Flea3 GigE first light Saturn Aug 15th

[Quark (Trevor)]

Hi All,

The first light images with my new Flea3 GigE camera. This Saturn data was captured in rather ordinary conditions; however it does resolve an interesting bright spot within the EZ in the R channel data. The G & B channel data added nothing at all in the way of detail and detracted from the resolution of the RGB.

I have found several obstacles to overcome in getting the Flea3 GigE to run at its full potential, regarding both consistency of operation and frame rate. I hasten to add that all of these problems related to the hardware in my computers and not the camera itself. For anyone else that may be interested I will outline what I have found.

I recently purchased the Flea3 GigE camera to replace my old Flea3 1394 which had suddenly developed a problem and ceased to function.
It should be noted that I have no affiliation with any vendor and my comments are based on what I have experienced with the equipment I have at hand.

Firstly, the computers that I tried to run the new camera on were:
A 4yr old Toshiba laptop 32 bit core 2 duo T9300 2.5 GHz with 4 Gb of RAM, this was the computer I had been running with my Flea3 IEEE 1394. This computer has a Marvel Yukon 88E8072 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

A 1yr old Toshiba Qosmio laptop quad core 64 bit i7-2360QM 2.00GHz with 8 Gb RAM. This computer has a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller.

A brand new LG desktop quadcore 64 bit i7-3770 3.4GHz with 16 Gb RAM. This computer has a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller. Initially I also fitted this computer with another PCIe Gigabit LAN card sourced from LINDY (P/N 51191) here in Australia. I intended this card to be specifically for the new camera.

I found that (using the PGR Configurator) I could not configure the camera on the quadcore laptop at all, mostly the configurator just froze.

I found that I could not configure the camera on the LINDY card at all and received numerous error messages related to the bus.

I found that I could configure the camera on the desktops original motherboard controller but that I could not configure an MTU rate of higher than 1500 (note that the camera can run at 9000 MTU) I captured many test RGB data sequences and found that although the camera worked, the frame rate was all over the shop, extremely inconsistent.
I found that I could configure the camera on my old Tashiba core2 duo at 9000 MTU and that the camera performed as expected (I tested at up to 100 FPS)

It is nice to have friends and I must add that I had numerous phone conversations with Bird that stretched to several hours while trying to sort this out.
On the PGR knowedge base it is mentioned that standard PCIe Gigabit controllers may cause problems for GigE cameras and that they recommend PCIe adaptors with Intel Pro 1000 chips in them. Reckon that really needs to be in bold print.

Following further consultation with Bird I sourced an Intel EXPI9301CT Pro/1000 CT Gigabit Network Adaptor from Techbuy.com.au here in Australia. This time, when I ran the Configurator, everything that the Configurator help file said should happen, did happen.

My Flea3 GigE will now function to spec both on my old 32 bit laptop (Vista Ultimate) and new 64 bit desktop (Windows 7) and has performed flawlessly thus far on Torstens most excellent FireCapture 2.2.

At times this was a rather stressful process and it certainly helped greatly having access to the calming influence and knowledge of Bird, to whom I am indebted. I take from this the fact that not all Gigabit controllers were born equal and that the same applies to the range of Gigabit PCIe cards that are available. For sure, the correct information is right there within the PGR knowledge database but for non expert people like me it would have been much better to perhaps have that information more prominently displayed, like on the overview page for the camera on the PGR website, as well as in the knowledge base.

There has been little respite from the Jetstream over the last month and now that I am back to being fully operational, I look forward to some good seeing to really put the new Flea3 GigE through its paces.

Regards
Trevor

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Quark

......
On the PGR knowedge base it is mentioned that standard PCIe Gigabit controllers may cause problems for GigE cameras and that they recommend PCIe adaptors with Intel Pro 1000 chips in them. Reckon that really needs to be in bold print.......

Very tidy start Trev!

Agreed on the Point Grey tech advice. Very average IMHO.

I found the Grasshopper Express to be equally intolerant of non Texas-Instruments 1394B chips.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Very tidy start Trev!

Agreed on the Point Grey tech advice. Very average IMHO.

I found the Grasshopper Express to be equally intolerant of non Texas-Instruments 1394B chips.

Thanks Peter, interesting regarding your experience with the Grasshopper Express, the problems with my Flea3 IEEE 1394 only started after trying to run it on a Firewire 800 PCIe card that I had sourced here in OZ for my new desktop, probably a coincident. Must say that I really don't think it should be so difficult to get these cameras working, but it is certainly worthwhile in the end. There is no better planetary imaging camera at the moment than the Flea3 and your initial Solar results with the Grasshopper speak for themselves.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Very good images for the conditions Trevor. Thanks for the heads up - the data rates from these newer cameras certainly expose flaws in the PCs.
regards Ray

[Paul Haese]

Been considering an upgrade myself. I am more inclined to go down the USB3 path as the fire wire path is becoming redundant on most laptops. Problem is this path has CMOS sensors at this stage.

That said the images look great and seem to present quite smoothly. Looking forward to seeing more images from you.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Shiraz

Very good images for the conditions Trevor. Thanks for the heads up - the data rates from these newer cameras certainly expose flaws in the PCs.
regards Ray

Thanks Ray, yes, it certainly is not just a matter of connecting to any Gigabit controller or PCIe Gigabit adapter and having the camera work straight up.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Been considering an upgrade myself. I am more inclined to go down the USB3 path as the fire wire path is becoming redundant on most laptops. Problem is this path has CMOS sensors at this stage.

That said the images look great and seem to present quite smoothly. Looking forward to seeing more images from you.

Thanks Paul, agree, it surprises me that PGR don't offer these CCD chips in a USB3 format as sourcing laptops, in particular, with Express card ports becomes increasingly difficult and Firewire seems destined to obscurity. Considering the problems I have had trying to setup my Flea3 IEEE 1394 on a firewire 800 PCIe adapter card, the problems that Peter has mentioned here in his reply regarding similar experience with non Texas instruments PCIe firewire 800 chips for his Grasshopper and the fact that even the GigE camera will only run properly on specific Gigabit controllers and PCIe adapter cards.

[icytailmark (Mark)]

why did you decide to buy another flea3 when the last one died on you?

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Very nice images Trevor.
I'm glad you got your issues sorted.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by icytailmark

why did you decide to buy another flea3 when the last one died on you?

Hi Mark, the Flea3 ICX618 is simply the best planetary imaging camera availably today. My Flea3 was just over 2 years old and has done a lot of work. Due to the generally good weather conditions over that time out here at B.Hill I have captured thousands of RGB & IR data sets. Currently I have 10,677 records of measurement with JUPOS and 1,472 Saturn & Jupiter data sets on the PVOL data base. Taking into account my Mars data for the BAA & ALPO along with the captured data sets that I simply deleted because of the seeing was not up to scratch, the camera did a great deal of work. With the Flea3 I have produced the highest res images that I ever have.


[QUOTE=jjjnettie;889563]Very nice images Trevor.

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Very nice images Trevor.
I'm glad you got your issues sorted.

Thanks Jeanette, it sure has been a great relief to be sorted and back in business.