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Fuji X-T3 observations - what I've learned so far

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That will be extremely helpful thanks. I suppose the issue where I live is that clear nights are few and far between so it has to be foolproof really so any help appreciated.
3 years 3 weeks ago #68101

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Here are some screen captures from Ekos & Indi related to my Fuji X-T3 settings, these work for me - Kstars 3.5.0 running on my MacBook Pro (2016) with the imaging equipment attached to a Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB) running Astroberry (current). Captured on a running system.

First a few of the Ekos Camera Module:




NOTE: I save "Remotely", that is to the Pi running the Indi server so the large file doesn't need to be transferred to laptop. (which is quite time consuming and delays next image while transfer occurs.)

Now most relevant Indi tabs (others where I made minimal or no changes to will be in next post)
I started saving the raw (RAF) files but switched to FITS to save a conversion step in later processing.




3 years 3 weeks ago #68120

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Dear all,

I have similar set up (see preview reply) X-T4, PI4 8 GB + Astroberry, PC Windows

@ DaveSw, do you use the FITS file later ? can you use them ? I use only .RAF saved remotely in the PI, as you mention if not take to long to transfer to the PC Win, in my case.

- For camera settings, I disabled the Power from USB, I use a theter tools cable. It is a good Idea to power the camera with a dummy battery. You can find in China for some $.

- Remember to turn on the camera before switch on the PI or Laptop -> indi is not Hot Plug !
- Check All parameter, in indi driver, Bulb off, image settings, take an exposure from the indi control panel (Main Control tab - Exposure elect 1" ie. & see the result) to see if everything works!
- in Ekos choose remote or local and a good path to save the pictures, I use a PC win connected through WIFI, to a PI4, adn I save the RAF file on PI (so in Ekos on windows remote)

- Set the exposure to the camera exposure time i.e 180 sec. will never work.The exposure that works (X-T4 at least): (in Ekos)

ie. 1", 1.3", 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3", 4", 5", 6.5", 8", 10", 13", 15", 20", 25" , 30", 40", 50", 60", 2'00", 4'00", 8'00", 15'00"


SW EQ3 Pro Synscan Goto (Modified)
Tecnosky 60/360 F/6
Fuji XT-4
QHYCCD 5II
QHYPolemaster
135mm Samyang
12mm Samyang
Last edit: 3 years 3 weeks ago by Timothy.
3 years 3 weeks ago #68123
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Thanks so much for these. I seem to be making progress with these settings. One issue I still have is that the exposures are all the same regardless of the exposure time set in Capture module. Any ideas?
3 years 3 weeks ago #68139

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I will get the rest of the screen shots posted after this...

Regarding all exposures being the same: The camera must be on "B" and use the "electronic shutter" (ES) otherwise it can't be controlled remotely. AND as timopro mentions you can only use a subset of the shutter speeds that Ekos shows in it's drop down list of shutter speeds. The list of "acceptable" shutter speeds is shown in the log files and is as timopro shows in his post.

I change exposures only in Ekos Capture Module and not in any of the Indi screens (the Main Control tab shows "Preset" of 1/32000 but is not green lighted. This is the max. shutter speed of the electronic shutter on the Fuji X-T3 (and likely others.)

@timopro... Yes I now use FITS files for processing (as Siril and other processing programs use this format natively) but have the RAF files available on the camera's SD card if I need them. I like the fact that Ekos will name the files saved on the Pi with object, exposure time, date and sequence number while the camera uses it's normal numbering scheme.

The point about Indi not being hot-pluggable is great. I learned that through trial and error, hence the power-up ritual.

Using the 12V powered USB hub I find the camera drains it's battery very slowly and to this point I have not needed to change the batter during an imaging session (if I start with a freshly charged battery). The camera uses the USB power to charge the battery if the camera is off and when the camera is on and in use, seems to keep the battery from draining quickly. The hub came as solution to my low voltage warnings on the Pi and the fact that Ekos wouldn't always see my Fuji and the ZWO ASI120mm mono guide camera if they were on the same device - so ASI on the Pi and Fuji on the hub works fine. My boot SSD is also on the hub - no more undervoltage issues on the Pi (and it's on a 10A rated 5V supply of it's very own via my power-box).

