Blaise,
The best default resolution for the 305 is RGB24. And, it isn't an expensive camera, so the target user is probably not loaded up with filters and filter wheels. So, I'd program to the masses. Keep it color (just an opinion).

Don't worry too much about what our media reports. We have had a rise in cases since reopening businesses, especially in dense population areas, but we have also increased testing so comparisons have to be judged carefully. My "gut" tells me there is at least a spot increase in cases. Time will tell.

For myself, I live in a very tiny town on a farm in the woods. My contact risk is very minimal. I am retired, so I don't HAVE to go out. My greatest exposure is from gyroplane instruction that I do part-time when I feel like it. My students are pretty careful to keep me safe, as there aren't many gyroplane instructors in the US,

Hello Jon,

Thanks for your advice.

SVBony sent my an email. They will soon give me the new SDK, with the new SV305 Pro and raspberry support.

Sorry, out of topic, but your living place description sounds to my ears like paradise ! I live in Paris suburbs. The house is pretty, with a nice garden, but the DisneyLand Paris lights are right in the FOV
of my telescope ! I mostly work at home since march (covid confinement). At office 1 day/week. I use my car instead of the subway, to avoid the contamination.

Part time Gyroplane instructor ? What a great job ! Glad to know your are healthy.

Best regards,

Blaise

Blaise,

Quick story about where I live: I spend most of my life in big cities, so when I decided to move to a rural area (Northwest Georgia), I flew my plane on a dark night and looked for the biggest area of unpopulated dark property I could spot, marked it on my chart, and the next days transferred the coordinates to a land map and told a realtor to "find me something in this red circle." Been here ever since.

Some folks I know in the UK have just received the SVBONY SDK and it is alleged to have all the armh 32/64 support. Very encouraging.

Hi Jon,

I think it's what we name the "American Dream".
I already found a nice and dark place for my "retirement" (300km south from Paris), but still 20 years to go

I just received the new SDK today.
They provide binaries for armv6, armv7, armv8 and of course amd64 and i386.
But they also changed all the APIs... (renaming and low level APIs wrapping, in my mind).

I will have to rewrite a lot of things...
I created a new branch for this new SDK (thx8411_sv305_2).

I will need some help for testing in the coming days

Best regards !

Blaise

PS : Sorry, my english skills are limited. I hope you don't have to much pain to read me

Blaise,

I have heard similar things about the SDK. Apparently, it is being widely distributed. Let me know when you need testing.

Your English is not an issue. If you want to experience real pain, I can reply in Spanish or German. I have never studied French and would not attempt it out of consideration for the poor soul who would have to decode my jibberish. I probably know more words in Japanese. I certainly know more "impolite" words in Russian. The owner of the Russian Tango Gyro company used to assemble machines in one of my hangars and was very vocal when dropping wrenches on his feet or scrubbing his knuckles on something sharp.

Hello Jon,

Sorry, I was really busy these days.

<<
I certainly know more "impolite" words in Russian. The owner of the Russian Tango Gyro company used to assemble machines in one of my hangars and was very vocal when dropping wrenches on his feet or scrubbing his knuckles on something sharp.
>>

LOL ! I learned some polish swear words with my previous boss, a polish native.

I'm still working on the new driver. It will be much more complete and cleaner (camera's controls won't be hard coded anymore), but I have to rewrite almost everything.
I also added the SV305 Pro ST4 features.
This SDK is not stable yet. SVBony sent me a 2nd version.

Are you OK in your NeverLand Ranch ?

Best regards !

Blaise,

No worries here. I got a beta from AstroDMx_Capture for the RaspberryPi4 version of their software with the new SDK for the SV305 to look at and have been banging my head against the wall trying to get either indi_skywatcherAltAzSimple OR indi_skywatcherAltAzMount to work with my Skywatcher 250P properly, so I haven't been idle.

I look forward to see your progress. I hear they did a pretty good job with the SDK.

Hi Jon,

How are you ?

<<
I hear they did a pretty good job with the SDK
>>

Right, the APIs are much easier to use, no stuff to "hard code" anymore.

I made significant progress on the new driver. My understanding of the INDI API grows up.

I still have 3 issues :

- I don't know how to abort long exposures. The trick I used with the previous SDK doesn't work. I asked SVBONY for a solution.
- when changing the settings, the first frame uses the previous settings. Probably a buffer issue. I asker SVBONY too for a way to drop buffered frames.
- binning and sub-framing don't work in live view yet.

Andy, from the openPHD project also woks with SVBONY.

Take care and have a nice day.

Blaise

Blaise,

All is well here. The world has gone crazy, but I try not to pay much attention. One of my students soloed today and didn't crash, so all is well.

It looks like you have made real progress. I hope SVBONY is responsive to your questions. I look forward to more testing when it is required.

The new AstroDMx_Capture program beta for Pi4 64 bit is out now and the SVBONY camera seems to work very well with the new SDK in that environment. A good time to be into astronomy, I think.

Hello Jon,

Glad to know your student is safe

I'm on vacation among my brother. Nice place. The nearest city is at 20 miles...



I tried the driver on Saturn yesterday :



Maksutov 127/1900 + SV305
About 1000 root frames

Have I nice day !

Blaise

Blaise,

Very nice Saturn! Nice area shot too!

That is a more astronomy-friendly area than around here. We are more "woodsy" and trees block the horizon at every compass point. I can't view anything below about 35 degrees, and that's from a second floor deck.

Does this mean your latest version is ready for me to try to break?

Hi Jon,

Right, I love this place. I'm looking for a land to buy out there. The sky is really clear. These kind of deserts are pretty rare in France.
Did you try the "lighter" or "matches" solutions, to get ride off all these trees ? You will get a clean area...
You may also drop some gasoline from your giroplan... Oups...

Sure, you can test the driver. Sources are in a new branch :

github.com/thx8411/indi-3rdparty/tree/thx8411_sv305_2

These are the known issues :

+ Subframing and binning don't work in liveview
+ First frame wrong exposure time
+ Can't abort exposure yet
+ sometime, gain setting failed.

Thanks a lot !

I'm still waiting for the SVBony engineers answers.

I also tested the driver on Jupiter last night.

Best regards !

Blaise