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Exposure and capture with a DMK21

  • Posts: 1029
  • Thank you received: 301

Exposure and capture with a DMK21 was created by Eric

Hello,

I'm relatively new to Ekos and Indi, eager to dig deeper into this wonderful setup :)
However, I don't understand how the CCD capture and the exposure setting work and relate to each other.

To summarize very quickly my setup:
- I configured a mini-pc with indi, and I'm able to access that server from another computer running Ekos in a VM.
- I installed an Imaging Source DMK21 on one of my two telescopes (130/650 on HEQ-5 Pro), and I'm trying to capture simple frames.

I don't understand the following logs, for which I clicked Preview multiple times with a 10-second exposure set in the "CCD & Filter Wheel" tab of Ekos in KStars:
2016-09-08T23:14:43: V4L2 CCD: Using device manual exposure (max 36000000.000000, required 100000.000000).
2016-09-08T23:14:53: V4L2 CCD: Capture of one frame (0 stacked frames) took 10.032369 seconds.
2016-09-08T23:21:14: V4L2 CCD: Using device manual exposure (max 36000000.000000, required 100000.000000).
2016-09-08T23:21:23: V4L2 CCD: Capture of one frame (0 stacked frames) took 8.724703 seconds.
2016-09-08T23:22:34: V4L2 CCD: Using device manual exposure (max 36000000.000000, required 100000.000000).
2016-09-08T23:22:34: V4L2 CCD: Capture of one frame (0 stacked frames) took 0.001147 seconds.
2016-09-08T23:23:20: V4L2 CCD: Using device manual exposure (max 36000000.000000, required 100000.000000).
2016-09-08T23:23:23: V4L2 CCD: Capture of one frame (0 stacked frames) took 3.071843 seconds.
2016-09-08T23:23:30: V4L2 CCD: Using device manual exposure (max 36000000.000000, required 100000.000000).
2016-09-08T23:23:33: V4L2 CCD: Capture of one frame (0 stacked frames) took 3.387461 seconds.

Except for the first, there's clearly something wrong with the time taken to capture a frame.
At the beginning I though that the next frame request would be "cached" as the exposure requested remained the same and the data flow could be stored in advance, but the times are just...weird (like 1ms to capture).
If I change the exposure, then the first subsequent capture is correct. But next ones don't even display on the preview pane.
Same goes for a capture sequence, the only correct one is the first of a serie.

Is there something I misconfigured at some point?

I have other problems with the DMK21, e.g. first frames after connection that are always garbage, or image quality unexpectedly poor, but I'll probably open new threads for these :)

Thanks!
7 years 7 months ago #10092

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  • Posts: 1029
  • Thank you received: 301

Replied by Eric on topic Exposure and capture with a DMK21

I forgot to includes specs for this test run:
- INDI server: 4.4.6-gentoo on Intel Atom Z530, sci-libs/indilib-1.2.0:0/0::brancik-overlay (thus built from source), "Code $Rev: 2039 $. Protocol 1.7"
- 130/650 on HEQ5Pro controlled by indi_eqmod_telescope, DMx 21AUS.04 controlled by indi_v4l2_ccd
- Ekos 1.5 VM on Win10-x64, KStars 2.6.0, wifi connection to INDI server.
7 years 7 months ago #10097

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