Solar imaging using Ubuntu question

[tich]

Hi everyone I have a question about doing solar imaging using Ubuntu, I have an old  2009 iMac, it came with a PGR Grasshopper camera that connects via firewire & I used it last year when the Apple os was running nicely & had some pretty reasonable results. I also did a few live video streams via Facebook showing proms & different features of the Sun last year which people seemed to like.
Unfortunately later in the year the original OS refused to boot up & when it did it became unusable plus with it being old Apple don't offer any support any more, I did think about junking the Mac but I saw a video about installing Linux or Ubuntu it so I thought I'd give it a go & I managed to install it with no issues so at least it's been repurposed for another use even if it's just browsing watching videos etc.
Is there any software out there I can use for video capturing using the PGR camera running Ubuntu so I could do more solar imaging? It would also come in handy for outreach & live streaming if it could be used for that purpose but I might be jumping the gun here as I'd probably need to find drivers to operate the camera too.
Any ideas anyone?

 

[JamesF]

Give oacapture a whirl.  I think I've tested it with a Grasshopper and I've tested FireWire cameras, but not a FireWire Grasshopper that I recall.  If it doesn't work then I'll try to fix it for the next release.  You shouldn't need any drivers other than what is supplied with the OS or the application.

It needs a little more work to support live streaming, but I think most of what is required is there.

https://www.openastroproject.org/downloads/

James

[tich]

Hi James I've plugged the camera in this morning & oacapture found the camera & it's working, I've yet to try it out on the Sun sometime so I'll probably have a go weekend all being well. I remember when I did live streams using the imac & I had a choice of what cameras to use using chrome so maybe that option will be there so I might try that option too.
Many thanks again & I'll keep you updated 🙂

[tich]

Hi James I had some issues with Ubuntu so ended up doing a reinstall as the wireless kept dropping out, I tried the point grey camera & the software was not finding it so tried a DMK41 which it found but wouldn´t save the video after creating a directory. So I ended up putting Linux Mint on instead & the wireless seems to be working & is stable as I am using the iMac right now. Again I tried the point grey & set up a folder which it captured to fine but the DMK41 wont even though it finds the camera so I am not sure what I am doing wrong. 

[JamesF]

Mint is effectively Ubuntu with a different set of clothes, so I'm not sure why one would work and not the other.  Very odd.

Is the DMK41 also the FireWire model, or USB?  And do you get any errors when you try to catpure data using it?

James

[tich]

The DMK is the USB version sorry I should have mentioned that, the capture software recognises the camera but I'm unable to use it to capture video even though you can see the image on the screen, hope that makes sense.