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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

gphoto liveview stream and cr2->fits conversion.

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Hi,

I'm trying the gphoto driver for INDI, and I have two small questions.

Is there any way to activate the liveview (video) stream from the camera to the computer?. As far as I know, gphoto lets the user take this video stream into a video file, although I haven't tried this feature. This is very useful for framing, focusing, etc. Also, we preserve the shutter counter from growing.

The other question is about the cr2->fits conversion. I've the latest INDI software installed, but this conversion gives me the following error:
"failed to parse raw image"

If I set the image transfer to native, I get the raw images in my working dir (on the client), but obviously, I'm loosing the ability to use the real-time astrometry solver, the focusing properties, etc.

I'm not sure what is the best approach here. Since we are playing with a bayer matrix, that need a careful treatment in order to loose the minimum amount of detail, maybe the best way to manage this kind of cameras is to preserve the raw image and work with a client-side converted image with less resolution (something like using the superpixel conversion of dcraw, which takes 4 pixels and convert their data to 1 red, 1 green and 1 blue without doing any interpolation, faster and easier).
Last edit: 9 years 11 months ago by Miguel.
9 years 11 months ago #984

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cr2 can be converted to FITS, can you check the error message when running the driver in the command line?
indiserver -v -m 100 indi_gphoto_ccd

It seems other users have a problem of incorrect resolution & bits per pixel values being reported, do you have this issue? The pixel size is set to 5 microns dummy value since there is no way now to know this from gphoto. I will try to check if the live preview can be supported sometime.
9 years 11 months ago #987

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I have a Canon EOS 1100d and getting the liveview video stream from gphoto is an issue for me as well. It would greatly improve the issue of focusing.
9 years 11 months ago #991

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PS I don't have a problem with converting from CR2 to Fits. Initially I did and it turned out that I wasn't running the latest version of dcraw. So the problem went away once I updated the software. I believe the problem arises from the fact that Raw is an unfixed proprietary format, for instance Canon Raw is not the same as Nikon Raw and the files change as new models of camera come out.
9 years 11 months ago #993

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I just implemented preliminary support for live view in GPhoto driver, you need the latest version of KStars for this to work though. It works fine on Cannon 550D, but needs further testing. Let me know if you encounter any issues.
The following user(s) said Thank You: David
9 years 10 months ago #1091

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First of all, the problem I had with the cr2->fits conversion is solved. Maybe dcraw was missing in one of the two machines, I don't know, but the thing is that now it's working perfectly, even when running remotely.

Now some feedback about the liveview.

For being just a preliminary version, it works quite good, I'm trying it also with a 550D :-) . Thank you very much knro !!!

Things that work:
- Start and Stop the preview mode.
- Capture the images and save them to my working dir (my home dir). This 'capture and save' takes place as soon as the preview option is activated. Is it intentional? (I comment on this because it generates images in the directory like crazy hehehe).

Things that don't work (at least in my setup):
- Showing the images in the preview window. Maybe this is due to the fact that i'm running it remotelly (raspberry PI) and the client is in another machine ??.

I would expect to record to files only when the 'red' button is pressed. If only preview option is activated, I think it would be better if the images are shown as a 'live stream' to the preview window, but no files are saved to disk. I don't know if this is possible.

By the way, this is great news for DSLR users knro :-) . I see that even the 'zoom' options 'actions' tab work now, so this will be ideal to focus on stars when the final implementation is ready., both with and without bahtinov masks.

Maybe ekos can take advantage of this too with its focus module?. These preview images are pretty small in size, very fast to download and we don't burn the shutter with them (only 1 shutter actuation is needed when turning from normal mode to liveview mode).
9 years 10 months ago #1110

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Actually, the preview will show a live video stream and does not record any images. To record an image, you can press the red button, that's all it does (i.e. saves the current preview as image) otherwise everything is discarded. Can you please make sure you are indeed running the latest KStars/Ekos as well?

For the focus, I'm still trying to figure out how the focusing works for 550D, I haven't tried any changes yet.
9 years 10 months ago #1111

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I have been looking at the implementation of liveview with a Canon 1100d and cannot see where it is implemented?

I have now started to wonder how I can tell whether I am running the latest bleeding edge version of kstars. I have successfully run the following.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/astrometry.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kstars-bleeding astrometry.net

I then search for and run kstars from the Dash Home. Will that pick up the latest version?

knro - can you help?
9 years 10 months ago #1112

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You're right, I was using the version from the repository instead of the recent compiled one :) . Now, it does not save the images to the directory (unless the red button is pressed), but it shows on the preview window :-) .

Also, I tried to focus the image while 'previewing', it works with only one minor issue. The speed numbers still don't match. For the lowest focussing speed, speed 3 while moving inside is the same (but in opposite direction) to speed 1 moving outside. But this should be to another topic :-) .

Thank you knro.
9 years 10 months ago #1113

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Sorry!

My mistake I wasn't running the latest version of indi-gphoto Liveview now working.

Thank you knro
9 years 10 months ago #1130

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