Hi,

I have a ZWO ASI6200MM full-frame camera with maximum resolution of 9576x6388 pixels.
When I use this full resolution in 16-bit mode, KStars does not display the image.
Images with these settings are around 122MB in size.
I test this from the CCD window. In the CCD windows it keeps saying "Downloading..."

When I use hardware bin 2x2 in 16-bit at this full resolution it works correct (this reduces the file size significantly)
Also, when I use 8-bit mode at the full resolution (so without binning) it also works correct.
When I use a resolution of 7680×4800 in 16-bit mode it also works fine.
Then when I change again to 9576x6388 16-bit it again does not work anymore.

I played a bit more around and discovered that when the file size becomes 100MB or larger, the image is rejected (by INDI or KStars, I don't know exactly).
A resolution of 8000x6200 pixels in 16-bit mode without binning still works, but 8000x6250 (now the file size becomes larger than 100MB) does not work.
Is this a known issue? I'm not sure whether it's INDI or KStars causing this issue.

I run INDI server on my Raspberry Pi 4, and I run KStars on my computer with Debian Linux.
Raspberry Pi and computer are connected to the wired network (Ethernet).
INDI version = INDI Library: 1.8.9, Code v1.8.9-1-g4c3f1c60. Protocol 1.7.
KStars version = 3.5.2 Stable

Thanks in advance for the help!

Kind regards,

Sander

Hi,

I ran indiserver with -v and saw the following message:
2021-03-19T21:55:04: Client 11: 165398871 bytes behind, shutting down
2021-03-19T21:55:04: Client 11: shut down complete - bye!

So I now ran indiserver with the -m option:
-m m     : kill client if gets more than this many MB behind, default 128

I specified 256 MB with the -m option and now it works!

Maybe KStars can be improved some time to generate a message when such a situation occurs.

Kind regards,

Sander

Sander, I image with an ASI6200MM as well and run everything on a Raspberry Pi 4 to which I connect via VNC. I can image just fine and all images show up either in the FITS Viewer or in the main tab of Ekos once an image has been taken. The only issue is that using the FITS Viewer too much will crash KStars completely. This usually happens between about 5 and 15 images. A workaround has been implemented which is called Limited Resources Mode (see the FITS tab in the KStars settings) but I found it unworkable since it will sample down each next image until the images become unusable. The focus tab in Ekos, for example, is affected by this and IIRC the align tab as well which makes enabling the setting unusable for me.

Anyway, long story short: try not to run KStars remotely but use VNC instead and you should be fine as long as you don't use the FITS Viewer too much.

Hi Wouter,

Thanks for the information!
I just scheduled 3 jobs of 30 images each and it ran successfully without KStars to crash.
All the images were successfully displayed in the FITS viewer, all at full resolution 16-bit (so images of 122MB).
All the time the 'Limited Resources Mode' was not enabled.
So the problem you describe with FITS viewer causing KStars to crash I don't experience.

I will try it on another system as well (which also runs Debian 10, but an older version of KStars).

Groeten,

Sander

Do these problems still apply even if you use FITS Viewer to use always the same window and replace the old image with the new one (as opposed to opening one instance of FITS Viewer for each downloaded image)?

I have been using my APS-C camera (6016x4016 pixels) at its full resolution and with only one instance of FITS Viewer open and never had any problems with it crashing. I only use limited resources mode to speed up download times and get more images per acquisition session.

Yes they do apply when using a single window FITS viewer, more even than closing the FITS viewer all the time. I basically image without using the FITS viewer at all.