A couple of years ago there was an issue with the image capture size changing for an SBIG 8300M CCD camera when you switched from 1-1 binning to 3-3 binning. Well it has come around again. The SBIG 8300M is a monochrome CCD with 3352 wide and 2532 pixels high at 5.4 micon perpixel. Last night, when taking a number of images of several objects, I was collecting 1-1 binned images with the Lumin filter and 3-3 binned images with the narrow band filters. Aft the end of the process I would take darks also for both binned conditions. The issue (was and still) is that when you switch the binning from 1-1 to 3-3 the image size goes from 3352 x 2532 to 1117 x 844, but when you switch back to 1-1 binning, for the next object, the size only returns to 3351 x 2532 (because the width is dividable evenly by 3). Later on when you switch to darks the 1-1 image size goes back to 3352 x 2532. So in the end your 'Darks' end up 1 bit wider than many of your 'Lights.' Which can through off dark subtraction. You can overcome this issue by going back to the Indi Camera module and resetting the width to 3352, but who remembers to do that for each object. From the old thread; SBIG Image Size Issue it was seemed to have been resolved, but my experience last night says not.

And while I am on the subject of the SBIG 8300M when I connect the camera I do get 2 error messages:
error: GetCoordInfo: CC_GET_CCD_INFO --> {bad parameter}
error: AoCenter: CC_AO_CENTER --> {Ao Error}

The second one I can understand because there is no Adaptive Optics in my old SBIG Camera. I am not sure what the first one refers to?

And one final note about the SBIG 8300M; it has an electromechanical shutter, so it is possible to take Darks without having to cover the scope. With the original CCDOPS program you could take a Light, then Dark and have it automatically subtracted. A nice feature but not necessary as usually I take my Darks all together at some point. But it would be nice not to have to go out an touch the scope, by putting a cover on it, to do it. I don't know if this is something that could be added to the SBIG Driver for Indi.

Thanks for reading,
Ron

Yes, I have the SBIG 8300M and I have occasionally had the same issue with the image size getting set wrong when switching binning. It is random though, I haven't seen any particular pattern as to when it occurs. My solution for now has been to have a series of darks for the one and the other image size, and when I go to stack them with others that are right, I crop by one pixel. It is annoying, but doesn't happen all that often.

The two error messages, I have seen those as well.

As for the last one, I'm not sure what you mean. . . I assume this is in Ekos? Ekos can take a dark using the internal shutter of the ST 8300M. I have done this MANY times. Perhaps you answered the question about whether it has a shutter or not incorrectly? Also, you can have darks subtracted automatically for viewing in the Fits Viewer. But I really don't think you want it to automatically subtract the darks for the data getting saved to the drive. I would recommend just saving the data raw and processing it later. That way if there is an issue with the dark or something else you need to do first, you still have the raw data to work with.

thanks for you answer. I looked and did not see anything in camera setup that asked about whether or not it had a shutter. I will have to go back thru and check again. You are right I don't really want to perform Dark subtraction immediately most of the time. But sometimes when I am showing other people the process and results it would be nice to be able to do that.

On my analysis desktop I have Fits Liberator and ImageJ, between them I can resize the image to match the size, I am just not sure which side to subtract the 1 pixel width from. I also thought it might be random, but I do think it is when you switch back from binning by 3 to binning by 1 that is rounds off the divide to one less pixel in width. As I mentioned, you can go to camera info setup and reset the width size to the full number of pixels; it is just a matter of noticing when it has changed and remembering to do it. With the scheduler it is so easy to set and forget a long imaging session and then you are at its mercy. You can break up your imaging to one target at a time and take the 1x1 images first and then the 3x3 images. But it does not change back in the scheduler window for the next target, you have to go back to Indi Manager to do that.

The error messages do not seem to bother the camera from working properly. I have been pleasantly surprised how fast the downloads have been. I am using an Aker powered USB Hub that supports USB 3.0 to the Rpi-4 USB 3.0 port. But the camera only supports USB 2.0, still it seems fast.

thanks again,
Ron

I see that the first time you take a dark it is supposed to ask you if your camera has a shutter. I must have answered no at one time. Now I cannot get it to ask me the question again. I have started new equipment profiles and restarted Kstars but it never asks me that question again. Is there someplace in the setup that I can reset this so it asks me again?

thanks,
Ron

I could not figure out how to get Kstars-EKOS to ask me that question (about the camera shutter) again, so I killed 2 birds with one upgrade, by starting another SD card and upgrading (now I have a backup system that works as well; sans camera shutter). I started a new SD card (well reformatted one anyway) with the Astroberry 2.0 image and then performed the update-upgrade (it took awhile) and now I am running Kstars 3.4.0. It will be awhile before I can check out all the equipment but I was able to confirm that it did ask if my camera had a shutter and with a 'yes' response I will presume it works (hard to tell right now as the equipment is in a box!).

thanks,
Ron