×

INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Fuji X-T3 - randomly seems to work, then doesn't

  • Posts: 67
  • Thank you received: 6
In attempting to control my Fuji X-T3 with the Kstars/Ekos/Indi environment on both a Mac laptop (Catalina) and a Raspberry Pi running Astroberry (2.0.3) I have had mixed results.

Connecting the camera to the Mac and using the Fuji DSLR Indi driver I was able to create an exposure and see a preview (essentially with whatever the default setting were) ONCE. Repeated attempts resulted in a series of failures related to directories not found when saving, or to timeouts for some reason. When connected to the Pi Astroberry I was abe to make exposures occasionally running Ks/Ekos on the Pi (viewed remotely via VNC from the laptop). In both cases (Fuji on Mac and Fuji on Pi) later attempts to control the camera met with failure. Same when running Ks/Ekos on the Mac and the camera/mount/guider on the Pi.

The few times an exposure was successful, no images were actually saved (on one occasion despite reporting over 67 seconds of data transfer).

The log files I had captured were lost during a space-clearing frenzy the other day so I will attempt to capture new ones as soon as I can.

To the best of my knowledge I'm running with all the software up to date and the camera firmware also at the latest (4.0). Using electronic shutter on the Fuji as well as "USB tether shooting auto" with uncompressed RAW.

After the initial success of at least being able to trip the shutter I'm really hoping to sort this out. But based on what I've been reading in the forum here perhaps I'm being optimistic (of just premature)?

Any guidance I can get would be most appreciated.

Dave
(apparently with time to kill as the weather forecast is bleak)
3 years 2 months ago #65122

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Hello David and welcome to INDI forums!

Can you use gphoto to capture directly from console? Let's see if it is a gphoto issue or INDI issue before we go any further.
The following user(s) said Thank You: David Swinnard
3 years 2 months ago #65125

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 67
  • Thank you received: 6
A day spent confirming I could communicate with the camera using gphoto2 from the command line was time well spent (being new to the world of "what's under the hood" in the programming world).

Today I tried again with the KS/Ek/Indi setup running the the Astroberry Pi (viewed from the Mac laptop via VNC) and was able to make the system capture previews and images that downloaded both to the camera's card and the Pi. Every now and then things would become "out of whack" and I would have to disconnect, power cycle the camera, and reconnect in order to "gain control" again.

The evening was spent trying to reproduce the morning and afternoon's successes. I was able to capture sequences of exposures from 1 to 30 seconds long and save them to the Pi and the camera's card. Exposures seem correct as reported by the EXIF info in the on-camera files.

Next step is to see If I can repeat this from the KS/Ekos system running on the laptop (Pi on wifi then on Ethernet to check for speed/timing). Downloads are taking ~73 seconds just saving to the Pi. (which is why I'm going to try Ethernet to the laptop and maybe a SSD on the Pi)

Things look promising.,,
3 years 2 months ago #65255

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 85
  • Thank you received: 19
I have an X-T1 and it's next to hopeless, despite been purportedly supported by gphoto2. In a way, it's worse than hopeless because I can get it to pull off one shot, and one shot only, before it crashes. That's in Entangle and Darktable; it's never once worked in INDI.

It's kind of worth using Entangle to see what the camera supports.
3 years 2 months ago #65275

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 67
  • Thank you received: 6
One of the things I did notice yesterday was most of the time the first "shot" produced errors, both with gphoto2 directly and Ekos. If I then attempted another, it would work. Ekos at least would note the failure of exposure #1 and try again - most of the time successfully.

But, that was last night, I have not had a chance to try things today...

I don't know Entangle, but I will checking it out. And, BTW, Happy New Year to all (let's hope it improves in a major way)
3 years 2 months ago #65284

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 67
  • Thank you received: 6
A few more tidbits:

Further testing has led me to suspect some of my hit and miss functionality may be related to power issues. With a boot SSD and the camera on the Pi's USB 3 bus the camera battery seemed to drain faster. Perhaps the extra current draw of SSD, a Samsung T7 500GB unit, reduced the USB supplied current to the camera causing increased drain on the camera's battery (?). (the Fuji X-T3 operates and can charge through the USB port)

Have any of you other Fuji camera users noticed unpredictable operation when battery capacity is reduced (in my case the camera still showed a half charge remaining)? A freshly charged battery let operation resume properly.

