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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Can not calibrate Images captured with EKOS (stellarmate) in Pixinsight?

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Alfred, I am almost certain you are correct. I also plate solve and focus using binning. Naturally then, the first image frame would be affected. However, I am binning 3x3 and my vertical resolution is 3520, but my first frame ends up as 3516, so 4 px are missing. My horizontal resolution is not affected: 4656.

I have been able to string together several simple Python3 operations that yield the faulty outcome in the vertical resolution and do not affect the horizontal resolution. The reason, I think, is that division by either 2 or 4, i.e. an even number, will yield an integer for horizontal or vertical pixel count. However, upon division by 3, only the horizontal pixel count will result in an integer, the vertical resolution will yield a non-integer (1173.333333333). Therefore, if at any point a floor division is being carried out, that number will then be rounded down to 1173.



If then subsequently that number is multiplied again by 3, followed by a another floor division by 4 and another subsequent multiplication by 4, the result is 3516, i.e. the wrong pixel count I am also finding for the first image in a sequence. The same operations do not affect the horizontal pixel count.



I would need to know where to look for this in the code. I believe the same operations in C++ would yield the same result.

Perhaps Jasem or Eric can point out the program module where these calculations are being carried out?

Best regards

Jo
Last edit: 5 years 1 month ago by Jose Corazon.
5 years 1 month ago #35137
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Radek,

I am not sure this is a PixInsight problem.
The ATIK website lists the sensor geometry of the Atik 460EX as 2749x2199.



Looks like your FITS files are showing the wrong geometry.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Radek Kaczorek
5 years 1 month ago #35147
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Good news everyone!

I found and fixed the issue. First of all, not all frames are valid.

ZWO specifically states that Width % 8 must be always zero. So if your frame dimension violates that, it gets "corrected" by the driver. For height, it's Height %2 = 0

But the actual problem was in Ekos. Ekos sets binning first _then_ sets the frame. However, if the frame dimensions are the _same_, then nothing is set. When the frame are "auto corrected" by the driver, this is not reflected in Ekos when the binning changes. At any rate, please compile or use both indi-asi nightly driver and kstars nightly and report back if this fixes the issue.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Radek Kaczorek, Alfred, Jose Corazon
5 years 1 month ago #35149
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El Corazon, now you killed me with this reply :woohoo:

So the problem is exactly opposite to what I have thought! I have been using this Atik 460EX for over 3 years and it always imaged at 2750px x 2200 px. This geometry was always like that in FITS header and actual FITS data. I haven't used any other software than KStars/Ekos & INDI ever since so I never compared it to any other source. Having said that I would bet Atik 460EX chip resolution was 2750px x 2200 px :silly:
Recently the atik driver maintained by Peter Polakovič has been replaced by Jasem and the new driver was included in regular updates as a 3rdparty driver. I have updated my systems and noticed that I cannot calibrate new light frames with dark and bias frames library, which I maintain for myself. I noticed that the resolution of the new images is 2749px x 2199 px. I took it as a bug in the new driver BUT the actual issue is that it is the old driver that was wrong with the image geometry!
The native resolution of Atik 460EX is 2749px x 2199 px. Period.
This solves the issue!

PS. I'm happy you enlightened me. However I will miss these lacking pixels... They sit in hundred of my images. I wish I knew where they came from :lol:
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jose Corazon
5 years 1 month ago #35150

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You're welcome, Radek! :-)

Somehow, I did have an enlightened weekend.

I am sure that will change again, come Monday...

:-))

Cheers

Jo
5 years 1 month ago #35154

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So Alfred WAS right!

The binning introduced a division by 3, resulting in % not equal 0.

Good eye, Alfred!!
The following user(s) said Thank You: Alfred
5 years 1 month ago #35155

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I'm glad to hear I - for once - might have contributed something helpful. As a non-coder I always feel like being somewhat retarded here. Anyway, I hope we successfully hunted down this bug. BTW, I've used Ekos 3 nights in a row and other than some missing pixels I have not experienced any issues. Simply wonderful!
Last edit: 5 years 1 month ago by Alfred.
5 years 1 month ago #35158

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Thanks Alfred and everyone who contributed to this thread!

Please try to test this change in the updated KStars tonight and see if the issue with binning is gone.
Last edit: 5 years 1 month ago by Jasem Mutlaq.
5 years 1 month ago #35159

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5 years 1 month ago #35165

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Will test as soon as possible, but the weather forecast here for the next 10 days shows only clouds....

Thanks for fixing this so promptly, Jasem!
5 years 1 month ago #35168

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I don't want to proclaim victory too early but I tested the latest code indoor and the results are perfect. I was focusing in 2x2, shot a few 1x1bin frames from the queue, solved in 2x2 and again shot a few 1x1bin frames. They all were of the correct dimension. I expect the same results in the night sky. Many thanks for sorting this out!
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq, Jose Corazon
5 years 1 month ago #35171

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Hi,

I wanted to tell you that this issue was solved. I did test it the night after the driver was fixed. And indeed no more missing rows of pixels in the first frame after a change of binning. But the last few nights I have been really struggeling with the ASI drivers. I get loads of crashed asi drivers messages, mostly when trying binning 4x4, 3x3 and also 2x2. If I refrain from binning and stay on 1x1 all is fine. The images taken when binning 3x3 and 4x4 look very strange, there are slanting bands in the image. Mostly after one image is taken it crashes the asi driver.

I use an ASI294MC.

Yesterday also the ASI385 crashed the driver, this was after guiding fine for some 20 to 30 minutes. This is new, I did not have this before yesterdays update to the nightly builds.

I will post Logs later today, I can not reach them at the moment. But I wanted to let you know. Maybe there's more users affected?

FYI I tested binning on a laptop with sharpcap. Nu issues with binning there, so it's not the camera (I guess).
5 years 1 month ago #35557

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