Testing a new imaging setup

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Testing a new imaging setup

Post by PDB »

Hi,

been working hard on a new setup lately, not on the optical train, but the computer related part. Fed up with the uncontrollable W10, completely threw it from all my systems. Since I did not want to go back to ancient history XP, went back to "good old Linux". Not always easy to get all the necessary software (and had to write some things myself), but now at least I have a system that works the way I want it to work.

Since I want to control everything from in-house, I built a PC to be placed next to the scope that connects all the hardware and also has the discs for capturing the videos. Built this around the new AMD Ryzen processor and placed everything in a white painted cheap case. Then I tried to connect everything to my inside desktop using my Wireless lan, but even after upgrading that to a faster access point, that was not successful. (To unreliable)
So got a 1 Ghz network switch and a cable going outside to the PC

Software i am now running on both machines is Ubuntu 16.04 Linux, together with Indi software (http://indilib.org/) to control scope, filtewheel, focuser ... (server on machine outside, clients inside)

For capturing I use Planetary Imager which can be run in true client-server mode. For the SSSM i had to develop my own program. Not connected to the capture software, but there is hope that will work in the future. (http://blog.gulinux.net/en/planetary-imager)
This is how it looks from my desktop PC
Screenshot.png
Screenshot.png (250.4 KiB) Viewed 1433 times

Did the first earlier this week and continued this morning. Weather was not really good, some very find clouds drifting through the image, but at least some results. All processing done on Linux with AS!3 running via Wine, native IMPPG and Gimp (for 16bit-depth Tif)

Still a bit noisy image but progressing
P-Sun-20170826_114653_CEST_lapl4_ap1011.jpg
P-Sun-20170826_114653_CEST_lapl4_ap1011.jpg (119.7 KiB) Viewed 1433 times
Still some work to be done:
- check my Arduino SSSM because there seems to be a glitch in the measurements every now and then.
- place my arduino based SSSM and Focus controler inside of the PC case and connect USB cables directly to the motherboard. (avoid cable cluther)
- create a separate focuser interface (instead of using Indi focuser software)
- maybe change the cheap power supply to a decent one (decrease noise on USB?)
- check if I could make a special USB3 cable, ignoring the 5V coming from the PC and feed some nice battery-powered 5V in the camera (maybe that could drop noise. If anyone has done some experiments like that, I am interested)
- place an SSD in the PC (but for now no problems with the ASI120, running at maximum speed)
.....

Rgrds,

Paul


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by LauraMS »

Hi Paul,

great work!

I am doing remote imaging as well - have a remote computer directly at the OTA, and control everything over VNC from my inside computer where I am doing all the stakcing and image processing. I wanted to use wifi for the connection over the about 10m distance but found for solar at high frame rates it is too slow even at 5GHz band and with 500 MB/s connection. Even with ethernet wire at 1GB/s it still is a bit slow. Therefore I am considering connecting the USB3 camera directly to my inhouse computer again for those cases where I need a wired connection anyway. In smaller objects like planets the WIFi connection is sufficient. Anyway, I can sit in the dark inside and don't need to have a dark sheet over my head sitting next to the scope.

Re Windows 10: internet connection of my OTA computer is blocked. Therefore, no issues with unwanted Windows updates. With a whitelist in the firewall I can even update drivers and other software which is benign. Good experience in that regard.

Re SSD I had some issues with overheating when writing lots of data at high speed. I use an Samsung Evo 950 1TB drive, for large rapid imaging data the pro version may even have been better. Automatic control of the cooling ventilator helped get rid of the issues, though. So you may consider taking care of thermal management. Good point is, you have a white housing - it is very hard finding barebone (I have a Shuttle i5) computers these days which have white housing ... :evil:

Good luck with your project!
Laura


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by PDB »

Hello Laura,

thanks for your comments. I have been using active USB3 cables myself (10m) and they work sometimes. The first one did work for 1year and 1 day without any problems, and then suddenlly started to give only USB2 speeds. (Tested with several computers and different OS) A replacement cable did work on my laptop, but not on my main machine. After installing a PCIe USB 3 controller, it also worked on that one. That is one of the main reasons I wanted to change the whole setup.

I tried different Windows Networked setups for remote desktop:
VNC is simple, works but, too much network overhead. Not everything worked without connecting a monitor (or faking one by placing some resistors on the VGA connector) FireCapture will would not show images.

remote desktop protocol is much superior, but requires an expensive W10 pro license on the outside computer

Best results I got was with NoMachine software. Very efficient protocol and works cross-platform. (Take a look at that one)

If you still want internet on W10 but no updates, disable the update service. (Not recommended since on the internet without security updates can be a problem)

Kind regards,

Paul


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by LauraMS »

Hi Paul,

thanks for sharing your experience. I cannot agree with that firecapture wouldn't work remotely - it does, and I occasionally use it. I do prefer Genika because of it's implementation of the SSM;, and because I like the clear user interface, which nicely connects with the professional overall impression I have from Genika.

I'll give NoMachine a look, always interesting to optimize things, thanks for that idea.

I prefer not to have internet on my remote computer. This way, I do not need any potentially thoughput-limiting software (e.g., antivirus). And it prevents me to "just download something" to overcome an apparent issue. By this means I make shure to keep the remote (OTA) computer rather clean from unneeded software.

Best wishes,
Laura


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by PDB »

Hi,

FireCapture works, but in my tests I had to connect a monitor to the remote machine. One of the problems was that dialogboxes were not shown on the machine replicating the desktop. (at least with VNC)
I also have been using Genika, and that worked better over VNC. As for the SSM that can also be integrated with FC using the SSM plugin.

Agree that the "observation" computer should stay in a clean state. Some "small" update of something can have big impact.

Best regards,

Paul


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by LauraMS »

Cannot agree - I never had any problems with RealVNC and UltraVNC, also with firecapture.

Best, laura


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by Merlin66 »

Haven't tried for solar, but regularly use Teamviewer to access and control my observatory spectrograph set-up.
No issues, no drama.


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Re: Testing a new imaging setup

Post by PDB »

Hi Laura,

nothing to do with FireCapture.(other software can have similar problems) It worked also for me when I tested with my laptop as long as I kept the lid open. If i closed the lid (and laptop not going in sleep mode) then not every screen update seems to be "catched" by the VNC or other screen sharing software. Probably some video driver or BIOS inconsistancy. Worked little bit better disabling power save on the video card but not 100%. Let's not dig too deep in hardware problems. When a solution does it's job it ok.

I miss a few things that were present in Genika or FireCapture but the capturing softwares on Linux do the job and in capuring speed there is no difference.

Kind regards,

Paul


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