SharpCap - free Astro Webcam Capture Software

rwg · September 21, 2010

Can you post an image of the error message you get? - hopefully the details will provide a hint as to the problem or at least as to what to investigate next...

You do need to have the .NET Framework v2.0 installed. Any version higher than 2.0 should do (3.0, 3.5, 3.5sp1), other than that it shouldn't need any other stuff installed.

Try starting with/without the webcam plugged into USB, although this might not help if you have a built in webcam, as SharpCap will automatically try to start up the first video capture device it finds.

Try deleting the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\rwg\SharpCap and re-running the app (with/without webcam plugged in).

Robin

rwg · September 21, 2010

Tested the new version (1.0.12) on an old netbook with windows XP and the SPC900NC and it works perfectly. A very user friendly piece of software with everything I could wish for. Well done to the author
My only issue (and it isn't really one), is that I had to download and install a Microsoft runtime enviroment thing before it worked. This was a much bigger install than the SharpCap install itself.
Thankyou for releasing this to the community

Glad you like it

The .NET runtime has unfortunately grown a bit large, but it is almost certainly already installed on any Vista/Win7 machine, so this only happens on XP. Using the .NET runtime rather than coding the old C++ way means that it's about 3 times quicker for me to write new stuff.

Robin

Hoshikomi · September 21, 2010

I've just installed .NET 4.0 and the error persists. After the UAC screen, it goes straight to the somewhat generic error pop-up (attached). The results the same with or without the SPC. I've uninstalled and re-installed and I've deleted the Registry key...

Starcap Error Msg.bmp

Dave Smith · September 22, 2010

Quick post - 1.0.12 is released which can control SPC900 cameras properly (at least it does for mine).
Robin

Thanks Robin, I'm now a very happy bunny as it works properly on both my SPC900 and DMK21. Great stuff.

Dave

rwg · September 22, 2010

I've just installed .NET 4.0 and the error persists. After the UAC screen, it goes straight to the somewhat generic error pop-up (attached). The results the same with or without the SPC. I've uninstalled and re-installed and I've deleted the Registry key...

Hi Geoff,

I agree, it's not a very helpful message - I have worked out a way to change the program to provide much more detailed information for this sort of crash, but it'll take me a day or so to actually make the changes.

cheers,

Robin

Jake Bullit · September 22, 2010

I've just installed .NET 4.0 and the error persists. After the UAC screen, it goes straight to the somewhat generic error pop-up (attached). The results the same with or without the SPC. I've uninstalled and re-installed and I've deleted the Registry key...

Ditto on 2x vista laptops ,ok on 2x XP desktops (as mentioned previously).

Rob · September 22, 2010

I'll give it a go thanks

Rob

rwg · September 22, 2010

Ditto on 2x vista laptops ,ok on 2x XP desktops (as mentioned previously).

Ok folks, v1.0.13 now available which has some new features to help troubleshoot this sort of problem. Details on the SharpCap web page in the troubleshooting section, but in brief...

SharpCap will now try to create a crash dump file (on your desktop, called SharpCap.dmp) in those cases where it was previously showing a 'SharpCap has stopped working' message. Actually the application will now vanish without a message when that sort of crash happens, but the dump file should appear. Get that file to me somehow (post it as an attachment here if it's small, upload it somewhere and PM me the link, send it to me via Fedex on a diamond encrusted USB key, whatever). The info in that file should let me know what the program was trying to do when it died.

My guess is (because I've seen one case like this before) that it is crashing in the video rendering because some codec that has been selected as part of the rendering chain is choking on the data that is coming in from the webcam. In the previous case a YUV format codec installed by the software for a DMK camera was being used to render the SPC900 image, but was crashing. Uninstalling the DMK codec meant that a (working) Microsoft YUV codec was used instead and all was well.

Robin

Hoshikomi · September 22, 2010

Robin

I uninstalled v12 and installed v13 with the same result (as expected). Dump file attached; hope it helps!

Thanks

SharpCapDump.zip

rwg · September 22, 2010

Hi Geoff,

I think I have fixed it in 1.0.14. Give it a whir and let me know.

cheers,

Robin

Jake Bullit · September 23, 2010

Cheers Robin,will try it out tonight and let you know the results.

Adrian.

Jake Bullit · September 23, 2010

Still no luck,I`ve attached the dump file.

SharpCap.zip

rwg · September 23, 2010

Hi Adrian,

please can you also send me a copy of 'mscordacwks.dll' from your machine - you'll find it in the folder C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727. I need to have the exact copy from your machine to get some of the information out of the crash dump - sadly my copy here must be a different version.

thanks,

Robin

WayBig · September 23, 2010

Seems to work ok for me, though I've not put my Dion-cam into the eyepiece yet.

My question is, does anyone have a guide of what the different settings - exposure, gain...etc do to the image, and how best to tweak them to get better image quality?

Thanks

Chris

Hoshikomi · September 23, 2010

Robin

Still no joy. I've attached the dmp file and the .NET mscordacwks.dll (as I'm running the 64-bit Win 7, I've included 2 copies and added '_x64' to the version from the Framework64 folder just in case it's relevant).

Cheers

SharpCapDump.zip

rwg · September 23, 2010

Hi Geoff,

thanks for the dump file - some useful info in that one. For some reason I had no luck at all getting any info out of the one Adrian sent, even though I found what I thought was the right mscordacwks.dll on the web...

Anyway, I can see what is going wrong from your dump file - stand by for 1.0.15

Robin

Jake Bullit · September 23, 2010

There you go ,hope it helps.

Don`t waste a lot of time on it on my behalf,it seems to be working for most.

....

Hi Adrian,
please can you also send me a copy of 'mscordacwks.dll' from your machine - you'll find it in the folder C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727. I need to have the exact copy from your machine to get some of the information out of the crash dump - sadly my copy here must be a different version.
thanks,
Robin

mscordacwks.zip

rwg · September 23, 2010

Ok folks, v1.0.15 is now uploaded, the crash Geoff was seeing in 1.0.14 is now fixed, hopefully it will work now.

Robin

rwg · September 23, 2010

There you go ,hope it helps.
Don`t waste a lot of time on it on my behalf,it seems to be working for most.
....

Please have a try with the new version - what I can see from your dump file makes me think the bug is the same as Geoff is seeing, and his dump file gave me enough info to fix that bug.

Robin

Jake Bullit · September 23, 2010

Getting nearer I think the program starts,thengives this error report:

SharpCap, Version=1.0.15.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

at SharpCap.UI.ReticuleForm.UpdateMouseFormLocation() in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\SharpCap\UI\ReticuleForm.cs:line 29

at SharpCap.UI.ReticuleForm.ReticuleForm_LocationChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\Documents\Source Code\trunk\SharpCap\SharpCap\UI\ReticuleForm.cs:line 48

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnLocationChanged(EventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.UpdateBounds(Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 width, Int32 height, Int32 clientWidth, Int32 clientHeight)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.UpdateBounds()

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmCreate(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmCreate(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)

at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

===============================================================

Application Log (from start)

20:35:35.2678690 System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.