Dirk Niggemann replied to the topic 'Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 4 years ago

Hi, It's never been tested with the KAI-10100 version. It may sort-of work, but probably won't work at all.

The first thing i need is lsusb output and a full debug output from the driver during startup to see what is actually happening.

Better yet, lend me a camera for a few weeks and i'll proabbly be able to get it working ;-)

Read More...

Dirk Niggemann replied to the topic 'Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 5 years ago

There should be a file in /lib/udev/rules.d called:

99-nightscape.rules

Containing:
ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="19b4", RUN+="/bin/sh -c '/bin/echo 256 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/usbfs_memory_mb'"
# All Celestron Nightscape Cameras
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="19b4", MODE="0666"

Read More...

Dirk Niggemann replied to the topic 'Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 5 years ago

Hi,

You're getting truncated images- basically the driver can't download the whole framebuffer because there's a usb synchronization issue.
What system is indi-nightscape running on?
Also, please make sure you have the latest libftdi1 package installled.
Please make sure that on Linux you have the updated udev rules installed for a usb buffer size increase. You will get this kind of problem all the time unless you increase the buffer size correctly.
You can also try running indi-nightscape as root, but i can't recommend that.

Regards,

Dirk

Read More...

Dirk Niggemann replied to the topic 'Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 6 years ago

I'd build you a package, but unfortunately, i don't know the procedure to do so.
Could we add package building to the makefiles, or some instructions in the developer manual?

With some revised testing (and the correct udev files) I've found stability on early mode raspberry pi systems to be better than I previosuly thought.
I would now advise usage with libftdi1 on any linux-based system. LibD2XX may still be needed for stability on macos.

Read More...

Dirk Niggemann replied to the topic 'Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 6 years ago

I would be very interested to know if it works on a Pi 3, as a Pi model B can't handle the USB data rate with a WiFi dongle plugged in.

Read More...

Dirk Niggemann replied to the topic 'Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 6 years ago

OK, I can either make the driver avialble separately or try to include it in the latest build.What's the best way to do this?

Read More...

Hi,

i've been playing with developing a new INDI driver for my Nightscape 8300 CCD.

Is there a standard method in DefaultDevice or CCD that gets called only on process start, before Connect()? I know initProperties() is called before Connect() but that seems to be for property values, not general initialization (and I don't know if it could ever be called more than once during a driver process's lifetime).

I know it's a weird request but I would like to be able to make my driver setuid root (I know, I know) and drop root privileges ASAP after start.
This is done to with the process priorities and realtime scheduling (not permitted as a normal user) .

I've gotten around the ability to only read USB devices as root by setting up correct udev rules on Linux do change the device group ownership, but nice-ing my driver to -20 with setpriority() is a little more difficult, as this would mean i need to give my indi user realtime limits and I'd prefer to be able to run the driver process from a normal user who can't reschedule things to that degree.

This is needed as a workaround for some USB dodginess, which I'm trying to alleviate by other means as well but this seems to be a quick and admittedly 'dirty' fix.

Thanks,

Dirk

Read More...

Dirk Niggemann created a new topic ' Nighscape 8300 driver' in the forum. 6 years ago

Hi,

Ive build a nightscape 8300 driver that's still pretty 'alpha' but perfroms fan/cooler and exposure control correctly. The image saving/downloading isn't completely stable because of some USB data transfer issues.

For stability, it needs the FTDI d2xx libraries but can run with libftdi1.

Is there any intereest in this? I know the camera is discontinued and support form Celestron limited now.

It was built based on reverse-engineering the messaging from the windows driver.

I have no idea how to run the non-KAF300 version of this.

Regards,

Dirk

Read More...