oacapture/oalive 1.7.0 released

[JamesF]

Each time I do this it seems to get more difficult.  Perhaps more regular releases might be the solution, or doing a more limited beta release.  Testing has become nigh on impossible beyond a small range of hardware, so there may be problems.  Regardless, thirteen months after 1.6.0, oacapture and oalive 1.7.0 are finally released!

Downloads are here

Changes in this release include:

• Update QHY support to latest release 200522 (200424 for MacOS)
• Update Mallincam support to latest release (43.15988)
• Update ASI camera support to latest release (1.15.0430)
• Update Toupcam support to latest release (46.17118)
• Update ASI filter wheel support to latest release (0.4.1022)
• Add support for Orion Starshoot G2 cameras
• Add support for Risingcam cameras (using libnncam)
• Add support for DSLRs (oalive on Linux only)
• Add oalive to package for Linux (it's a separate image for MacOS)
• Dynamically load support libraries if they are present
• Allow SER files larger than 2.1GB on 32-bit systems
• Much tidying of code internally
• Improved support for 16-bit frames

I've also added a new "named pipe" output file mode.  The intention is that it should be possible to use this to create a video stream to upload to youtube or Facebook, for example, but beyond actually writing data to the named pipe I've done no further work on this as yet.

Unfortunately there's no 64-bit ARM release at the moment because my 64-bit RPi seems to have had a meltdown.

oalive is a (fairly basic, for the time being) separate EAA-style application that can do image stacking with a number of different stacking methods, but doesn't do image alignment for the moment.  It has some DSLR support, but I've only been able to test it with a Canon 1100D and even then not as much as I'd like.  In theory it should support other Canon cameras as well as other makes if they're supported by libgphoto2, but I can't guarantee that it won't set your hair/camera on fire, burn down your house or steal your firstborn.  oalive is also lacking a manual for the time being.  Hopefully it's straightforward enough to work through, but I'll get around to the documentation soon.

At the moment I'm not decided about plans for the next release other than adding support for Omegon cameras.  I'm sure other things will suggest themselves in time, and I'll try to make the next release a little sooner.

Edited June 7, 2020 by JamesF

[MCinAZ]

  Thanks to James for his ongoing efforts to support this very useful package. Entirely as a result of the discussion about the recently released 8 GB Raspberry Pi Model 4 started by stash_old on 05-26, I just happened to take delivery of one of those units last Friday. I've completed installation of oaCapture-1.7.0 under the official Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) released 2020-05-27 from the packages on the Open Astro Project downloads page.

  A few notes which may be of use to anyone else installing in an environment where oaCapture has not been installed previously. First, there are some dependencies upon packages not included in the default Raspberry Pi OS distribution. These are listed below. Install in the order shown (there may be dependencies upon libqtcore4 for the other Qt packages).

  libcfitsio7
  libhidapi-libusb0
  libqtcore4
  libqt4-network
  libqtgui4

  Among the packages on James's download page, libqhyccd depends upon the QHY firmware, so you should install qhy-firmware_20.5.24-1_all ahead of libqhyccd_20.5.24-1_armhf. I installed libefwfilter_0.4.1022-1_armhf and libuvc_0.0.6-2openastro4_armhf, though I don't know if that's significant. Since I was missing a few packages on the first attempt, I had some broken packages but running the following command made everything happy:

  sudo apt --fix-broken install

  So far, I've only launched the program as a remote X application, but it came up quickly and looks to be functional. More testing with the cameras I have available to me (along with the mysterious Timer device) to follow. I'm particularly interested in seeing how things go with oalive and our collection of Canon DSLRs.

[JamesF]

Thanks Mike.

BargeGazer has just led me to notice that the Ubuntu 18.04 download section is missing links to a couple of files.  I'm not sure how I managed that, but I'll get that sorted shortly.  Need to have something to eat first.

James

[devoldev]

Dear James thanks for your effort; I used FINALLY  my chameleon CMLN 13S2N with the 1.6.0 and mac catalina, unfortunately the new version 1.7.0 DOES NOT SEE at all the camera, while the previous 1.6.0 works fine using the RGGB10/16BE setting; how is it possible? Moreover now with Catalina and 1.6.0 all the functions are active on the camera, setting the time even in microseconds ; less the saving; it is impossible to save a readable file of whatsoever kind; in the previous versions on the previous Mac systems it was difficult to control the camera but it was possible to save the files in all the formats; now with catalina and 1.6.0 something is saved but not read by the programs of Catalina: VLC, anteprima,quicktime  all the programs have problems to read the files; the png or tiff files are uniformly gray ;desperado!! I will continue to use my canon 550D.

Edited July 22, 2020 by devoldev

[JamesF]

How odd.  I'll have a look at that and see if I can reproduce the problems.

James

[Fivel]

Hi again James. How is time in your observatory going?

As to oaCapture ver. 1.7.0 for Mac, it just crashes when I try to connect to the camera.

