SolarChat!

Spent yesterday morning trying to figure out Firecapture and I did get the cam running at decent frame rates. Trick was (as somebody answering Jim L. posts said) you sometime have to make settings in fire capture, then close the program and restart it before the settings take effect. I found this to be true for the Scorpion. Once changes are accepted a user is good to go.

I also researched one of Stephens’s old papers, an eval on the Scorpion, and found that you cannot run at full resolution and stay above 14FPS. The cam needs to run at 1280X960 to stay above 15FPS. I was able to get 18 FPS at 1024X768 and 20 FPS at 660X552. Fortunately firecap and the Scorpion allow all those different resolutions.

So far the seeing this year is pure crap. I have not had the opportunity this year to get imaging done prior to 12pm as the onshore flow is not burning off until then. Makes it hard to take advantage of the early morning steady seeing.

Over the last two weekends the seeing has not supported much more than full discs. I will keep trying waiting for the day that I can whip in the 2.5 and 5X televiews and get some good images.

Here are 2 from today with the higher frame rates..


full disc cak by Sullij1, on Flickr


Longspot by Sullij1, on Flickr

Thanks Col.

Looking at what I wrote, as usual I was not entirely clear. When using Firecapture, make sure the camera is hooked up in the scope ready to go. Make sure the camera identifies correctly on the boot up menu. If you’re using CaK, the image will be badly overexposed. Don’t worry about that. Focus the overexposed image best you can. Put the gamma, exposure, and gain sliders all the way to the left and the frame rate at max, usually 14FPS at full resolution. The image will still be over exposed.

Now close Firecapture. Wait 2 or 3 seconds and reopen it. When the new image appears it will look like it did when you closed the program. Now look at the Exposure slider. It will look as if it is at the 25% exposure level. Now start sliding the slider to the left. You will now find you have the 25% lower exposure you need to properly illuminate and focus the image.

Not an ideal situation but that seems to be how fire capture is currently working with the PGRs. Having the ability to choose the resolution etc from the main menu etc. is worth the trouble of the reboot.

I will post screen prints if folks feel it necessary. If not, hope that helps Firecapture PGR users.

The hard part is getting the camera recognized.... Which doesnt happen for my Flea3!

Ouch, sorry to hear that Rob. Good to know though. Has anybody contacted the programmer on the issue? If not maybe we should.

BTW are you using the 2.3 Beta?

Yes I am. I have done everything...Tried everything. I did email PGR and just got a response today.... I was told to make sure I had the Flycapture2 sdk downloaded. :side: :S Been there...... Done that! But I was very happy that they responded so quickly. They gave me an email addy to contact for more personalized help..... So we shall see what happens.

Im going to uninstall everything and try again! I love the camera! But hate flycap! Just not meant for us!

You did see this in the vendor data?

"Hidden and secret switches

The main setup and configuration of FireCapture will be controlled by its configuration file FireCapture.ini and most of the entries there are configured using the Settings dialog. The following entries are the list of hidden switches and may be configured manual if needed:

useFlea3SickMode
default: true
Some of the very first Flea3 models had some firmeware bugs preventing to start the camera properly. With the help by Anthony Wesley I added
some patches into the FlyCam.dll to overcome this. With setting this entry to false you can skip these and try if your Flea3 is still working."

Here is the link:

firecapture.wonderplanets.de/help/configuration.html

Yes thank you! I did get that! Printed it off Also the extended gain or gamma? Cant remember.... Caused problems for the flea as well! Have done all that! :blink: I really hope I can get it to work with Firecapture! It would be so perfect with that software!

Link to burps and hic-ups with recommended fixes:

http://solarchat.natca.net/index.php/en ... sshopper-3
Feel free to add more if ya see them.

Ok. After much trouble unloading re loading trial and error.... I actually managed to get my Flea3usb3 to run....uninterrupted in firecapture! Switching between it and my dmk51 and different scope setups..... It wouldnt work at all last week? So a processing I go! The only flaw...it shot at 35fps instead of 150..... But the images look promising so far! Im sure I can live with the lower frame rate for the increased res of the chip..... Soon to show.

BRAVO! 150 fps! Is that the normal frame rate? That is FAST! To me 35 FPS is superfast. I would be happy to get 35 FPS! At what resolution does it give you 150 FPS? At 35 FPS you should get some awesome images even in crappy seeing.

When or if it ever works, it s suppose to give 150fps at its full resolution! It is a cmos chip. They seem to be faster in general. But Im not sure it will happen in Firecapture. Im just happy it now ran in Firecapture!!! :rockon: