From: Alan Friedman <alan@greatarrow.com>

Date: January 18, 2010 8:04:32 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: New AstroIIDC user

Hi Kurt,

Per PGR's specification sheet for the scorpion, the frame rate for the 20SO with ROI selection max's out at 21 fps:

http://www.ptgrey.com/support/downloads/documents/Scorpion%20Getting%20Started%20Manual.pdf

Your capture software might allow a faster setting to be selected, but if you try timing a capture and counting the frames, I think you will find the actual frame rate to be in line with these specifications.

best,

Alan

On Jan 18, 2010, at 7:25 PM, mihalco wrote:

Hi Milton,
I think the 800 x 600 mode is internally binned 2x2 in camera for Format 1, Mode 6 on the 20SO. (the ROI modes are slower, as you say). It captures the same FOV as 1600 x 1200, and is more sensitive, so this seems to be the case. I've run it with FlyCap2 on a PC, and it indeed does 25fps in both Y8 and Y16 mode. The 1600x1200 will do 15fps in Y8 and 7.5fps in y16. The Scorpion tech ref also lists these speeds for these modes (page 23, Sec 6.1.1). Just trying to see if AstroIIDC will keep up with it spooling out to disk so I can qualify, stack & align it later. In any event, I'll try it out with the demo and let you know what happens.
Thanks Again!
Kurt

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Kurt;
>
> On 18-Jan-10, at 3:24 PM, mihalco wrote:
>
> > Hi Milton,
> > I recently picked up a Pt. Grey Scorpion SCOR-20SO (1600 x 1200
> > mono) from the guy on EBay, and am about to give AstroIIDC a try
> > (I'm waiting on a Firewire B to A cable). From the feature list, it
> > appears that it is possible to capture 16 bit video sequences and
> > align and stack them. Just want to confirm this is accurate before
> > purchasing. My main use will probably be with the 800x600, Y16 at
> > 25fps (Format 1, Mode 6) for Planetary. Also, probably will try the
> > 1600 x 1200 Y16 at 7.5fps (Format 2, Mode 7) for solar. I'll be
> > running on a new Intel Macbook Pro - will AstroIIDC be able to keep
> > up with these frame rates in Y16 out to disk? Any other caveats I
> > should be aware of?
> > Thanks,
> > Kurt Mihalco
>
> Everything in the above is correct, except the frame rates.
>
> