U P D A T E D O N F E B R U A R Y 1 9 th, 2 0 1 7
Hi folks,
SGPro 2.6.0.13 is an official release! This release contains many changes, but its primary purpose is for stabilization.
This release officially marks the end of support for versions of SGPro that predate 2.6.0.13.
All help files have been updated to reflect changes in this release (CHM file distributed with SGPro, Web Help and the PDF Downloadable Version)
This release requires the use of a of ASCOM 6.2 or better (6.3 is recommended). You can find the required ASCOM installer here:
http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm
As always, you can download the official SGPro 2.6 release here:
http://www.mainsequencesoftware.com/Releases
C H A N G E L O G:
Interface and Display Changes:
- Icon / image refresh and theming.
- Added an Observatory floating control module.
- Added a Flat Box floating control module.
- Image history detail now places most recent images at the top of the list.
- Added account management links to the help menu and registration dialog.
- Added vertical sizing to the sequencing window. It’s not smart… it doesn’t attempt to auto adjust, it does not remember how it was set, but it does allow you to resize the event table for better visibility.
- Connecting to the camera no longer flags the sequence as needing to be saved.
- Added the user profile name to the sequencer title bar (after the equipment profile).
Sequencing Changes:
- When the call to set the override filter fails, but the user has requested to use one, SGPro will automatically try and find the LUM filter in order to continue with the sequence.
- Implemented foundation for smart dither decision engine.
- SGPro no longer performs a dither on the first frame (will still settle though).
- Users will now be prompted to unpark or start tracking if, upon sequence start, the mount is not in a valid state for imaging.
- When attempting to start a sequence with the TEC temperature out of band, the warning dialog will now display the TEC’s current temperature and state (Idle, cooling, warming).
- SGPro will now detect if a sync is required and automatically perform a solve and sync at the beginning of a sequence (one time).
- Added a warning notification to let the user know if the camera was unable to attain the target temperature prior to starting the sequence.
- The “delay sequence on camera temperature” dialog now contains a better description of what the “Delay Start” option actually does.
- Added sequence level notifications when SGPro fails to start a sequence due to guider startup failure.
Target / Event Changes:
- Added target import functionality for DSO-Browser (including an early version of suggested target start and end times based on visibility information provided by DSO-Browser).
- Better user facing error messaging for target centering and many slew related errors.
- SGPro targets now remember any reference URL used to populate its location parameters.
File Naming / Header Changes
- Added pier side (%ps) to the file naming tokens (as sop-east or sop-west).
- SGPro now remembers your event suffixes and automatically populates the suffix drop down. There is no interface to create suffixes. If the suffix list becomes too long, you can clear it by using the new “clear” functionality in the SGPro options dialog.
- Added GAIN and EGAIN (Electrons per ADU) to FITS headers for ASCOM cameras.
- Rounded camera temperature to a whole number for insertion into file names.
Centering / Flip Changes:
- The target centering routine will now skip the “pre-slew” solve and sync step. While this will make centering faster and compatible with a wider range of mounts, it will also place more onus on the user to ensure that the mount is properly synced prior to starting a sequence.
- The meridian flip routine will now skip the “pre-flip” solve and sync step.
Auto Focus Changes:
- The Auto Focus validation frame warning will now present itself if the HFR is greater than 15% above the low HFR value in the run (up from 10%).
- Rounded HFR metrics prior to the AF validation “out of tolerance check” (prevents erroneous warning about AF out of tolerance in some cases).
- Implemented the auto focus minimum star size property in equipment profiles.
Plate Solving Changes:
- Added PlateSolve2 search region increments 1000 through 3000 (was previously capped at 999).
- Added a warning to notify the user if the sequence uses a plate solver and the image scale is 0.
Mosaic and Framing Wizard Changes:
- Added support for fetching the MFW canvas location from DSO-Browser (http://dso-browser.com/).
- The Mosaic and Framing Wizard can now populate the canvas location using the mount’s location (new menu option at top… Other->Fetch location from mount…).
- SGPro now remembers the last MFW FoV used to fetch the working canvas.
- The MFW is now more tolerant of corrupt cache files.
Gear Specific Changes:
- Added some watchdog timers for certain aspects of SBIG camera operation (to better detect timeout).
- ASCOM and QSI cameras now attempt to identify when a camera is downloading an image to support pause guider during download.
- Implemented “gain” settings for ASCOM cameras. Important note: If your camera supports gain via the ASCOM interface, it must be set for each binning mode or the first gain entry in the list will be used for all images (probably not desired). It should also be noted that, in terms of profiles and sequences, SGPro cannot know your camera’s gain options until the camera is selected. If SGPro needs a connection to interrogate the camera’s gain options, the drop-down lists will read “Link camera”.
- Made changes to address several compatibility issues in order to ensure a focuser is positively done moving before SGPro continues.
- Reduced the position and temperature polling frequency for ASCOM focusers.
- Removed 60 second timeout for backlash compensation to fix an issue with long running focuser moves.
- Refactoring “Reverse Focuser” logic. Everything now resides in two places: the “Move” and the “GetCurrentPosition”. Focuser position should almost never be called outside of these two places. This refactor effectively masks the real focuser position when Reversed. For instance if the focuser has 10,000 steps and is currently at position 2000 then when reversed SGP will report 8000 steps. Backlash compensation is in terms of “SGP Reported” steps not the actual steps of the focuser. So “IN” will always trigger backlash when the focuser moves from Low to High in SGP Reported Steps not Focuser Reported Steps. The main benefit of this is to have Auto Focus and backlash both work transparently when reversed. More info here: Rigel sys focuser can't reverse direction to help sgp autofocus - #10 by Jared - Auto Focus - Main Sequence Software
- Added the concept of “Sync Behavior” to the telescope (mount). The “Sync” and “None” options are fully supported. For information on the others, please see “Known Issues” below.
