.0.6 beta for Linux and OSX

[JamesF]

is now released

There are some bugfixes for handling of cameras in this release.  These mainly relate to exposure times, but there are small improvements for all of the supported cameras.

The major changes however are restructuring the code to integrate with GNU autotools for building and support for OSX.  I can only test cameras on Mavericks, but I believe the binaries should work on 64-bit Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion.  The cameras currently supported are the ZWO ASI range, the QHY5 and the QHY5L-II.  The USB2 versions of the ASI120 require a firmware change to work with USB on some (perhaps all) Mac hardware.  The firmware and uploader (which I believe only works on Windows at the moment) are available from the ZWO website.

Plans for the next release are a little vague at the moment.  I've had a request to add support for one of the Point Grey cameras and as they do provide an SDK that's definitely under consideration if I can get my head around it in time.  Making the Imaging Source cameras work on OSX is possible (I already have the camera library recognising that a TIS camera is present).  I didn't make a start on filter wheel support for 0.0.6 and I really would like to get somewhere with that for the next release too.

Downloads are at http://www.openastroproject.org/downloads/

James

[D4N]

Nice osx support

I'll give this a go, I've already patched my camera as oddly it doesn't work in virtual windows either without a patch.

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[NickK]

10.8.5 works

All IIDC - was going to add that as the ATIK GP uses that (http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdc1394/)

[NickK]

Just thinking perhaps I should open source my OpenCL implementation for realtime stacking (rotate, scale, translate). I'd need to look at the linux and other support because the OpenCL landscape is strewn with the wrecks of graphics drivers past.. all with bugs galore.. I also have a working CPU FFW implementation of the code - on the MBP that was taking about 4 seconds to align a 22MB image.

Using FFT works for fast frame rates and the rotation code is good enough for webcams/high fps on dobsonians.

I was talking to the INDI folks - they're interested in a combined libusb based ATIK driver.. it's going to be possible to ship it as a straight dynlib. 

[JamesF]

Nice osx support

I'll give this a go, I've already patched my camera as oddly it doesn't work in virtual windows either without a patch.

Any feedback you have would be appreciated.  I freely admit that I'm flying by the seat of my pants a bit on this one

James

[JamesF]

10.8.5 works

Good to know  I was reasonably confident of 10.8 as there seems to be a smaller step between 10.8 and 10.9 than previous releases, but it's reassuring to have someone actually try it on real hardware.

10.6 and 10.7 I am less confident of.  The Qt libraries use four or five frameworks themselves (CoreText, CoreGraphics, ImageIO that I can recall, and some I can't off the top of my head) that are actually present on 10.6 and 10.7 but for some strange reason they're not linked using the paths they're found at on 10.6 and 10.7 (which also appear to be valid for 10.8 and 10.9), but some additional path.  That is, the frameworks appear to be present at eg. /A/B/C in all releases, but in 10.8 and later they also look to be at /D/E/F and Qt uses the /D/E/F path.  I modified the path in the dynlib and that appeared to make things work in all cases, but it feels rather kludgy ;(

James

[NickK]

Let me try it on 10.6.. give me a few minutes.. 

[NickK]

OSX 10.6.8 - no but I think this is because it's running 32 bit - it's moaning about the QT framework image not found (which is because you're running 64 bit)

I've tried poke into into 64 bit kernel but 10.6.8 on the mini is not having any of it (including nvram boot args).. (mavericks on the same machine is 64 bit).

[NickK]

At the top level of the framework bundle there's usually short cuts to the latest version.. these appear to be missing on the QT framework so I assume it's down to the plist file to specify the version and that's what the OS is picking up.

Note that if you don't have 64 and 32 bit builds you'll get the same error I as I have above ("image not found") which basically means the loader could not find the 32 bit version of the dynamic library to link against.

[JamesF]

OSX 10.6.8 - no but I think this is because it's running 32 bit - it's moaning about the QT framework image not found (which is because you're running 64 bit)

I've tried poke into into 64 bit kernel but 10.6.8 on the mini is not having any of it (including nvram boot args).. (mavericks on the same machine is 64 bit).

I had a nagging doubt that something along those lines might happen.  I've not been able to create a 64-bit install of 10.6, nor put it into 64-bit mode once installed.  I can probably build a true 32-bit version, but I believe the ASI SDK is 64-bit only so it might be for the moment that it would only have support for the QHY5 and QHY5L-II.