A few other random observations. Camera USB set to proper mode (previous posts), I have camera power off time set to NO so it won't shut down during any time I spend troubleshooting or just setting up. JPEGS work, but why use them, but RAW+JPG apparently doesn't (I haven't tried it as I don't shoot that way).

No real progress on using "video" for focussing in Ekos but using the camera back and a Bahtinov mask make focusing very easy (as long as I can bend around enough to see the screen).
3 years 3 weeks ago #68143

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And now more of the screen captures:







3 years 3 weeks ago #68144

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...and the last few: (now all I need is some clear nights - only had 3 since mid-December)





3 years 3 weeks ago #68145

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Thanks once again Dave. I'm off to try this again now.
3 years 3 weeks ago #68191

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Quick Update:  My trial using the FITS format as the "saved" one failed.  I was only getting greyscale images.  My processing software handles the RAF format just fine so I'm back to  just saving the "native" RAF format (to camera and to Pi).  Tried "compressed" RAF (in the camera, not in Kstars/Ekos/Indo setup) last night.  Seems to work and half the size. (Siril won't read the compressed file - or at least didn't last time I tried it, but PixInsight does).
Ran afoul of crashes last night - 3 hours outside and only 31m 2 minute exposures.  Hopefully tonight will be better (two clear nights in a row w/o moon, hasn't happened since last fall)
2 years 11 months ago #69740

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Hello all, new X-T4 user here. I have been shooting with Astroberry using my old and beloved X-T10, guided by PHD2. As the X-T10 is not supported by gphoto I hoped I could finally control the camera through Ekos now with the X-T4 but it seems it's still very unstable.

Did you make any new progress / new insights using X-T3/4?
2 years 9 months ago #72050

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I'm not sure I have any new insights, but I did want to flag an issue that's plaguing me. I started a quick response to Riccardo yesterday but decided to compose offline and include some log file information within the response.

I am still plugging away using my F-T3 and having some small successes. MOST of the time I get the results I'm hoping for - in terms of the camera behaving as defined in the Capture Module settings (ISO, exp. time, number of shots, etc.).  In each session  though something seems to go wrong, usually the exposure times get jumbled.

For example, on a clear night last week I had set up three exposure sequences: 2 x 1 sec., 20 x 120 sec. and another 20 x 120 seconds. The ISO sets correctly but (like every time), the first  exposure fails (I've learned to keep them short so I'm not wasting too much time). Usually the second attempt succeeds and thing progress as expected. But, not always. Frequently I get the "Could not wait for event" error message and then some attempts at exposures that are NOT in the sequence currently being exposed. These random exposures have always matched the current guide camera exposure setting. 

Here is a snippet of the the indi_fuji_ccd log from that session (with my annotations):

WARNING    1338.554369 sec    : All images and folders shall be deleted from the camera SD card after capture if capture target is set to SD Card.  ***** actually images are ALWAYS saved, regardless of this setting
INFO    2120.716599 sec    : Starting 1 seconds exposure.
ERROR    2121.845897 sec    : Error downloading image from camera: Directory not found    ***** to my knowledge the directory is properly defined in Ekos and Indi
ERROR    2121.846011 sec    : Failed to expose.
INFO    2121.913572 sec    : Starting 2 seconds exposure.        ***** wrong time, should be 1 second (this is the guide CCD exposure time)
INFO    2135.504177 sec    : Starting 1 seconds exposure.        ***** 2nd attempt - nothing…
INFO    2148.198707 sec    : Starting 2 seconds exposure.        ***** again, the wrong time reported (but corresponds the guide exposure time though ??)
INFO    2161.949513 sec    : Starting 1 seconds exposure.        ***** 3rd attempt - successful
INFO    2164.608158 sec    : Image saved to /home/astroberry/Pictures/Light/NGC_7000_Light_1_secs_2021-06-03T23-18-16_001.raf
INFO    2173.711968 sec    : Starting 1 seconds exposure.        ***** second exposure of 1 sec. sequence started and saved
INFO    2176.331714 sec    : Image saved to /home/astroberry/Pictures/Light/NGC_7000_Light_1_secs_2021-06-03T23-18-28_002.raf