In your installation package for OSX (Sierra for me) is the a dependency missing for the camera?

Has this dmg package been tested with Sierra? I did not have this issue with the previous 32 bit app, as to crashing.

Do I need to re-install libusb for instance?

Stay healthy.

 

Fivel

 

 

[R26 oldtimer]

Haven't used it (yet), but thank you for taking this tech side of this hobby one step further! 👍

[devoldev]

James I sent you a personal mail with more info about the problems with 1.6.3 version (especially with 16 bit images) ; I confirm 1.7.0 does not see the usb2 camera; about my problem with 8-16 bit images and chameleon my personal hypothesis is that it maybe a problem of little and big endiannes the two histogram for 16 bit and 8 bit images are enclosed

Edited July 22, 2020 by devoldev

[Paul M]

I recently installed Atroberry on a new Pi 4 and saw OAcapture bundled in there. I didn't know of the SGL family link. Now I do I'll give it a go for sure. I'm hopfully ready for some plnetary capture on my next session.

I'll use it mainly because when it turns out to be yet another application that can't read my mind I'll know exactly where to look for support!

I already note that it has clear and explicit settings for read and write debayering. Something that has been worrying me since my recent first use of my new OSC camera for deep sky.

Firecapture boggles my shrinking brain just by it's cluttered interface. I like clearly defined workflow paths that guide me on my way

Push Here Dummy! 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Paul M

[JamesF]

4 hours ago, devoldev said:

James I sent you a personal mail with more info about the problems with 1.6.3 version (especially with 16 bit images) ; I confirm 1.7.0 does not see the usb2 camera; about my problem with 8-16 bit images and chameleon my personal hypothesis is that it maybe a problem of little and big endiannes the two histogram for 16 bit and 8 bit images are enclosed

Thanks.  I'll look at this as soon as I can.  Work is exceptionally mentally exhausting at the moment, but I'm hoping things will calm down a little after the weekend so I can think about it properly.

James

[JamesF]

2 hours ago, Paul M said:

I recently installed Atroberry on a new Pi 4 and saw OAcapture bundled in there. I didn't know of the SGL family link. Now I do I'll give it a go for sure. I'm hopfully ready for some plnetary capture on my next session.

I'll use it mainly because when it turns out to be yet another application that can't read my mind I'll know exactly where to look for support!

I already note that it has clear and explicit settings for read and write debayering. Something that has been worrying me since my recent first use of my new OSC camera for deep sky.

All feedback welcome, Paul.  At the moment it's looking as though I'll be largely work-free after the end of September, so I'm hoping I can put some decent time into it then and practice a bit on Mars.

James

[Paul M]

7 minutes ago, JamesF said:

All feedback welcome, Paul.  At the moment it's looking as though I'll be largely work-free after the end of September, so I'm hoping I can put some decent time into it then and practice a bit on Mars.

James

Perhaps the beautiful, world class Mars images I'll be capturing with your creation with catapult it into commercial success. You'll be both rich and famous...

In the mean time, or should I call it the build up, my very first impression ( well actually mt very first thought was "what's this?") was that either this thing looks too simple to be any good or it's a work of genius!

I'll report back 🤣

[devoldev]

Dear James another element which may be useful in understanding the difficulties of the version 1.6.3 which is now the last one working on Catalina; I use the Chameleon an USB-2 which has an option mono16LE in the program; (LE=low endian)  the images as discused before are wrong they appear with a deformed hystogram; BUT if I choose a BE option a monoBE of whatsover kind  the images are REALLY 16 bits with the correct hystogram but they cannot be saved!!!! if I capture them they are saved in a wrong way; so I am even more convinced that the problem for the section to record image at 16bits with a usb2 camera is in the BE-LE options; mac works LE but the camera works correctly at BE; I see the 16 bit image but as Sysispho I cannot record it; the "Sysipho effect "comes from the LE-BE difference? a further element for you; thanks again for your attention

[devoldev]

oalive 1.7.0 doesn't a 550D canon (nor the chameleon usb2)

[bluecoffee]

oaCapture 1.7.0 is crashing when I connect a USB 4k webcam into it.  Any suggestions? Tried two different USB hubs/adaptors. Detects it as (UVC) HD USB Camera on rescan, but crashes when I select it, or on app load if it's already plugged in.

Running on a 15 inch 2018 Mac Book Pro MacOS 10.14.6

Camera details:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-HD-8MP-Webcam-USB-Video-Camera-Module-IMX179-Sensor-with-3-7mm-Pinhole-Lens/324089917102?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Mini HD 8MP Webcam USB Video Camera Module IMX179 Sensor with 3.7mm Pinhole Lens

 

 

[JamesF]

I think this might be because the camera doesn't support any frame formats that are currently supported.  Looks like it just supports the lossy MJPEG and YUYV formats.  I am working on getting that fixed for the next release.

James