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Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

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Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4? was created by Bernd Limburg

Hi,

does anyone successfully use the ToupTec (Lacerta) DeepSkyPro 2600c cam in an Astroberry setup with RPi4? Are there problems regarding stability of connection, download issues (USB bandwidth), does Autofocus and Platesolving work?

Would like to hear your experiences with this great camera,

Thx
Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
1 year 3 weeks ago #80846

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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

Now I bought one and tested it myself. So far no problems, works fine with the ToupCam driver. Stable captures and USB downloads so far, a full frame (6224x4168, 50 MB FITS file) takes approx. 2.3 s to download from cam to Raspi's SSD.

Am just creating a calibration library (bias and dark frames), no first light yet.

CS
Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
1 year 1 week ago #81374

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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

Tonight I had a first test session with the DeepSkyPro 2600c. In principle, it works and the cam has a fantastic performance when it comes to noise, dark current, dynamic range and full well capacity.

„In principle“ means that the system is not stable. Sometimes, no captures are possible and the driver‘s log window in Indi says „Exposure failure“. Sometimes, KStars crashes and terminates.

I have to investigate more and try to reproduce these failures, but it seems that the exposure failures are correlating with the use of autofocus with subframes. After an autofocus run with subframes, no full frame exposure seems to be possible. After autofocus with full frames (a pity that it is significantly slower) doesn‘t seem to make problems with full frame exposures afterwards.

The KStars crashes seem to be random, but once I saw a message box popping up saying something like „Debayer,….“, but it was just for a fraction of a second and then KStars closed, so I couldn’t read it completely. Will deactivate automatic fits debayering and see if the problem persists.

That was my first „real,world test“. A bit frustrating, but I still hope these problems can be solved or worked around somehow. First, I have to reproduce the errors, have a look into the logs and provide the logs here. Maybe someone else has an idea and can help. Maybe it‘s a bug in the driver.

CS, Bermd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
1 year 4 days ago #81544

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

How much RAM do you have? the Debayer message only comes after it fails to allocate memory.
Jasem Mutlaq
Support INDI & Ekos; Get StellarMate Astrophotography Gadget.
How to Submit Logs when you have problems?
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1 year 4 days ago #81545

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Replied by Juergen on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

Hi Bernd,
I had the problem of sudden crashes with kstars also with my QHY268C. The solution was to set USB traffic to 20 for the Read Modes 2 and 3, for Read Mode 0 and 1 I have to set USB traffic to 0. Dont know, if your camera will behave the same, but at least give it a try.

CS

Jürgen
Kstars 3.6.2/INDI 1.9.9 (ppa packages) on Ubuntu 22.04.1 on Mele 3Q
EQ6-R/EQ8-R
QHY268C (main cam) / ASI290MM mini (guiding cam)
several Newtonians
1 year 4 days ago #81546

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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

Hi Jasem and Jürgen,

thanks for your replies!

@Jasem I have a 4 GB Raspi 4, so I will deactivate automatic debayering or get an 8 GB RPi4.
@Jürgen Will give it a try. At the moment, bandwidth is at 0 and I thought this is the least critical setting, but I will experiment a bit with the value.

CS, Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
1 year 4 days ago #81549

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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

OK, I did some investigation and could reproduce the error that after an autofocus run using sub frames, no further (full frame) images can be taken.

In the attached log I deleted all errors due to "EQMOD not found", "Joystick not found" and the like for better readability, because for the test I didn't connect all devices. Only the Toupcam and the EAF focuser.

I started KStars, Ekos and Indi.
At [2022-03-19T16:50:20.258 CET INFO ] I took a first 1 second frame, full image size, no problems.
Then I started an autofocus run (in my room, so no stars were available). I <strong>did not</strong> check "sub frame". Autofocus images (2 s exposure) were taken correctly, then I aborted autofocus.
At [2022-03-19T16:51:35.317 CET INFO ] I took another full frame 1 second image, no problems.
Then I started autofocus again, this time with "sub frame" checked. First a full autofocus frame was taken, then I manually selected a "star" (arbitrary click into the image), and then autofocus sub frames 300x300 were taken without problems. Then I aborted autofocus again.
At [2022-03-19T16:52:27.559 CET INFO ] I tried to take another full frame 1 second image. This time it failed, see this excerpt from the log:

[2022-03-19T16:52:27.559 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capturing 1.000-second  image..."
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.563 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Requested CCD Frame is (0,0) (6224 x 4168) "
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.563 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Camera ROI. X: 0 Y: 0 W: 6224 H: 4168. Binning 1x1  "
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.707 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Updating frame buffer size to 51883264 bytes. "
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.712 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Starting exposure: 1000000 us @ 6224 x 4168 "
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.712 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Event 0X01 "
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.727 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Event 0X01 "
[2022-03-19T16:52:27.727 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Event 0X0B "
[2022-03-19T16:52:28.935 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Capture timed out, restarting exposure... "
[2022-03-19T16:52:30.106 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Capture timed out, restarting exposure... "
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.260 CET INFO ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA :  "[ERROR] Camera timed out multiple times. Exposure failed. "
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.261 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capture failed. Check INDI Control Panel for details."
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.264 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Restarting capture attempt #1"
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.271 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capturing 1.000-second  image..."
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.274 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capture failed. Check INDI Control Panel for details."
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.278 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Restarting capture attempt #2"
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.283 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capturing 1.000-second  image..."
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.291 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Starting exposure: 1000000 us @ 6224 x 4168 "
[2022-03-19T16:52:31.383 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Starting exposure: 1000000 us @ 6224 x 4168 "
[2022-03-19T16:52:32.602 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Capture timed out, restarting exposure... "
[2022-03-19T16:52:33.773 CET DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA : "[DEBUG] Capture timed out, restarting exposure... "
[2022-03-19T16:52:34.893 CET INFO ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA :  "[ERROR] Camera timed out multiple times. Exposure failed. "
[2022-03-19T16:52:34.894 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capture failed. Check INDI Control Panel for details."
[2022-03-19T16:52:34.904 CET INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "CCD capture aborted"

Do the "events" give any hint? For the failed image, the event sequence was 01 01 0B. For a successful exposure, the event sequence is 01 04 or only 04, and if a sub frame is used in autofocus, the events say 01 0B 04. So every successful image ends with an event "04", but not the failed one.