    ***** start of first 120 second sequence - all looks good.

INFO    2186.458305 sec    : Starting 120 seconds exposure.
INFO    2311.656320 sec    : Image saved to /home/astroberry/Pictures/Light/NGC_7000_Light_120_secs_2021-06-03T23-20-43_053.raf
INFO    2321.761852 sec    : Starting 120 seconds exposure.
INFO    2446.911192 sec    : Image saved to /home/astroberry/Pictures/Light/NGC_7000_Light_120_secs_2021-06-03T23-22-59_054.raf
     ***** omitted lines here *****
INFO    4127.636040 sec    : Image saved to /home/astroberry/Pictures/Light/NGC_7000_Light_120_secs_2021-06-03T23-50-59_066.raf
INFO    4138.788107 sec    : Starting 120 seconds exposure.
INFO    4264.340503 sec    : Image saved to /home/astroberry/Pictures/Light/NGC_7000_Light_120_secs_2021-06-03T23-53-16_067.raf
INFO    4276.546513 sec    : Starting 120 seconds exposure.

    *****( Now things go wrong… after 15 correct exposures of 120 seconds, there are still 5 more to go:

ERROR    4396.466260 sec    : Error downloading image from camera: File not found
ERROR    4396.466368 sec    : Failed to expose.                      ***** until the download attempt everything appears to be working - not until the exposure is over is it noticeable
INFO    4396.508905 sec    : Starting 2.5 seconds exposure.    ***** once again, this is the guide camera exposure time
WARNING    4396.567961 sec    : Could not wait for event.       ***** don’t have any idea what event this refers to…
WARNING    4396.569318 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.570312 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.571333 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.572407 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.573457 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.574483 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.575529 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.576570 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4396.577570 sec    : Could not wait for event.
INFO    4396.577623 sec    : Starting 120 seconds exposure.    ***** an attempt to start the correct exposure - less than 0.1 seconds after the “event” issue
ERROR    4516.486066 sec    : Error downloading image from camera: File not found    ***** after the exposure, the same failure sequence occurs
ERROR    4516.486216 sec    : Failed to expose.
INFO    4516.510096 sec    : Starting 2.5 seconds exposure.    ***** again, an attempt at an exposure that corresponds to the guide camera setting…
WARNING    4516.557539 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.559214 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.560762 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.562386 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.564513 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.566101 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.567698 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.569300 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.570865 sec    : Could not wait for event.
WARNING    4516.572513 sec    : Could not wait for event.
INFO    4516.572630 sec    : Starting 120 seconds exposure.    ***** another  attempt to start the correct exposure - less than 0.1 seconds after the “event” issue

    ***** and so on until I noticed the Fuji’s back screen NOT showing an exposure countdown, just the normal live view. I finally aborted the sequence and “reset” the entire system including power cycling the Pi and the Fuji camera, restarting Kstars and reacquiring the target. Each of these failures happens after the (2 minute) exposure is supposed to have occurred.

This is typical of my observing sessions so far.  I have to keep periodic watch on the Fuji’s screen to see if an exposure are actually happening when Ekos indicates one is.

I am really curious to know why the Capture Module is attempting to make exposures that are numerically equivalent to the guide camera when an issue occurs with the Fuji download. Each time I see this, the random exposure is that currently being used by the guide camera.  Some cross-talk happening for some reason?  (the Indi guide CCD log file shows nothing unusual…)

UPDATE:  Last night is was unexpectedly clear so I hastily set up my rig to gather more data on NGC7000.  As I had too move the tripod, polar alignment took longer than usual (I do like the new display triangle).  Unlike every other session, this one came off without a hitch - in terms of the exposure sequences (after?the "first exposure attempt failure" event). I captured 30, two minute exposures without an issue.  I then changed objects to try another few exposures before heading to bed.  Upon looking out the window to see the mount was moving properly, I noticed I had left the Bahtinov mask on the telescope (the fancy WO one that came with my GT-71).  I have just over an hour of images with a beautiful collection of Bahtinov diffraction patterns.  Rats.


 
2 years 9 months ago #72126

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my observation is that the x-t4 will have to use the shutter speed in the dropdown, or manually set the "supported" exposure time, I assume this is due to B mode never working on x-t4.
1 year 7 months ago #85563

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