I just download SGP 2.6.0.13, tested and encounter the following issue.
I set the gain to a higher value than 0 in the ASI ASCOM driver, but when the exposure is started, the gain returns to zero, no matter I set the gain when the camera is connected or disconnected.
I tested in 2.6.0.12 and the issue is also there.
2.6.0.8 does not have this issue. Not sure if the new feature logging of ASCOM camera gain is causing it.
Can you provide the sequence (sgf) file you are using? It looks like the sequence is actually requesting that the gain be set to 0. Either it is not properly set in the sequence or there is a bug somewhere in the gain definition workflow.
Hi,
I struggled with this for awhile.
What I did was create a predefined setting for each gain that I wanted to use in the ASI1600 Ascom dialog.
so for Gain of 200 I set the gain to 200, offset to 50 and speed to 50 and then saved it as G200.
Next I went to my equipment profile and in the camera section under Gain, I set each left column to G200 and the e/adu column to 50.
If you’re camera supports gain you’ll need to enter it in SGP now. The values in the ZWO settings will be overwritten by what is in SGP. I would guess that the default is likely 0 which is why you’re seeing that behavior.
I have to input the Camera gain under the equipment profile here:
And when I apply the profile to the sequence, this “139” value will be carried to the Control Panel, and when the exposure starts, this value in the Control Panel will replace the ASI ASCOM driver to set the gain.
It looks there is no effect, on whatever I input into the e-/ADU both in the equipment profile and control panel.
There is a choice of “Link Cam” but I do not understand the implication of this option.
As in the help file point out, offset is not supported in ASCOM 6.2, thus I have to set it in the ASI ASCOM driver, even I am running ASCOM 6.3.
I hope the developers can give us some more hints how these fields should be set.
When I start a New Sequence with Profile with the Control Panel box closed, the gain value in the Control Panel will not be filled from the equipment profile. I saw “Link Cam” in Gain under the Control Panel. It doesn’t work!
When I start a New Sequence with Profile when the Control Panel box open, I see the gain value in the Control Panel is updated from the equipment profile. Ok!
If I am understanding this correctly, the newly implemented gain support has the potential to break a lot of sequences. For both my cameras, I have set the gain/offset with the driver. I don’t know whether the ASCOM drivers support setting gain so it is a crap shoot whether SGP is going to change the gain or not. IT appears this feature is not backward compatible for a lot of ASCOM drivers. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to figure out what my gain/offset values should be and I don’t want SGP changing it especially to zero. May I suggest that the value zero be a default value which indicates don’t change the gain.
Zero is not a valid gain so it makes a good default.
Not really. You can tell immediately upon connect. The gain controls will be disabled (not supported) or enabled with allowable gain values.
Not sure what this means. If a driver does not want controlling applications to alter gain, it would not expose it.
Maybe. We’ll see what kind of feedback we get around this. Why not move those hard earned values out of your ASCOM driver into an SGPro equipment profile? Using the camera across multiple applications?
That I mean by backward compatibility is that I should be able to upgrade to the new SGP version with my existing ASCOM drivers and not have SGP reset my gain unexpectedly. That is why I suggest using zero as a default value that does not set the gain. Apparently, the current SGP version is using zero to set the gain to zero which is not valid. So you can kill two birds with one stone: have a default no-set value and not set the gain to an invalid value of zero.
As to the hard earned values, I’m concerned they will be over written and lost if I connect with the latest version and don’t remember to check what they are before connecting.
To add to DesertSky’s comments - I can’t really see the point in setting just the gain in SGP. For example with the ASI1600 the gain and offset go together. You normally wouldn’t change the gain without the offset. So I go to the driver and set the gain and offset. I really don’t see the value of then going to SGP and setting the gain to match the gain in the driver. If I forget the gain is reset to 0 and the image is probably ruined. Have I missed something?
May I suggest SGP to keep a default of no change to gain/offset to this
added feature, so that user can keep using their existing profiles without
a reconfiguration, unless they want to control from SGP?
Unfortunately ASCOM doesn’t expose Offset, so we can’t set it. We’ll add in a “Not Set” option to the gains so that it doesn’t overwrite the value in your ASCOM driver if you don’t want/need to be able to set gains through SGP.
This is not true. Gain and offset are independent variables. More to the point, ASCOM does not expose Offset (just Gain) so there is only an option to set gain. The value add by SGPro is that you can record and adjust viable gain setting per binning. A gain setting can often change with binning.
At least with my cameras, you have to set gain and offset iteratively so just changing the gain per bin is not going to do it. That is, they are not “independent variables” - change one and the other likely needs to change. Since the cameras I have use common chips, I assume that there are many cameras that have the same situation.
Right, not disputing that some cameras have these setting together, just that they can indeed vary independently. An equal number of camera implement in this way. The point here is that we do not have access to camera offset and this does not invalidate the usefulness of setting gain.
The QHY camera has a default set of Gain/Offset values in ASCOM, with the latest version it doesn’t look I can use these values.
Do I have to set offset in ASCOM and Gain is SGP? I was on Version 2.6.0.5 and it looked like I was able to use the ascom camera driver. Can we go back to this version?
