Sony IMX253 mono cameras

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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by ffellah »

Thank you, Mark.

Franco


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by Bob Yoesle »

Thanks Mark!


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by DavidP »

Bob Yoesle wrote: Sun Dec 27, 2020 9:03 pm

Just wish I were more of a computer geek... The hardware is easy, but I also need to update the BIOS and ghost the hard drive, none of which ever goes smoothly for me. May have it done professionally ;-)
Bob,
I was in a very similar situation recently. Older Dell laptop, although mine does have a USB3. I installed an SSD and ram, and not being very computer savvy was intimidated about updating the Bios and making a ghost of the drive. It was confusing for me, but I did some research, did it myself and it turned out great. You’re a smart guy, you can do it yourself if you want.


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

For this particular post, as Mark T., has just said, " if a power supply feels heavy that is normally a good sign."

That is a proven fact by me over many years since Switch-Mode power supplies became new and now common.

Bob Yoesle's photo of his electrics on his pier, are basically similar to mine, except that mine also has a piped-in 12V lead-acid-supply, which itself is kept charged by an external Solar-panel system, with an automatic mains powered-charger (to keep it topped - if required during the colder-weather).
This is primarily for emergency-lighting (independent from the mains supply on entry and leaving the observatory + alarm-systems etc. and available for telescope control etc.)..

I have also installed a regulated variable-voltage power-supply (set at 13.8VDC) for up to 30-Amps (continuous), for powering all sorts of items and primarily the mount(s) whichever is in use on the pier, plus red-led lighting etc., etc. I have four of these for radio and other purposes which were originally for amateur-radio transmitter purposes, but acquired from a local radio-supplier as slight-cabinet damage. One is also a 50-Amp supply and all are very heavy and solidly built. Other than fitting back-light LED's for their Volts and Current Meters, no fault has ever occurred in well over 20-years. Most are ever only used to supply small currents of say around up to 5A, but each has been tested on an oscilloscope to prove that they supply pure D.C. at all times. In other words the same as a lead-acid battery - (off-charge of course)...

Two other regulated high-current PS's are also regularly in use in the observatory for 12V air-blowers, 12V fans and 12V to 5V-USB chargers etc.

My electronics work-bench (away from the observatory of course) is only ever power-available from such devices, as switch-mode types are simply not suitable for several reasons...

Cheers and if any mistooks to the above, is that I can barely see the screen)...
Terry


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by Bob Yoesle »

Thanks Dave and Terry ;-)

Assembling some additional peripherals - a powered USB 3 hub, along with new TEC cooling components (going to try a simpler implementation than my Chameleon's).

Marty Wise has talked me into building a small ITX desktop purposefully for my imaging system:

"... the hardware I'm talking about is a B450 AM4 motherboard, $70, Athlon 3000G APU, $50, 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz RAM, $100, 1TB Samsung SSD, $100; just plop it into any case with a basic power supply and it's ready to roll, cheap, and maxes out the cameras."

Ultimately I think that's the direction I'll go.


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by MalVeauX »

I'm joining in! I have the IMX253 sensor now too. Thanks Bob!!

On an AM4 setup in my observatory using the FlyCapture software, I was able to have the full 30 FPS without any dropped frames and could write 60 seconds without any issue at all at full speed. This is on a basic MSI B450 motherboard (AM4) with an Athlon 3000G APU, DDR4 RAM and internal SSD (SATA based, still fast enough). Very inexpensive setup.

Very best,


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by DavidP »

How about running this camera with FireCapture? Any issues?


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by MalVeauX »

DavidP wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 4:26 am How about running this camera with FireCapture? Any issues?
So far, it works in FireCapture 2.7 Beta without any work around, no special settings, etc. I simply installed the FlyCapture SDK (latest version) from Flir's support website. Rebooted. Opened FireCapture 2.7 Beta and it was up and running.

The only thing I'm tweaking at this stage is to fine tune the integration of the FlyCapture suite and driver options and how it handles in FireCapture. In the FLyCapture software I can get max FPS in all the possible combos. FireCapture has some strange caps on mine. I reached out to Torsten, so I'm trying some other things in the mean time to see what can be done. It's not the system performance, again, I get full FPS no problem in FlyCapture software. But in FireCapture, while it's working fine, there's a weird FPS cap. The main issue is the lack of settings on the camera within FireCapture (unlike other camera options that give you USBtraffic and Speed settings, etc). I'll report back with info once I get it ironed out.

Very best,


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by MalVeauX »

Hi all,

I got in touch with Torsten and we have a simple work around to get the IMX253 running at full 30 FPS in FireCapture 2.7 Beta. He said the next beta release will now have the option to toggle between Mono 8 and RAW 8 to make this simple. In version 2.7 Beta, he went back to Mono 8 which lacks gamma control. The previous stable version uses RAW 8 and that allows gamma control. Note, there's no need for gamma control via drivers, because its purely software manipulation, so he suggests you use the overlay tool to generate a contrast or gamma overlay and manipulate that for your purposes if you need it, and it will not record to the data, its just an overlay as it helps with seeing stuff and focus without harming your data.

The fix:

Copy your FlyCam*.dll from FireCapture 2.608 (stable) release folder to your FireCapture 2.7 Beta release folder and over-write the same DLL there. Back up your DLL from the beta folder first of course. This will keep 2.7 Beta but it will now use RAW 8 as default instead of Mono 8. It works perfectly. The camera operates at full 30 FPS at full array with no problems with zero dropped frames in FireCapture 2.7 Beta with this simple DLL fix.

To ensure it doesn't drop frames, its a large data throughput stream, set your heap size very large. I'm using 4Gb and it doesn't drop frames on my setup (AM4 platform, Athlon 3000G CPU, 16Gb DDR4 RAM, 1TB Samsun EVO SSD).
FC_IMX253_30FPS_RAW8.jpg
FC_IMX253_30FPS_RAW8.jpg (146.42 KiB) Viewed 1446 times
From the log file in FireCapture:

Code: Select all

FireCapture v2.7 02 BETA Settings
------------------------------------
Camera=Grasshopper3 GS3-U3-123S6M
Filename=2021-02-11-1700_9-U-IR-Sun.ser
Duration=30.591s
Frames captured=946
File type=SER
Bit depth=8bit
ROI=4096x3000
FPS (avg.)=30
Shutter=2.982ms
Gain=0 (0%)
Histogramm=65%
Sensor temperature=60.4°C
Very best,


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by Bob Yoesle »

Thanks Marty for chasing this down!

Indeed, this camera and sensor has been a wonderful find for full-disc capture, and I'm glad I could help to get it into a pair of very capable hands ;-)

My next task is engineering a TEC cooling system like I did for my Chameleon... will post when completed.


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Re: Sony IMX253 mono cameras

Post by MalVeauX »

Bob Yoesle wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:54 pm and I'm glad I could help to get it into a pair of very capable hands ;-)

My next task is engineering a TEC cooling system like I did for my Chameleon... will post when completed.
Thanks Bob! :bow :bow

I look forward to seeing how you cool yours, I may explore this, it gets hot!

Very best,


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