I use a Fuji X-T4, a,d a PI4, actually everything listed by DaveSW are the same except for:


The camera is set as follows:

2. Manual shutter, I can use all exposure time I want, no issue

In the Ekos/Indi setup screens:

4. SD Card (Save/Delete) seems to never save the image ono the SD card

Other observations:

- I use a 12V powered USB 3 hub (prevents under-voltage errors on Pi) for the Guide Camera and mount on USB 2. Hub plugs into a USB 2 port on the Pi
- Camera X-T4 using a Tetherd Tool cable (USB A - USB C) on PI on USB 3 port


- The LED on back of camera 100% identical as for the X-T3
Camera off and plugged into USB 3 = solid green
Camera plugged into USB 3 and power switched on = LED off
Exposure started = flashes alternately green and orange during normal operation
Exposure ended (saving file) = flashing orange
Exposure ended (awaiting next exposure start) = flashes alternately green and orange
Something is wrong = flashing green

timopro, thanks for contributing to this list. Regarding the two items quoted above, can you elaborate a bit on them?

When you say "manual shutter" do you mean you are adjusting and triggering the camera yourself, without Ekos/Indi, using a cable release or intervalometer? Are you using the mechanical or electronic shutter?

Regarding the SD card (and by this I mean the SD card in the camera). Do you save images to both the camera's SD card and your system?

Dear all, DaveSw,


Q: When you say "manual shutter" do you mean you are adjusting and triggering the camera yourself, without Ekos/Indi, using a cable release or intervalometer? Are you using the mechanical or electronic shutter?
<strong>A: I mean in the camera setting, I setted the Shutter in "Mechanical Mode" MS</strong>

Q:Regarding the SD card (and by this I mean the SD card in the camera). Do you save images to both the camera's SD card and your system?
<strong>A: I save the images Locally on the PI (let say Remotly from the Laptop), I'm also be able to save them Locally on the Laptop but it take more time >50secs.</strong>
No Files are saved into the SD card, regardless the setting in Indi, for me it is ok.

My Setup is:

- Laptop Windows with Kstars-Ekos, wifi connected to the PI4
- RI4 Astroberry + a 256GB USB stick to store the taken photos
- Main Camera X-T4 connected directly on the PI4 USB-3 (Blue Port) File is Native (.raf)
- QHY5II and Mount connected through a Powered USB Hub on USB 2 (Black port)

Everything works pretty good, except the Live View, which will be very useful for Focusing.
Even if it is marked as woring in GPhoto website in my setup it is not working.

Dear all, Im looking to the live view with the X-T4 and I found that there is a strange behaviour , between Live view and capture , switching everything on and activate the live view before taking any pictures it works, so I can see the live view from my X-T4 camera, which is great, if Im stopping it, i have to close 2 tines the window, Im not anymore able to take any capture...so I have to complete reset everything......after resetting everything If O do the exact opposite Take a capture and later try the live view It doesn't work...seams something in the Driver or USB communication... I try to debugging it if I can..

Anyone else had similar issue?

Thanks

I haven't yet spent any time exploring Live View, but it is on my to-do list. I look forward to hearing your progress.

On the other hand I've been trying to sort out why I'm not getting all the images in a sequence written to my camera's SD card. Some show up on the card, others do not. (but they all seem to show up on the Pi (Ekos capture set to "Remotely" and Indi (Fuji_CCD) set to "Local".

I am also having an issue with Darks (shot using the Fuji). So far they have all be just copies of one of the last "Light" frames from the sequence before the Dark sequence. Not just more Lights, but the same light file saved over and over - the name of he file changes to match the sequence setting though.

I am going to create another post when I have all my observations done. (System is exposing sequences as I type this...)

I spent a lot of time trying to get either of my X-T3 or X-T4 to work with my RPi 4 running StellarMate a few months ago, but I was never able to do so reliably. Lots of communications issues, error exposing images, etc. I'm not running KStars on a PC, but on the Pi, so I have the images downloading only to the Pi (using a Local profile in Kstars). I've gotten a few sequences to work so far (Yay!), but I'm having two issues. The first is that it's taking about 68 seconds to download a file from my camera to the Pi using a USB3 port. That's weird. The second is that the first exposure often fails. The 2nd attempt usually works, but I thought I would at least mention it. Any ideas on why the download it taking so long?

Edit 1: I connected the camera to both USB3 ports on the Pi and saw the same download times. I connected on a USB2 port and saw the same download time as on the USB3 port. Perhaps my Pi has a port driver configuration problem and I'm not seeing the full bandwidth of the USB3 ports? I also tried 2 different USB cables and both produced the same download times.

Edit 2: In USB Card Reader Connection Mode, files from the X-T3 download to a PC through a USB 2 port in less than 1 second. Even faster through a USB 3.0 port.

