software packages suitability

[Andy274]

Hi guys,

Apolgies if this is the wrong forum category for this

my setup consists of a 110mm starwave with an Atik 383L mono & an Atik 16IC on an OAG with a 70mm triplet & a zwo 533.

Im worried about whether im asking far too much of a single PC to run guiding, mount control & large data transfer over USB with 2 cameras.  Im running win 10 pro on an i5 processor with 8Gb ram.  Ive had problems with getting images downloading from the 533 so was wondering whether i should consider splitting the setup over 2 separate PCs so the ZWO 533 is on one PC & the remainder of the work is run on another PC.  Any advice would be welcome on that.

I also am torn between what software is capable of running multiple imaging cameras - so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Andy

[david_taurus83]

USB2 has a supposed bandwidth of 480mb/s so downloading 2 images simultaneously at the same time should not be a problem. The write speed of your hard drive shouldn't pose an issue either. With regards to running 2 cameras, if your not dithering, then you could probably open 2 instances of the capture software, use one to control everything and camera A, while the second instance just controls camera B.

If you are dithering though, only APT can sync capture of both cameras and issue a dither once both images have downloaded. As above, you run a second instance of APT for camera B. For example, your taking a 5 minute sub with your Atik 383 and 60s subs with your ASI533. APT should capture 4 x 60s subs and then wait while the Atik finishes the 5 minute sub. Once downloaded it will issue a dither command and afterwards repeat the cycle. You set one instance as server and the other as client, I cant remember which way around though

[wornish]

I run my mount, an imaging camera and a guiding camera quite happily on my RPi4.

I use KStars / Ekos for the imaging and mount control,  plus PHD2 for the guiding.  If you are taking long exposures on the imaging then everything works fine.  The ZWO camera is USB3 so data transfer is pretty quick. 

[Andy274]

58 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

USB2 has a supposed bandwidth of 480mb/s so downloading 2 images simultaneously at the same time should not be a problem. The write speed of your hard drive shouldn't pose an issue either. With regards to running 2 cameras, if your not dithering, then you could probably open 2 instances of the capture software, use one to control everything and camera A, while the second instance just controls camera B.

If you are dithering though, only APT can sync capture of both cameras and issue a dither once both images have downloaded. As above, you run a second instance of APT for camera B. For example, your taking a 5 minute sub with your Atik 383 and 60s subs with your ASI533. APT should capture 4 x 60s subs and then wait while the Atik finishes the 5 minute sub. Once downloaded it will issue a dither command and afterwards repeat the cycle. You set one instance as server and the other as client, I cant remember which way around though

that's great David - thanks.  Am outside in my observatory now running everything on a single laptop through SG Pro - never even considered the effect that dithering on the Atik would have on the 533...Am going to repeat my process now using APT & set the cameras up in the way you suggested.  So far so good though.

Cheers

Andy

[david_taurus83]

2 hours ago, Andy274 said:

that's great David - thanks.  Am outside in my observatory now running everything on a single laptop through SG Pro - never even considered the effect that dithering on the Atik would have on the 533...Am going to repeat my process now using APT & set the cameras up in the way you suggested.  So far so good though.

Cheers

Andy

You need to set it up a certain way, otherwise it will pause the short exposure run and wait for the longer sub to finish. I was playing around with it a few weeks back while experimenting with a dual rig. In the guide tab, I think you need to set Multi Camera Sync : Loose mode. Definitely worth trying it out before a session as I lost imaging time trying to get it to work the way I wanted!

[Andy274]

Yeah I can imagine that the setup ive used (following the guide) wont be as straight forward as im hoping it will be, but then again, what in this game is? lol.  just got everything connected & am doing to cap on tests to make sure everything connects & I can at least download simultaneous images from both imaging systems