Hi,
I've downloaded the 3rd party INDI drivers package and successfully compiled and installed the indi-dsi driver. KStars works with it fine and happily captures an image, but the image is always blank. The pattern of pixels never changes, just the intensity while varying the exposure duration. Is this a working driver? What might I be missing?
Thanks,
Eric

Do you have it in a telescope, pointed at something, or just sitting on the desk ?

if it's in a scope, it could be way out of focus, which will cause exactly what you see too.

FYI, I just dug mine out of the storage closet, an old dsi pro. Having an issue with it, fxload doesn't seem to be able to load the firmware with it plugged into a usb 3 port. I've got to re-organize significantly here to get access to a usb2 port, and confirm this is just a usb issue. I'll get that this afternoon.

So I built and installed the dsi drivers on my main desktop computer. I ran into an issue, fxload kept failing to install the firmware on the camera during hotplug events. I suspected a usb3 problem, and it's not easy to plug into a usb2 port on this computer. I have another machine on the far side of the room, running a recent ubuntu install, which does have usb2 ports easily accessible, so I checked out indi and built on that one. With an indi server running the dsi driver, i connected over the network and asked for an exposure, 0.01 seconds. This is what came out of it:-

That's exactly what I would expect for a camera sitting on the desk with a semi translucent cover over it's sensor, and not hooked up to any optical train that would allow us to focus it.

This camera is an old dsi-pro, which I had long written off as a paperweight due to it's drivers not working on any of our machines anymore. At this point, I'm not really sure what use we will have for the camera, but, I'm sure I'll figure something out over time. At 508x488 it's a rather small sensor, and the pixels aren't square, but I do seem to remember it's rather sensative.

Time will tell what we can use it for, but, for now, I'm pleased to see it works. Big thank you to the folks that got this one going. I'm sure I will eventually figure out some task for it.

I've tried both just sitting on my desk and connected to the telescope. I've tried both extremes on the focuser and right in the middle. No change. Is there anyway to get a realtime image feed for focusing?
Eric

You were right. It is a focus problem. I took the 1 1/4" adapter off and mounted it directly to the focuser and I'm beginning to get a recognizable, but still blurry image. It seems the focal point is farther in than the focuser will go. How do people deal with that?

What kind of telescope, and what other things are in the image train.

Normally, it's not a case of getting closer, but, a case of adding an extension, because we tend to mount cameras without a diagonal.

Use "Start framing" in Ekos focus module and try to adjust focus until you see something.

The DSI Pro makes a fine guide camera. Sure, it's not a lodestar but it works great for me!
-Ben

So, thank you for all the help. gerryr asked about my setup. Its an Orion 5" newtonian reflector. I've attached a picture of the image train. There's a 2x barlow in there because without it, the image just barely begins to focus at the bottom of the focuser's range. The barlow puts it comfortably in the middle. That took a bit to figure out. The ekos focus module was helpful, so, thanks knro.

Now my issues seem to be the indi_dsi_ccd driver. When I hook up to an old Windows XP machine and use Meade's AutoStar stuff, I get a usable image. I've attached a copy. Its the one with recognizable trees (on their side The linux indi driver doesn't quite cut it. The only change here is software. I literally captured the first image with AutoStar, then pulled the usb cable over to my linux box and captured the second with kstars/ekos. You can discern the mountain slope and the tree shadows, but clearly something is wrong with the image. Also, tweaking the gain/offset values don't seem to have any effect. To me, this points at software (the driver) rather than any physical issue like focus or image train configuration. Any ideas? Has anyone else run in to this?

Eric

Update:
I wonder if it has something to do with the gain/offset not functioning. If I obscure a significant amount of the primary (ie, manual gain) The image gets much better, though still very grainy. I assume the windows driver is able to set these variables and autostar defaults provide a much clearer image. Is this the proper forum for the driver devs?
Eric

It looks to me like the autostar image has had some minimal processing (stretch et al) applied, where as the other one is a raw display, and it could be a bit under exposed, or poorly stretched. Were both of these taken with the same exposure time ? They look different, ie one is much lighter.

Have you tried taking an image via the kstars control panel, then hit 'auto stretch' once it shows up in the fits viewer ?

Or just select "Auto stretch" from the filter list in the Ekos Focus module and it will stretch it once it receives an image. Btw, Ben is the developer of the DSI driver so he probably can help you in this.