Of course, if this is the only problem, it's not tragic as I can use autofocus with full frames instead of sub frames. Takes a bit longer, so what. Concerning the other problem with KStars crashing, I ordered a RPi 4 8 GB (omg are they expensive these days :S). Will see if that helps (I'm sure it will improve stability of the whole system). For the time being I disabled automatic debayering.

CS, Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
Last edit: 1 year 3 days ago by Bernd Limburg. Reason: Make the "event" lines stand out. Code was not shown as code.
1 year 3 days ago #81555
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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4? My own experiences..

Hi again,

now I had 2 sessions on 2 nights of several hours each without problems. Auto Debayer was off, and no playing around during the session (e.g. no zooming into frames in FITS viewer) to not disturb the system in an unnecessary way. RAM usage was around 64 %, which is rather high and leaves not much headroom. Tomorrow I will get my 8 GB RPi 4 and I think this will relax things significantly. I will report.

Autofocus with sub frame still doesn't work. One a sub framed image was taken and switched back to full frame, the cam always returns a "capture failed" error. So I do autofocus with full frames.

Clear skies!
Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
Last edit: 11 months 3 weeks ago by Bernd Limburg. Reason: Extend subject.
11 months 3 weeks ago #81668

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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4? My own experiences..

Raspi 4B 8 GB has arrived and I tested it.

The debayer error still comes after approx. 9 images. Snippet from the log:
[2022-04-01T16:54:09.707 CEST INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Capturing 5.000-second none image..."
[2022-04-01T16:54:09.990 CEST INFO ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - Toupcam ATR3CMOS26000KPA :  "[INFO] Taking a 5 seconds frame... "
[2022-04-01T16:54:17.297 CEST INFO ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - "FITS" file saved to "/home/astroberry/Light/none/Test2_Light_none_5_secs_009.fits"
[2022-04-01T16:54:17.298 CEST DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.fits] - Reading file buffer ( "49.5 MiB" )
[2022-04-01T16:54:18.262 CEST CRIT ][           org.kde.kstars.fits] - Debayed memory allocation failure. Required Memory: "148.4 MiB" Available system memory: 5.00926e+09
[2022-04-01T16:54:18.296 CEST INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Download Time: 1.61 s, New Download Time Estimate: 2.50 s."

As before, KStars closes immediately after the debayer error message box appears. I now use the new KStars 3.5.8 Build: 2022-03-27T00:14:33Z (but problem was the same with 3.5.7).

Memory usage was around 30 %. "Available system memory: 5.00926e+09" means approx. 5 GB still free, right? But it says memory allocation failure. Never had this with my old cam (ZWO ASI294MC Pro), but the new ToupTec has more than twice the megapixels. Is that a bug?

CS, Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
Last edit: 11 months 3 weeks ago by Bernd Limburg.
11 months 3 weeks ago #81905

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4? My own experiences..

Maybe you need 64bit OS on there. There is StellarMate 64bit version available.
Jasem Mutlaq
Support INDI & Ekos; Get StellarMate Astrophotography Gadget.
How to Submit Logs when you have problems?
Add your observatory info
11 months 3 weeks ago #81906

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Replied by Bernd Limburg on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4? My own experiences..

Been quite a while, but after a steep learning curve, lots of googling and forum searching I was able to compile KStars and PHD2 under Raspbian 11 Bullseye 64 bit.

Now auto debayering is possible again with no crashes even after 25 images. So I think the system is stable with the new camera, but a real world test under a clear sky is still pending.

CS, Bernd
254/1450 mm Newton, 130/730 mm APO, 70/336 mm APO, EQ6-R, ZWO EAF focusers, DeepSkyPro 2600c, ASI183MM, Intel NUC 8i5, Ubuntu 22.04
11 months 4 days ago #82412

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Replied by max on topic Anyone using ToupTec DeepSkyPro 2600c and Astroberry RPi 4?

Hi ,
I have the same issues with the subframes. After setting a ROI in the focus module the exposures for larger light frames give a time out after the subframe setting is unchecked.
I had a look into the code an found that the download estimation time is not reset when the subframe setting is unchecked. This causes a timeout for larger frames later.

I have set the download estimation time to high default value of 10s in the function that sets the ROI. The next frame will be captured without problmes. The download estimation will be adapted automatically later when new light frames are captured. I don't know if this is the best solution but it works at least.

Can anybody guide me how to make a prososal for such code changes in this project...

CS, Max

PS: I am testing ToupTec 2600 mono camera and RPi4
Newton 10"/f5, Skywatcher Esprit 80ED, Lunt LS40/B500, Skywatcher EQ6-PRO, ToupTec 2600m, Omegon veTec571C, Astroberry RPi4 8Gb,
11 months 4 hours ago #82490

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