James

[NickK]

I use a 10.6.8 Xcode install but then have cross mounts back onto the mbp for the shared source code - with a 10.6.8 Xcode project separate from the 64 bit. A bit of a kludge but the only real way to get a proper 10.6.8 32 bit build

[JamesF]

I should perhaps revisit the 32-bit build.  I largely gave up on it when I realised that the ASI SDK wasn't going to work anyhow, but I guess there are lots of other cameras out there that it may well still work with.  I seem to recall I had some sort of compilation niggle with libiconv that doesn't happen on 10.9.  I didn't get to the root of that, but then I didn't exactly try hard either.

James

[D4N]

Ok I've tested it in OSX 10.9.3 and my ASI 120MM.

At first it was low fps but I bumped up the USB traffic to 70% and the frame rates were great.

It crashed when I tried to select auto USB traffic though.

I tried a capture and that worked fine.

I'll let you know when I've used it in anger on something in the sky

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[JamesF]

Ok I've tested it in OSX 10.9.3 and my ASI 120MM.

At first it was low fps but I bumped up the USB traffic to 70% and the frame rates were great.

It crashed when I tried to select auto USB traffic though.

I tried a capture and that worked fine.

Excellent

I have to admit that I don't actually have any recollection of ever trying the auto USB traffic option.  I shall give it a whirl and see what happens.  It may be a generic bug rather than OSX-specific.

James

[msh1]

how do you bump up the usb traffic ??

mark

[D4N]

USB traffic is Settings > Camera

I took some shots of the moon, they won't go directly into registax for some reason though. They will go into pipp and from there into registax.

Image size was behaving oddly, I could only manually enter a size and then it would just pick something else anyway. I'll see if I can work out why it did that this time as when I tested it at first that was fine.

I'll have another play when I get the chance.

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[JamesF]

USB traffic is Settings > Camera

Yup.  Or in the control section at least one of the controls should be on a drop-down menu.  You can change that to get access to the controls you want to use the most.

James

[JamesF]

Image size was behaving oddly, I could only manually enter a size and then it would just pick something else anyway. I'll see if I can work out why it did that this time as when I tested it at first that was fine.

The ASI120MM should offer a range of sizes in the drop-down unless you're binning the image in which case options are a bit more limited.  If you don't get offered about ten different capture sizes that's definitely something I should look into.

If you choose to enter your own size then there are some restrictions with the ASI cameras -- they won't do just any old frame size.  If you enter a size that isn't suitable then it should be changed to something close that will work.  (The restriction is actually that the frame size must be a multiple of 1024.)

On the list of enhancements for some time in the future is the ability to crop to any size you like, which should at least reduce file sizes on disk.

James

[JamesF]

In case anyone missed it, there is a user guide here: http://www.openastroproject.org/documentation/oacapture-0-0-5-beta-user-manual-2/

I've not updated it for this release because nothing that significant has changed in the user interface.

James

[JamesF]

Excellent

I have to admit that I don't actually have any recollection of ever trying the auto USB traffic option.  I shall give it a whirl and see what happens.  It may be a generic bug rather than OSX-specific.

That one is definitely a generic bug.  I've seen something similar in the past and I'm sure I fixed it  It may well only be an issue if you do it from the camera settings pop-up.  If you just use the checkbox in the capture settings pane then I think it should be ok.

James

[D4N]

Ok I think the problem occurred when I used binning then turned it off again, the drop down menu for resolution didn't come back.

I was happy with the fps, it sat happily at 200 when I dropped the resolution a bit, and that was the maximum possible for that exposure length.

I'll have a read of the manual thanks

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[D4N]

Ok everything seems to be working ok now

The registax issue was a windows one, the files work fine in wine registax.

The auto USB traffic works fine for me from the main window.

The list of image sizes seems fine now. Incidentally I was able to enter a size (smaller than max) that was not in the list and it goes to it even in binning mode.

Thanks for the great software!

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[JamesF]

Excellent news

James

[tekkydave]

Tested this morning on Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit and working ok. The issue I had before with the 0.0.5 release and the ASI120MC not being able to get it into a completely manual mode has now been fixed .

Nice work James.

[JamesF]

Excellent.  Very pleased to hear it

James