Dave
3 years 2 months ago #65363

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 12
  • Thank you received: 1
Dear all, pretty new here (First mex)

I have a XT-4 I had similar issue as mentioned here with the XT-3.

I spend few hours on that... :)

My config.:

PC with Ubuntu I5 8gen 8 GBRAM, SSD....
- KSTARS
-Indilib
-XT-4
- QHY5II (Using PHD2 as Indi camera)

So what I found is (at least in my config.), If I leave the "Force Bulb" it looks exactly the same as described in this post for the XT-3, if I turn off the "Force Bulb"
It works pretty good !

Hope may this help...
SW EQ3 Pro Synscan Goto (Modified)
Tecnosky 60/360 F/6
Fuji XT-4
QHYCCD 5II
QHYPolemaster
135mm Samyang
12mm Samyang
3 years 2 months ago #65741

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 12
  • Thank you received: 1
I had similar issues with my XT-4, I partially solved, so the camera work pretty good !, turning off the setting "Force Bulb".
My Setup is:
- Laptop with Ubuntu 20.10
- Kstars-Ekos (latest Stable)
- Indi Lib (Latest Stable)
- QHYCCD 5II (PHD2 as Indi Camera)
- SW Eq3 Pro Synscan GoTo (Modified)
SW EQ3 Pro Synscan Goto (Modified)
Tecnosky 60/360 F/6
Fuji XT-4
QHYCCD 5II
QHYPolemaster
135mm Samyang
12mm Samyang
3 years 2 months ago #65745

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 67
  • Thank you received: 6
Yes, force bulb - OFF must be set for things to work. It took me a while to sort that out. For a while (testing in the house) I was getting reliable camera operation both controlling it (via VNCviewer) with Ekos, etc. running on the (Astroberry) Pi and with Ekos running on my laptop (Ethernet to Pi). Friday night was the first clear night we had for many weeks so I had a chance to take the system outside (for the first time with all the components in place). The camera would not operate either from the laptop or from the Pi. Very frustrating. I fell back to manually triggering it using the interval timer in the camera.

The new mount (HEQ5) and guide equipment (60mm scope with ASI120mm mono) performed well.

I was also very pleased to see I could focus the X-T3 using the LCD screen with the Bahtinov mask in place on the main scope (GT-71 from WO - with the "clear" B. mask). I had wondered about it's actual functionality.

Things are slowly coming together.

Now I'm wondering about "live viewing" the Fuji's image in Ekos...
3 years 2 months ago #65818

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 67
  • Thank you received: 6
Timopro, how long are your downloads to the computer taking on average? I'm seeing times on the order of 70 seconds (saving to Pi's SD card), but am hoping to speed things up with a SSD drive on the Pi. (X-T3 is connected via USB 3 to the Pi)

How are you connecting your various devices to you computer? All USB.
3 years 2 months ago #65819

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Is this applicable to all Fuji? should BULB be off for all models? also, what else can be added to the documentation to help make this easier?
3 years 2 months ago #65833

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 12
  • Thank you received: 1
Hi Dave, RIght now Im only experimenting at Home (I have only cloudy night since December ) SO Right now it seam pretty good !

SO I connect all my equipment directly on the Laptop (No Raspberry)

What I have as issue now is with the Uide Camera a QHY 5 II L, which Im not really able to get working, it connect it is saw by Ekos and also by PHD2 as Indi camera, but as soon I ty to do darks ibrary or Looping is not working...PHD2 crashes...

@Knro: I using only the XT-4 with "Force bulb* off it works, with ON no chance...I do not know about other models...
SW EQ3 Pro Synscan Goto (Modified)
Tecnosky 60/360 F/6
Fuji XT-4
QHYCCD 5II
QHYPolemaster
135mm Samyang
12mm Samyang
3 years 2 months ago #65834

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.739 seconds