Spero, during my testing I had the same problems you mention. Here is what I did that worked for me:

1. Long download times. The ONLY way I found around this is to run Ekos on the laptop and talk to the Pi using a VNC viewer program with the following settings: In Ekos (on the laptop) under the Capture Module set: Save to "Remotely" AND in the Indi Control Panel in the Fuji camera's tab and under the Options tab, set Upload to "Local" AND under the Image Settings tab, set SD Image to "Delete".

Using these settings images are downloaded onto the Pi in the directory specified AND, despite the SD image set to Delete, the camera's internal SD card. Note the image save directory must match in both Ekos Capture Module and Indi Control Panel screens or a directory not found type error occurs.

The camera keeps using the file numbering scheme it always does while the files on the Pi are labelled as defined in Ekos. Downloading the images this way appears essentially instantaneous. Every other combination of settings I tried resulted in download times like you mention ~70 seconds in my case. Didn't matter whether I kept images on the Pi or had them sent back to the laptop. The best I could do was if I connected the two computers with Ethernet, and save images to the laptop, the download times dropped to ~23 seconds - still way too long.

Another benefit to having SD Image = Delete is that I no longer get missing or repeated images in long sequences. When set to "Save" after about 20ish exposures the camera buffers seem to overrun and images are not saved to the camera SD card (and sometimes the last image before the camera balks is saved to the Pi over and over again. These duplicate images, as saved to the Pi, are named correctly according to Ekos, but are in fact just duplicates of the final image before the camera choked.

2. First exposure attempt fails. I don't have an explanation for this but I quickly learned to do at least two test exposures each attempt. When everything is setup properly, the second exposure works if the first fails. (if it doesn't it means I've not set something properly - usually the camera has powered down...)

For the record, my system comprises a Pi 4 (4GB) booting Astrobrerry from a SSD. One USB 3 port on the Pi connects to a 12V powered USB 3 hub. My guide camera connects to the Pi through a USB 2 port. The Fuji X-T3, the mount (HEQ5) and the SSD all connect to one of the USB 3 ports on the hub. If I remember to turn it all on and change the settings in Ekos/Indi (as they don't always seem to "save" properly) I get things running reliably. I am shooting and saving RAW files (Fuji RAF)

You mention you are not running Ekos on a separate computer... you may not find the above useful but I thought I should mention what I find works for me. Perhaps you can find some clues...

Thanks Dave - I was avoiding the use of Kstars on a laptop because when I first was trying with it, it would inexplicably crash. Just go away. Done. Bad news for automation! But, I'll give it a go again. Who knows maybe some bugs have been squashed since then. Will update this thread after testing...

Every now and then I find Kstars (3.5.0 & 3.5.1) will crash, seemingly randomly, but so far not during an actual imaging session, just during testing and fiddling about. (Which is good considering how few clear nights we get around here in the winter.)

Thanks for these posts as I'm sure they will be helpful once I figure out what else I have to do. I have tried these settings but still remain unable to capture images using Ekos. My set up is

Fuji X-T3
SW Star Adventurer
ZWO 120MM-S Guide camera
Astroberry

When using PHD2 for guiding and controlling the camera manually everything works fine.
When I try to use EKOS to control the X-T3 I just get messages saying "capture aborted" and Indi control panel usually says either something in relation to the directory.
It would be very useful to see a screen shot of the camera and filter wheel screen in Ekos and of each of the tabs in the main camera section of Indi Control panel or to receive any suggestions.

Thanks

Steve

Steve - I was not successful either... Still getting the random aborts and weird communication issues. I'm at the "throw in the towel" phase of getting Ekos to work reliably with my Fuji gear.

Steve, I will capture some screen shots of my setup in Ekos and Indi for the relevant tabs when time allows (today or tomorrow).

I am using the internal guider rather than PHD2 for no reason other than I wanted to keep it all "in house" in my learner phase. I have found that I need to follow a set sequence to ensure things work as expected - the biggest "gotcha" is the Fuji not working due to some sort of directory error or communication timeout. Getting an external, powered USB hub made the system more reliable as I think the Fuji was trying to draw too much power from the Raspberry Pi (to keep the battery topped up).

Despite following my setup ritual (devices connected appropriately, Fuji switched ON before connecting with Ekos, etc.) I still get frequent image capture failure for the first exposure attempted. I ALWAYS make a short exposure time test with at least TWO shots in the sequence. >90% of the time the first exposure fails on the first attempt but if I've remember to check the image save location settings are "correct" the second attempt works, (and as I'm still new to this I'm often forgetting one step or the other...)

Even so, with everything "perfect" I still get random, unexplained Kstar crashes (3.5.0, 3.5.1 and 3.5.2). Not in the middle of an exposure sequence that I can recall but while I'm attempting to do something else (can't make any correlations here).

I also figured out how to save FITS images to the Pi while the RAF files go to the camera's card. (One less step in later processing, though I've yet to have a clear night to try it with actual astro images.)