Hi all
I’m considering buying SGP. I’m have been using Maxim dl, but after reading about SGP and all the good reviews I would like to try it.
Could anybody tell me the optimum system reqirements to run SGP and PHD2?
I would like a dedicated computer for this.
Thanks
Jim
Unfortunately, we cannot say. It really depends a lot on what’s OK to you and a lot on your camera’s resolution (the higher it is, the more CPU you’ll need). Because of this, we offer a 45 day trial (with no restrictions), so that you can play an active role in determining what is OK for you. Any modern Windows 10 laptop is likely to be OK. Most problems we see are with slightly older computers and DSLRs. DSLRs are a pretty cheap and effective way to engage with AP, but also come with extremely dense image resolutions. When we perform full image analyses on huge images, it can be a little rough on the CPU.
Ok good Ken
I’ll pick up a new mid range lap top and buy SGP soon.
Like I said it seems to be a great piece of software at a great price. Maxim was $600 US. and a bit tricky to set up and use.
Thanks for your quick response.
Jim
Ken how much does CPU and amount of RAM affect image download speed with SGP? My Canon 6D downloads are slower than I would like, and I was wondering how much a laptop upgrade would help that? I am considering going from 4 to 16G of RAM, and a 2-3 times increase in CPU performance.
Dean
I would venture to say that it has almost no impact at all. Download is a function of the USB buses on the motherboard (which receive instruction from the CPU, but not much), BUT even though the download itself is not impacted, CPU and RAM may have a perceived effect of faster download because the part after the download (open, read, render, analyze) will be much quicker.
Okay thanks Ken. That helps.
Dean
Hello,
I’m trying to run SGP on an Intel Stick mini computer.
Intel Atom x5-Z8300 (1.44 GHz)
2 GB DDR3L
32 GB eMMC SSD
Windows 10 Home
Intel HD Graphics
I keep getting an Error! message when I hit Fetch from the framing and mosaic wizard.
I uninstalled and reinstalled, no change.
the only reason I can think of is that I don’t meet the minimum system requirements.
Do I?
Thanks,
Malcolm
Your specs should be fine. Does the error message pop up right away or
does it spin for a while before the message comes up? Are you connected to
the internet?
Every once in a while the database that SGP pulls images from is offline or
something, but that’s very rare.
I tried an Intel Stick a while back (in fact, I tried the first version and
then the latest version last year). My experience wasn’t great. Too often,
everything would just stop or get REALLY slow. I “think” it has to do with
the limited USB bandwidth. When multiple things happen (downloading an
image, guiding commands, or focuser commands + temperature reading). But I
didn’t do any in-depth investigation (just switched back to my NUC after a
day or two), so take this with a grain of salt.
Markhi thanks for the reply.
It spins for a minute, then I get the error.
I was not connected at the time.
(It is a requirement that this work without the internet)
I connected and the error did not re-occur.
So it would appear that it only works when connected to the internet.
Thats not good!
Is there a setting somewhere to fix that?
No, the Framing and Mosaic wizard needs the internet to fetch the image.
However, the fetched images are stored in the cache, so you can download
all you want when connected to the internet, then if you’re out in a place
with no internet you can just pull it up from the dropdown cache.
I cant download the library and save it locally? Point SGP to it?
does the cache have a size limit?
point being, i’m going to Chile in 6 weeks and dont know what the internet access will be.
there may be none and the thought that I have to populate the cache ahead of time is a little intimidating
You need internet for the Framing and Mosaic Wizard. You can cache a handful of images for later use. The entire sky survey is many terabytes. Plus you’d have to index it all. Not really possible. You may want to use a planetarium as a backup.
Thanks,
Jared
just a thought…
perhaps there should be a more descriptive error message?
That way people will know that they are getting the message because there is no internet connection.