SGPro API Changes:
- Added the “GainValues” array to the /cameraprops endpoint in order to provide a list of allowable “Gain” values for the /image endpoint.
- Added logging for API requests (must turn this on via the help menu).
- Added API calls to enumerate, connect and disconnect devices to the public API.
- Added flip delay API calls (2.6.0.0 meridian flip problem - #9 by Ken - Sequence Generator - Main Sequence Software).
- The plate solve API now honors the plate solver’s chosen search method (in the control panel).
- Removed IsoMode from the Image Capture API.
- Canon will now use whatever ISO is set on the camera if 0, Null or Empty string is passed in for ISO on the Image Capture API.
Misc:
- SGPro now attempts to detect external device disconnections (and provide a notification to fix it).
- For users that experience an issue with SGPro not starting, we are now providing a much better recovery for SGPro when its settings file becomes corrupted (cmd: "sequence generator.exe " /recover). With this method you are even far less likely to lose old settings.
- Image history now supports a fast star finding algorithm. You don’t need to worry about this setting unless you are using an older (or slower) laptop with very large frames. This method essentially uses the older, but much faster star analysis routines. It can be found in the SGPro options dialog under “Find stars method”. This is a beta feature and is not yet documented. Changing it does not affect the routine for auto focus.
- Better user feedback for mount park failures (more specific errors logged in the sequence alerts dialog box).
- SGPro will now show an error if the user attempts to rotate to a target position and the rotator does not have a sync.
- Added a warning dialog if the user attempts to open a new sequence while the camera is cooling or warming.
- Independent movement of the observatory shutter / roof or rotation now provides a warning if it is slaved to the telescope.
- Logs now have sub-second precision for better correlation with ASCOM device logs.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where centering (and meridian flips) might hang SGPro and report that the camera has timed out.
- Fixed an issue where some users could see erratic behavior with frame restarts when the telescope is on the east side of the pier.
- Fixed a bug where the auto centering validation step could fail on camera rotation if the primary solver failed.
- Fixed an issue where SGPro could attempt to take an image without having sufficient time to finish before meridian flip.
- Fixed a bug that would cause SGPro to crash when a Nikon bulb exposure failed.
- Fixed a bug that would cause SGPro to crash if a file in the image history was renamed outside of SGPro.
- Fixed a bug that could cause rotator movement to never finish if the requested angle (not PA) was 0.
- Fixed a bug where end of sequence options might run twice when shutting down due to unsafe conditions.
- Fixed a bug that could cause an error in SBIG cameras if the driver was “opened” multiple times.
- Fixed a bug that, for certain types of flat boxes, the flat box light would not turn off properly when the sequence was done with flat frames.
- Fixed a bug that would prevent end of sequence options from running when conditions are unsafe.
- Converting X,Y pixel locations to RA,DEC no longer allows values greater than 24 hrs (to be populated in the target’s location).
- Fixed a bug where API camera status no longer worked properly (affected PEMPro integration).
- Fixed an issue where the image capture API would not allow for high speed download (on supported cameras).
- Fixed an issue where images would always be analyzed for HFR, regardless of Image History status (on or off).
- Fixed a bug where end of sequence scripts would disappear from the UI after being set.
- Fixed an issue where some FLI filter wheels would refuse to respond to commands despite being connected.
- Fixed a bug where the guider could sometimes fail to settle even though the error is well below the requested value.
- Fixed a bug that could allow an end of sequence script to run between normal sequence end and the beginning of calibration-only frame capture.
- Fixed a bug where DSLR ISO settings did not work properly when using the SGPro REST API.
- Fixed a bug where aborting during target wait might force end of sequence options to execute.
- Fixed a bug that would automatically turn ASCOM focuser temp compensation off when it connects.
- Fixed a bug, that in rare circumstances, might “roll” the number of captured events from 9 back to 1. No loss of data occurs, but event frames would be recaptured.
- SGPro now properly handles the PHD2 message indicating failure to settle.
- Fixed a bug where FLI cameras would immediately disconnect after connecting.
- Fixed a bug that might not allow some focusers to accept temperature override from the environment device.
- Fixed a bug that would cause SGPro to crash if the Image History dialog was invoked while already visible.
- Fixed a bug where navigating image history would fail to update the HFR and star count metrics in the image stats module.
- Fixed a bug where a sequence failure due to lost guide star would not allow for end-sequence capture of calibration frames.
- Fixed a bug where several popup windows attached to the sequencing window would not close properly when the sequencer closed.
- Fixed a bug where SGPro would erroneously indicate that some mounts are not capable of meridian flip (when they actually are).
- Fixed a bug that would not allow decrementing the captured frame count when marking the last image taken as bad.
- Fixed a bug that would not mark the sequence as needing save when changing the auto guider.
- Fixed a bug that would cause HFR values not to recalculate for new images within the same window.
Known Issues:
- The “Sync Behavior” option found in the Control Panel’s Telescope tab will eventually provide a means to allow for users to perform closed loop targeting operations without a need to sync the mount’s position to a location provided by the plate solver. This is useful only if performing a direct mount sync via SGPro is likely to fail or create other issues by inadvertently fight with a model maintained by the mount’s driver. The “known issue” in the SGPro 2.6 release is specific to the selections that are intended to perform said “syncless centering”. For now, the only Sync Behaviors that are supported are “Sync” and “None”. The “Target Offset” and “Scope Offset” options are available for use, but remain in a “not quite working” beta state.
- The addition of a vertically re-sizable sequencer window might have created some odd rendering issues in which the events and other controls no longer fit the bounds of the window. We have not been able to recreate these issues, but if you see it, please try to note your steps and let us know what value you have Windows Scaling set to (no logs necessary).