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Astro features for digicamControl (PhD guiding)

Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 10:30 pm
by gwondaleya
A new tool appeared in the release 1.0.0 which allows digicamcontrol to connect to phdguiding (well known in the astronomer community) which allow guiding of a telescope during long exposure (several minutes).
a step forward to the addition of this tool would be:
- shutter control using external wired remote (like DSUSB, or rs232 /usb-rs232 triggering as seen here: http://www.beskeen.com/projects/dslr_se ... rial.shtml ), which would allow to use bulb mode on all the Nikon (basically the software should raise the RTS line of the port, which, through an optocoupler will allow to trigger the shutter). Shuttering via rs232 will be choosed only when the DSLR would be settled in bulb mode, time of the shot can then be selected using a script or a "new" dropdown menu
- scripting of exposure sequence (like here for example http://djoye.chez-alice.fr/ESR2.html) with automatic dithering between each shot (which can be also programmed in the script)
i am ready to help/discuss the features and to test them once implemented.

Joël

Hi Istvan,

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 1:40 am
by gwondaleya
Hi Istvan,
quickly looking at your code, i amnot sure to understand the way your phd guiding interface!
actually from my understanding of phdguiding (and it is also what i have seen for other software connecting to phd, as nebulosity 3 (from stark labs too) or dithermaster, you select, in a drop down menu, or a list, the level of dithering wanted (between 0 , no dither to 5, very high dither). then when you click on the dither button (or the script send the dither command), a command is sent to phd server (MSG_MOVEx where x is 1 to 5, no command for nodither) which makes move the scope bya random value based on the level of dithering selected (see http://code.google.com/p/open-phd-guidi ... server.cpp) !
Is it the way your code work? some other commands can be send to (like starting guide, pause, resume, request the real value of the move done during the dithering, etc)

Joël

Hello Istvan

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 12:29 am
by gwondaleya
Hello Istvan
again me.may be you can have a look there (http://www.backyardeos.com/product_backyardeos.aspx) about what can be nice for astro features (well, here it is clearly fully and only astro app, but some ideas are interesting)
Joël

Hi,

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 9:59 am
by whwang
Hi,
It will be great if the function can be implemented. I will be very happy to help to test, although I don't have many clear nights here for real star testing.
Wei-Hao

Reticle / Astro Functions

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 1:33 am
by loak
I suggested some features around this back in October, now V1 is released it looks like Duka may get more time to develop them... If you're interested in Reticles and note-taking during your astro sessions, you could take a look at a little app I wrote a while back.

It allows you to overlay a number of different reticles on a live feed from your camera, and thus achieve drift alignment or take measurements....

Take a look at http://www.helva.co.uk/ - or specifically - https://sites.google.com/site/squif3/software/Reticle

I've just realised it's coming up to a year since I last worked on this app, so if you see anything you like, ping me a comment and I'll see what I can do to take it forward before we start the Astro season here (UK), in another couple of months.

I made some progress : https:

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 8:54 pm
by Duka Istvan
I made some progress : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/409 ... 0.544.exeA separated button for astro feature (the bulb mode), to use this module the camera should be in bulb mode and on manual focus.Support for external shutter release cable via serial cable (to configure : Settings->Devices->Add)Support for very simple scripting, this will improve in future.

I know this litttle app! Very

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 3:00 pm
by gwondaleya
I know this litttle app! Very Useful!
Joël

Hi Istvan

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 3:01 pm
by gwondaleya
Hi Istvan

Will test it today or tomorrow evening.

Joël

New settings Glitch (bulb)

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:38 pm
by loak
Thanks for adding this so quickly D.
Can't use it yet tho :-(
couple of notes.... 1 - what pin(s) are you intending to control? RTS? - this would allow the use of existing 'off the shelf' devices such as http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/dsl ... lease.html.

2 - After creating a new setting - it appears it can't be deleted....
3 - the new format of the settings menu appears to have broken some of the button graphics e.g. the slider on the Advance tab, the QRCode on the Triggers tab - see attached images for reference.

I've added my log file, for reference I'm running W7 ultimate, screen res of 1366x768

Bulb triggers

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:56 pm
by loak
Oh by the way - I'd be happy to knock up some serial port to Nikon cables at cost + shipping for those that are interested... and I'd be willing to contribute to a USB native device, if there was interest.

With regard to the serial interface, I reckon these could be put together for approx 20 GBP (Serial port connector components seem far more expensive than I remember) + Nikon connector - for which, for less than 5 GBP I suggest we could use