Direct show driver

promper

Hello

I´m running into a exposure time problem with the direct show driver.

If I set the auto exposure range to 60sec, the camera does just 60 millisec maximum exposure time.

Does anyone have an idea, why that is.

Thanks

Wolfgang

einari

Maybe it's better to use native or ASCOM driver.

promper

Thanks for the reply

I would use the native or ascom driver, but I´m using a FTP Webcam software for a All Sky Cam,

It only works with Direct show, and would be very convenient.

Sam@ZWO

our newest SDK extend the unit of max exposure from S to ms

so you should set it to 60000

yang

You can select the unit to S or MS for auto exposure setting in the latest directshow driver on our website

promper

Thank you very much.

I have it working in the meantime.

Wolfgang

lord beowulf

I don't want to hijack this thread, but given I'm attempting to accomplish the same thing of an all-sky camera and my problem appears to be related to the DirectShow driver, and this thread is near the top, I'll start here and hope my problem can be resolved as well.

I bought the new ASI290MC, intending to use it to make an all-sky camera. I've looked at a lot of different software, but the one that seems to best fit my initial goal is iSpy Connect. The problem I'm having is that while I can get the ASI290MC configured, when I switch it to auto-exposure, it regularly crashes the application. Trying to do a cold-start (i.e. application already configured and get the camera to come up at the start) it crashes immediately upon loading the camera driver and trying to connect. I've tested with several other apps and while not all of them have crashed (yet), a number of them crash with the same hard fault behavior. Likewise I've tested iSpy with multiple other USB and Ethernet based cameras with no problems, so I have to believe that there's a problem in the ZWO DirectShow driver that's causing the crash. A driver level crash would also explain the hard crash with no additional diagnostic information supplied.

Any chance of getting this fixed? Otherwise, is there another (preferably free) application that does work with the camera and gives me the same flexibility, including auto exposure control, motion detect and capture, time lapse imaging, fully configurable FTP uploading of data, etc.?

Thanks,

Beo

yang

I have tested with iSpay briefly, it'll crash no matter auto exposure is set.

I suspect it's compatibility problem, I'll find the point. You can use other application instead, like SharpCap.

lord beowulf

Thanks for checking into it and thanks for the suggestion. I started with SharpCap, but unfortunately I didn't see anything in it that would allow me to set up the fully unattended operation of the camera with automatic motion detection, time lapse, upload to my website, etc. I know there's a scripting option available on the paid version, but since they only offer yearly licenses I don't like the idea of having to keep paying to keep my camera going. I also don't really want to be writing a bunch of scripts to do something that iSpy will do automatically. If I wanted to write my own code I'd just start from your API, but I don't have that kind of time to spend on this. I have plenty of more interesting projects to work on! Hopefully you can fix your driver to resolve the crashes. Please keep me informed since if a solution isn't forthcoming I may need to see about returning this camera and looking for another solution. Given it crashes with several other software packages intended for all-sky cameras that were recommended to me on Cloudy Nights, that's not a promising start to this project. Anything you can do to help get it operating smoothly is appreciated.

Thanks,

Beo

lord beowulf

Just wanted to ping this thread and see if there's any progress on the directshow driver crashing iSpy. Either that, or a better alternative with similar capabilities for fully automating an all-sky camera. I'll be placing everything including the host computer (a pc stick) remotely and want it to boot up and start uploading files to the web, etc. automatically without my having to manually set it up every time.

Thanks,

Beo

frankieusn

I'm having the same issue with the latest DirectShow drivers for the ASI120MC. Yes, using the native driver autoexposure works just fine, but until there's a good allsky program that uses the native driver, we are stuck with DS. Also, curiously, the DirectShow driver autoexposure works fine in SharpCap. All other programs that use DS do not allow a longer autoexposure of 999ms. Changing the button from us/m/s always reverts back to ms upon checking auto. Would love to go back to an older driver, but can't find one on the site.

EDIT: Found an older version of the ZWO DirectShow driver on one of my computers (2.0.1.9) and autoexposure works just fine.

chad

Hi，

Please update to this DX driver:

http://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software/ZWO%20ASI%20Cameras%20DirectShow%20driver%20Setup%20V3.0.0.4.exe

Thanks

chad

barni

Hi all!

I hav e a 120MC with the latest driver (V3.0.0.4). Unfortunatly the sec/ms switch does not show on the Driver window.

Unbenannt.png

I have installed/reinstalled/deinstalled/cleaned the registry and so on. The Capture app I want to use ist "Handyavi". But it is the same problem with "sharpcap".

Any idea?

Thanks

Uwe

chad

Hi Uwe，

This option is new. So we didn't add it for some old cameras.

If you need, we will add it in our next version.

Thanks

chad

barni

Hi Chad!

Thanks for your reply!

It would be very nice if you can add it in the next version!

I also have got a 120MM and something is wrong with the autoexposure feature:

3.png

In this example max exp is set to 16s but in real its just 16ms. Bug?

That means its not useable for auto exposure in the night because I can move the slider to 60s max, what means 60ms. And thats too low :( .

Best would be if I could move the slider to 10000ms or so. That means its useable for day and night:). Autoexposure is one of the coolest features of the ASI-Cams!

Uwe

chad

Hi Uwe，

I think you made a mistake~

Sure, we have problems in design， which can easily lead to misunderstanding.

In your attachment, there are 2 dialog。 I will use "L" to represent the left dialog， "R" to represent the right dialog.

For the R, it doesn't means the truly exposure time. When you setting the Max Exp, It means that you are setting the maximum exposure time allowed under automatic mode， not the truly exposure time.

( truly exposure time <= this value ) only in auto mode.

For the L, exp value means the truly exposure time. You can see that the real exposure time is 16ms, not 16s. If you check the “√” on this line， it means the auto exposure time will not bigger than the value you setted in the R.

Do you see what I mean?

Thanks

chad

barni

Hi Chad,

Thanks again for your reply. I appreciate that very much!

I think I understood the meaning of the two dialog boxes very well.

Let's assume the camera is pointing into a dark sky. In this case the exposure slider on the left dialog (with "Auto" ticked) should move to at least x seconds, right? But it doesnt! It stops at 16ms. The max exposure is set to 16 *seconds*" not milliseconds! If I move the slider on the right to 60 seconds the exposure at the left follows immediately but stops at 60 *milliseconds*!

Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwzgm4mon5fim9g/2017-11-22_18-56-02.mp4?dl=0

Best Regards

Uwe

chad

Hi Uwe，

I think it is a bug。But I need to check with my colleagues to see what it should be first.

If it's a bug, we will solve it in our next upgrade.

thanks

chad

frankieusn

Same issues here with auto exposure. 60ms is the longest the new version 3.0.0.4. Setting the exposure manually to anything longer than 1sec causes every application I try to use to crash. If I use SharpCap and select the DirectShow driver instance the camera will auto expose without issue, but SC doesn't do half the stuff I need an allsky software to do. Had to roll back to 2.0.1.9 to get auto exposure to work.

chad

Hi all,

Please update to our newest DX driver:

http://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software/ZWO%20ASI%20Cameras%20DirectShow%20driver%20Setup%20V3.0.0.5.exe

Thanks

chad