Gina's DIY All Sky Cam - Complete Redesign

[JamesF]

Looks very much like that here, too.

James

[Gina]

'phurp' ?

????    What language is that Cath?

[Cath]

I guess a local one

[JamesF]

????    What language is that Cath?

I think it's Microsoft Oral Basic.

James

[Gina]

Sun peeping out from behind the clouds now

[Gina]

Results of testing so far :-

1. QHY5 working in both Win 7 and Linux Mint with various apps.
2. Remote focussing working with Arduino and VB app in Win 7 - Linux app to be written.
3. Shutter with meter movement and solar film blade working automatically with light level and manually by powering off.
4. Focus is varying slightly.
5. Solar film appears to degrade image slightly but more daylight testing needed.

I think I'll connect a DS18B20 digital thermometer to the Arduino and add code to the sketch and control/display app to read the temperature though this would be academic without the heating control added as well.  Probably leave this until I do the Linux app to communicate with the Arduino.  It looks like the Python language works far better with the Arduino serial comms than Visual Basic.  Can't say that surprises me - hardware coding generally seems easier in Linux than Windows.  I think the Windows OS interferes more with user interfacing - it's designed for the general user who just wants to do "normal" things rather than getting into the "nitty gritty"

I think that with specialised software designed with features particularly aimed at All Sky Cameras, the QHY5 should be quite adequate for purpose.  Other, more sensitive cameras may not need things like extended exposures, dark frame subtraction, etc. though I believe such features would improve these better cameras.

[Gina]

oacapture image screenshot via TeamViewer.

[Gina]

James, a question please.  Thought I'd save some captures to HD but I can't find where you set the directory to save into.

[JamesF]

By default it will be whatever directory you were in when you started the application.  If you want to change that, click on the folder button next to the filter drop down in the capture controls box.

James

[Gina]

Ah right... gotcha   Thanks

[JamesF]

Whilst I remember, mono avi files may not play back reliably on Windows at the moment because there's no agreement between Windows, OSX and Linux about which codecs should be used.  This is exceptionally irritating

Thanks to Chris Garry, I should have this resolved in the next release, when there will be an option to create Windows-compatible 8-bit greyscale files.

James

[Al.Grant]

Read through this whole thread with great interest.

Very interesting following the build process from beginning to end (or at least 'current') along with the various changes.

I'm using my ZWO ASI120mm as a temporary ASC.  I am using a dummy cctv dome as a temporary housing.

One of the things I've been looking for in various software packages is an option to do a scheduled recording.  

Something that will only record between certain hours, that way during the lighter summer months I can set it to only record during the darker hours.

One bit of software I'm currently looking at is iSpy Connect  (open source/free), intended for CCTV use, although it seems it was initially written to try capture ufo's ..... so may be OK for meteors!

 I've only had a few hours looking at it and last night was way too cloudy to be of any use ....  but so far it's looking quite interesting.

No idea if it would see a QHY5, but the 32bit version running on Win7 sees the ASI120mm without any issues (64 bit doesn't work!) and the Advanced Properties gives access to the ZWO driver allowing control of the gain/exposure etc

It has a very easy to use scheduler, motion detection, 2 different 'Time Lapse' capture options and it can save video in a range of different codecs, so much smaller file sizes!

It has internal ftp to upload images/video files and can even send direct to YouTube (if that's yer kinda thing!)

I have to say that I've not tried most of these features out yet, but the motion detection and scheduler are working as expected.

I'm hoping to give it another run tonight as we are expecting at least a few patches of clear sky!

Oh and if you are looking at having different cameras for your day/night ASC ..... it can handle multiple cameras running in a single session.

It may well be worth a quick download to see if it sees the QHY5 

Al

[JamesF]

Sounds like it can probably handle anything with a WDM driver.  I'm sure there's one for the ASI cameras.  It looks as though there's a WDM driver for the QHY5 camera on their site, so that might be worth a try.

Scheduled recordings and some of the other features mentioned certainly might be useful.  I think my longer term goal where oaCapture is concerned is to have that sort of thing implemented in a separate application that can be left running without the need for a GUI.  Perhaps even completely disconnected from a display altogether so it could be run on an RPi or something like that.  Given a suitable data source it would also be nice to be able to set recordings to run from (say) sunset + 30 minutes to sunrise - 30 minutes or similar.  There's a fair way to go yet before that becomes a reality for me though

James

[Gina]

Tried saving AVI files first - miserable failure   Tried files of 300s and 30s neither of which will play in Windows Media Player.  I'll try other file formats...

EDIT ooops - cross posted

[JamesF]

I think AstroPIPP may read them and produce a Windows-playable file as its output.

Very irritating, it is  But it will be fixed in the next release

James

[Al.Grant]

Tried saving AVI files first - miserable failure   Tried files of 300s and 30s neither of which will play in Windows Media Player.  I'll try other file formats...

I had it saving and playing back avi files yesterday (and still captures) without any problems ... will check tonight to see which codec I selected from those offered for the ASI120mm.

Although I'm using Win 7 64bit I needed to use the 32bit version before it saw my cam.

[Gina]

Whilst I remember, mono avi files may not play back reliably on Windows at the moment because there's no agreement between Windows, OSX and Linux about which codecs should be used.  This is exceptionally irritating

Thanks to Chris Garry, I should have this resolved in the next release, when there will be an option to create Windows-compatible 8-bit greyscale files.

James

Hmmm...  That explains why it doesn't work   Must get my desktop Linux box running again.  Guess I'll have to make up a monitor, keyboard and trackball switchbox unless there are any commercial ones that actually work

Looking forward to your next release James

[Gina]

Raining now   Been looking at other save options.  I was looking for the ability of saving a capture every so often, say one frame every 10 minutes or whatever, but oacapture takes hundreds at a time minimum   OK I know it wasn't aimed at this application so I can't expect that really.  Can I request that option please, James?

Raindrops on the dome.

[tekkydave]

Could you use a command-line program to capture single / multiple frames e.g. ffmpeg.

I think the camera may need a v4l driver for this to work. James can probably answer that one.

[JamesF]

You could try setting up the "autorun" feature, Gina.  Get it to capture only a few frames in a single run, and then set a long delay between the runs.

It's not quite as neat as setting a delay between saved frames in a single run, but it might well get you what you're after.

James

[JamesF]

Meant to say, there's a manual here: http://www.openastroproject.org/documentation/oacapture-0-3-0-user-manual/

Autorun is documented about about halfway through.

James

[Gina]

Could you use a command-line program to capture single / multiple frames e.g. ffmpeg.

I think the camera may need a v4l driver for this to work. James can probably answer that one.

Yes, I think would be a possibility.  A few years ago I used scripts to run parts of my weather station software on a schedule.  Linux works well for this sort of thing   The weather station code was written in Python.  I think the source code is on a NAS drive that stopped talking to the network but I have the drive and mean to try connecting it directly to a Linux machine sometime.  That wasn't the only copy - another was on a desktop machine that also died   It's possible that I have backups on DVDs or CDs somewhere - I used to keep lots of backups when I was programming.  Done very little lately - must get back into it now I have more time and no longer a full-time carer

[JamesF]

Could you use a command-line program to capture single / multiple frames e.g. ffmpeg.

I think the camera may need a v4l driver for this to work. James can probably answer that one.

I think it probably would.  I did briefly consider writing V4L2 drivers for cameras I wanted to support.  I sobered up quite quickly though.  And in fact V4L2 is probably lacking a few features you'd want for supporting astro cameras generally.

James

[Gina]

You could try setting up the "autorun" feature, Gina.  Get it to capture only a few frames in a single run, and then set a long delay between the runs.

It's not quite as neat as setting a delay between saved frames in a single run, but it might well get you what you're after.

James

Yes, I found that and set it up   Then I went to set the capture for single frame or a small number of frames and found the lower limit was 500 frames or 30 seconds.  For a nighttime run, the time limit would be fine as the exposures would be quite long.

[Gina]

Meant to say, there's a manual here: http://www.openastroproject.org/documentation/oacapture-0-3-0-user-manual/

Autorun is documented about about halfway through.

James

Thanks James - I read through it