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Old 03-02-2017, 12:07 AM
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luka
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
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Volunteers needed to test out the new ASCOM drivers

My camera does not have cooling yet so I did all testing inside with room lighting. Also while I did not touch any of the cooling code I could not test if anything got messed up. So please pay attention. This is a major update.

Changes:
1. Update driver code to match the newer cam86_viewer
2. Update to the latest FTD2XX_NET drivers
3. Added reading time adjustment like in the latest cam86_viewer
4. Added (partial) night mode
5. Fixed bug causing image corruption in APT (a white line in the first row of images). This also fixed the histogram in APT. Basically APT was requesting temperature and cooler power while image reading was in progress and this corrupted parts of the image.
This may not work as intended as I don't have a working cooling. See below how to test.
6. Added min/max intensities, reading time and StdDev. Not sure if we should keep this information but at the moment it is useful for debugging.

Todo:
1. Option to chose between TEC on or TEC off during reading. This will require firmware modification and I did not get that far yet.
2. Option to switch between mono/colour sensor.
3. Have to look into our main settings window. We may be breaking ASCOM guidelines which clearly state:
Quote:
/// Displays the Setup Dialog form.
/// If the user clicks the OK button to dismiss the form, then
/// the new settings are saved, otherwise the old values are reloaded.
/// THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE SHOWING USER INTERFACE IS ALLOWED!
Setup Dialog form is not the form with all the settings that automatically pops up. As far as I understand this means that the floating settings window is not allowed and that all settings should be in the other settings window (currently empty) that can be accessed when selecting the device. In other words, no changing of settings is possible while the imaging session is running. I will post a question in another thread to see how settings are set in commercial cameras.
4. Saving of settings - it does not work as I believe that the settings are in a wrong place (see point 3). We don't even have OK button on the current main settings form.

I have also uncovered a possible bug for which I may need Grim's help. I will post in the Ukrainian forums.
Gilles, if you are trying to include "reading time" in the indi driver, you have to set it before setting gain or offset as it messes with the gain and offset. My ASCOM drivers sets "reading time" first and things work but I do not know why and don't like it.

Nico, I removed the sensor clearing for the time being.


The driver is too large to attach here so it can be downloaded from here.
This ASCOM driver requires to flash firmware "cam86 prob2.hex", I have included it with the driver. The driver will not run with the initial old version of the firmware.


Source code will be released later, once the bugs are fixed and once Grim/Vakulenko let us know which license they would like to have.

Please test and pay attention to everything. And any other suggestions are welcome.

---------------
Cooling test:
It could be that the temperature is not being updated during imaging. Test if you can disconnect TEC power and keep camera running:
- let the temperature stabilise.
- start 1 minute exposure
- unplug cooling power
- watch the temperature and see if it changes
- see what happens with the temperature at the end of exposure
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