From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: July 7, 2008 12:17:15 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Long exposure problems

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

Tim;

On 7-Jul-08, at 9:52 AM, Tim wrote:

Milton:

Apologies up front, because I think I've had this particular problem

before and you've told me what the fix was, but I seem to have  

forgotten.

I have both a Flea and a Flea2 and other than your GPIO plug being  

screwed up, they work fine here.

This is probably where the problem is with the Flea2, at least.  I put

a wire in the connector to connect the two pins, but it's not soldered

in place. 

In Astro IIDC 4, I am unable to take extended exposures with my two

Flea cameras.

Which version of Astro IIDC?  4.00.00 or 4.00.01,4.00.02 or 4.00.03  

or 4.01.00A001 or 4.01.00A002 or 4.01.00A003??

I'll have to double check this.  I think I downloaded the latest

update you posted here in the messages.

What Version of OS X (i.e. 10.5.4, 10.4.12 etc.) and what Mac model  

is this?

Both the G4 powerbook (driving the Flea2) and the intel mini (driving

the flea) have the latest update of 10.4.11 running on them.  Though I

may have run the latest update to 10.4.12 over the weekend.  I'll

check tonight.

Flea:  I can "see" all the exposure times selectable up to 60 minutes

duration, but if I select anything longer than .533 seconds, the image

doesn't refresh.  I verified that it doesn't by clicking the reticle

on or off (doesn't come on).  If I select .533 seconds, refreshes

resume and things proceed nominally.

Do you have the GPIO Plug up on the camera or not to put it in  

Hardware Bulb Mode? If you don't have it connected or it's not  

working right (i.e. you bent the pins so they touch instead of  

soldering them and now they have come apart), then it will not  

complete an exposure time over 533 ms. We can't tell if it's  

connected, we simply send the commands to close the circuit and it's  

up to you to make sure it's connected to the right pins.

Based on this, I bet the connections are in need of some attention. 

They're not soldered, and I haven't done anything to them in over a year. 

Flea2:  Exposure times beyond 4 seconds are grayed out.  This is true

whether I have the "allow extended exposures for Pt Grey cameras"

selected in the preferences or not

Did you Close the Camera Control window after setting the "allow  

extended exposures for Pt Grey cameras" flag or not? It will not take  

affect until you release the camera because of the registers we have  

to re-write, which don't work right if your switching back and forth.

I thought I did this, but I'll check again. 

-Tim.