Hi All
Outside of this forum when doing my bit for SGP it is often commented by users and people who have tried the demo that
sgp is unstable !!!
I must admit I have had my fair share of crashes and personally find it happens when I am trying to connect to equipment - When I am up and running I do not get so many problems
So look at the poll and comment if and how often ( i.e how many ) you have this problem in say the last 3 months , also logs of crashes would be good if you suffer this.
Also do pipe up id everything is ok with you , so I can get a balanced view
Please note this is not a bash SGP thread , just something to find out how widespread this might be and to help resolve problems that there might be .
Harry,
What is the poll actually asking? I have no idea what you are asking for. Number of crashes you’ve had? If so, how far back? I think it’s unfair to start counting crashes when new updates are rolled out on a regular basis and should only apply to the most recent version. But again, I have no idea if this is what you’re after.
I am trying to find out If its just me and a few others that have stability problems in the recent past , I am not saying from many versions ago .
If its not a problem for most users I can fight the cause
If I only used it once recently and it crashed once, that would be bad, though, right?
Maybe a percentage or something would be better.
I just got back into the swing of things and did a 4 night marathon a couple weeks back. Absolutely no problems. (At least, nothing that wasn’t user error.) I’ll admit, it’s not the most approachable but it’s also a complex set of things to coordinate, so hard to balance those two things.
I am using SGP (Version 2.6.0.23) regularly and have had no crashes in the last year. This does not mean that SGP is very stable, as it has some weak points:
Hardware disconnects will almost always produce a crash instead of a friendly error message. Just unplug the main camera during a running sequence.
Some user interactions might generate crashes. Try to abort a running Autofocus and follow that directly by aborting the sequence.
What I learned is that SGP will easily get lost if the hardware and/or the user reacts in an unexpected way. And both these issues hit especially the beginners. Eventually, one gets used to the idiosyncrasies of the program and avoids the dark corners. Once you have found the safe path, everything works.
IMO these are stability problems/ crashes if there is a hardware problem it should not crash SGP ,
If my filter wheel fails to connect sgp I get a nice message saying there is a problem – camera problems seem to crash
sgp ?
I will get some logs up as I suggested others do
Hi Harry - I had a problem tonight with the frame and focus routine. Took a few single frames and tweaked the focus manually as I’d disassembled parts during the day and wanted the focus reasonably close before running an auto focus. But found that an image would not complete it’s download and just kept everything locked up making me go to task manager and shut the program down via windows before restarting everything again.
Using version 2.6.0.25
Where is the “0”? I don’t recall having crashes for each imaging session. I have made few user or operator errors but does that count as crashes? For example, sometimes I forget to connect USB cable to QSI camera and trying to connect it with SGP always crashes. I am not sure if that counts as a crash. Other devices like QSI filter wheel, Optec FocusLynx and A-P mount pops up a window saying “Error connecting to XXXXXX”. If QSI camera is properly set up and connected, I never have issues. I think it may be more of QSI driver issue than SGP but I let Ken or Jared find out since one of them owns QSI camera.
I use 2.6.0.25 and find the software to be very stable. I would say crashes happen much less than 1% of the times I run SGP. Of course, I’m not doing anything completely crazy like pulling the plugs on equipment in the middle of an imaging run!
I have been running 2.6.0.24 for the past several months and it has been rock solid. Crashes over the past several years are few and far between. I just installed 2.6.0.25 a few days ago and used it for 2 nights and had an error popup appear, which I could click through and everything worked fine otherwise. Detailed in another topic.
Part of the problem with software like SGP is that many users, myself included, don’t use it on a regular basis. When we return to imaging after a hiatus there’s often substantial changes - to drivers, interface, features, algorithms, the operating system etc. It takes a while to settle in to the now newer way of doing things. After I’ve spent a week or two tweaking software and hardware, and updating my workflow, SGP and other bits and pieces usually work. That aspect is lost in this poll.
Part of what happens is that the software teaches you how to avoid bugs.
At work (software development for scientific instrumentation) we found that when we got someone new in, especially a testing or applications specialist, they would have problems with the software. On investigating they were finding real bugs that had been present for ages and that none of the experienced people had spotted. They would also spot lots of issues with usability and clarity.
We learned to value this and take special notice of how people new to the software got on because they could help us deliver a better product.
Hi Chris
This Is what I seem to hear and think as well , Yes there is a lot of user error , but this should cause any software
to crash.
some of the previous comments are people working around problems !
Maybe I should fire up MDL 5, just to remind myself how things used to be. I have hundreds of hours of images this year, all unattended. Yes, there are some anomalies, normally when I try aborting / resuming or some such, or running a new beta. If I were to generalize, this is the area where the robustness might be improved.
and personally find it happens when I am trying to connect to equipment - When I am up and running I do not get so many problems