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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

[SOLVED] Sony A7S setup fails to save image

  • Posts: 24
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Hi Guys,

I get my Sony A7S connected to KStars but the setup frequently behaves badly. Let's focus on one problem at the time: saving an image.

I just moved from macOS to Ubuntu hoping I could follow new developments more closely. I installed using the recommended setup:
Possible issues
- How critical is a good USB cable? How to know if this could be the issue. I have about 10 cables but only one of them seems to connect.
- Newer driver from Gphoto2 needed still? How to install?

I attach my workflow and the logs I was able to find. Please let me know if other info could be useful! It's vacation time now so I have some time to tinker with this.

Best regards,
Jurgen

File Attachment:

File Name: README_con...tars.txt
File Size:2 KB

File Attachment:

File Name: GPhotoCCDdriver.txt
File Size:1 KB

File Attachment:

File Name: GPhotoCCD.txt
File Size:2 KB
3 years 2 months ago #65248

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The images save fine now. What I changed? Not much.

In KStars/Ekos/Indi Control Panel:
Under the tab GPhoto CCD, tab Options:
"Force BULB" set to Off instead of On.
"Debug Levels" to include "Driver Debug".

Tested with settings in Ekos "CCD" tab with settings as shown below.
Exposure: 2
Count: 2
Delay: 3 (This might be important; see www.gphoto.org/news/ section: "libgphoto2 2.5.26 release" )
ISO: 100
Etc.

In Camera:
Controls:
M modus
AF set to AEF (should not be relevant)

Settings:
Camera Tab >
4 >
ISO set to 100
DRO/Auto HDR set to "Off" (This might be important)
5 >
Long Exposure Noise Reduction (NR) set to "Off" (This might be important)
Utility Tab >
5 >
"Format" done but was also done before so should not be relevant.
6 >
"Version" checked to be the latest 3.20

I suspect the delay or the BULB thing fixed my problem. Hopefully it will yours too. Happy - 2021 - New Year!
3 years 2 months ago #65276
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Thank you. DRO and Long exposure noise reduction are settings in the camera itself?
3 years 2 months ago #65281

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3 years 2 months ago #65618

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Thanks for your post. I have an A7R4 and your post helped getting most of the way through getting images off the camera. I am running Kstars on a MacBook with the Sony and CEM40G running on Astroberry on an RPI4 with 8MB. Your advice got me to the point where I can reliably collect and get a FITS image displayed however, it doesn’t save either locally or remotely. It does end up on the SD card so it is still useful. I checked permissions locally and remotely and I can save a FITS file from the viewer. BTW I was running the camera in APSC mode just in case the image was too large.

Are there any diagnostics I can collect and look at?

Thanks

Kurt
3 years 1 month ago #67383

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Cool. I have no idea about running it with the RPI. Perhaps my below notes can help you to turn on the diagnostic reporting on the different (2?) levels of Kstars and indilib perhaps there are more?
Do you get things working well without the RPI? Simplify first if not and then build up?

Cheers,
Jurgen

=== Settings
* DB ~/Library/Application Support/kstars/userdb.sqlite
* Ekos ~/.indi
* KStars preferences file ~/Library/Preferences/kstarsrc
=== Logs
* Indi using utc time stamps ~/.indi/logs/2021-01-08/indi_sony_ccd/indi_sony_ccd_19/53/15.log
* KStars using local ts ~/Library/Application\ Support/kstars/logs
=== Drivers
* Indi /Applications/KStars.app/Contents/MacOS/indi
=== Data
* KStars Data Directory ~/Library/Application Support/kstars
3 years 1 month ago #67417

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Jurgen

Seems every way I turn is a roadblock. If it try and run on my Mac everything is fine but the iGuide camera driver isn’t available on the Mac. INDI is available on a PC. However the Sony camera behaves the same if I drive it from the RPI or from a direct USB connection to the Mac. It is 20x faster on the Mac. How do you drive it? I thought of building a Linux machine but probably no difference.

So I edit these files and find a debug switch? What do I do with the DB file?

Thanks
Kurt
3 years 1 month ago #67420

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Ok Maybe I am going mad. I tried again on my MacBook Pro and the same thing. Then I went to the RPI and everything works. The files appear on the RPI and the transfer is a very fast 6 seconds for a 61 mega-pixel image. The only difference, maybe, is I plugged the CEM40G into the USB3 port on the RPI and the camera is, as always, plugged into the USB connector on the declination mount. I can control the CEM40G and read the guide camera which is configured as a V4L2. Also I switched to TeamViewer which is really nice and pretty fast. I only wish I could hide the TeamView control widget.

Thanks for all the help

Kurt
3 years 1 month ago #67429

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Hi Kurt,

I can imagine it feels like that and I'm in no way the expert in these matters. I have not done guiding like you are trying. I did see KStars perform a bit faster on the Mac in the case of the histogram calculations of the image viewer. It certainly is a nice port/build on macOS.
No need to edit the files. No need to do anything with the db file.
Do turn on debugging for the camera as you can do shown in the attached.

Let me know if you like me to record a little screencast demo of working with the Sony A7S.

Cheers,
Jurgen
3 years 1 month ago #67776
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Still no luck getting pictures downloaded to local host. I switched to running Kstars on the Mac connected directly to the mount and camera via USB. The A7R4 reliably downloads fits images but no raw or JPEG files are saved using either the photo or Sony DLSR driver. Funny thing is that using gphoto2 on Mac command line will download both RAW, JPG, or both but only when a --wait-event=10s option is used I am wondering if a wait option is needed in Indi
2 years 11 months ago #69455

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Please check the GPhoto driver source code and see if there is anywhere for this. In the current code, it wait for an event starting from line 1367
2 years 11 months ago #69456

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Jasem

Wow there is a lot of code there. I spent some time looking at it and my first guess is that this uses the libgphoto2 and makes direct calls to the library. I have been using the command line gphoto2 with the following command:

gphoto2 --wait-event=10s --capture-image-and-download --force-overwrite --filename xxx.jpg

So I don't actually know what the wait-event waits for but after the command is issued nothing happens for several seconds and then the shutter clicks. The code you direct me to seems to be in the area where INDI waits for the image to download. On photo if you don't wait long enough nothing happens in the camera. You don't actually capture a photo. So it isn't like a failure to wait for the download to finish.

There is some discussion here: github.com/gphoto/gphoto2/issues/272

I also discovered that gphoto2 supposedly can control the focus so maybe I could write some code to add that to INDI so sunny camera users could use the EKOS focus feature. That might be a bridge quite far but maybe not too far.


I get the following output

'Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... | \ 0.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |- | 5.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |-- / 10.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |--- - 15.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |---- \ 20.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
| 25.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
/ 30.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
- 35.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
\ 40.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
| 45.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
/ 50.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
- 55.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
\ 60.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
| 65.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
/ 70.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
- 75.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
\ 80.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
| 85.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
/ 90.0%
Loading camera drivers from '/usr/l... |
- 95.0%

Waiting for 10 seconds for events from camera. Press Ctrl-C to abort.
UNKNOWN PTP Property 0000 changed
UNKNOWN PTP Property 0000 changed
UNKNOWN PTP Property 0000 changed
UNKNOWN PTP Property 0000 changed
UNKNOWN PTP Property 0000 changed
UNKNOWN PTP Property 0000 changed
Downloading... |- \ 2.1%
Downloading... |-- | 5.3%
Downloading... |--- / 7.4%
Downloading... |
- 10.5%
Downloading... |
\ 13.7%
Downloading... |
| 15.8%
Downloading... |
/ 18.9%
Downloading... |
- 21.1%
Downloading... |
\ 24.2%
Downloading... |
| 27.4%
Downloading... |
/ 29.5%
Downloading... |
- 32.6%
Downloading... |
\ 35.8%
Downloading... |
| 37.9%
Downloading... |
/ 41.1%
Downloading... |
- 43.2%
Downloading... |
\ 46.3%
Downloading... |
| 49.5%
Downloading... |
/ 51.6%
Downloading... |
- 54.7%
Downloading... |
\ 57.9%
Downloading... |
| 60.0%
Downloading... |
/ 63.2%
Downloading... |
- 65.3%
Downloading... |
\ 68.4%
Downloading... |
| 71.6%
Downloading... |
/ 73.7%
Downloading... |
- 76.8%
Downloading... |
\ 80.0%
Downloading... |
| 82.1%
Downloading... |
/ 85.3%
Downloading... |
- 87.4%
Downloading... |
\ 90.5%
Downloading... |
| 93.7%
Downloading... |
/ 95.8%
Downloading... |
| 98.9%
Downloading... |
| 100.0%

New file is in location /capt0000.jpg on the camera
Saving file as 28-Mar-2021 20.52.51 Focus -47.JPG
Deleting file /capt0000.jpg on the camera
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
2 years 11 months ago #69540

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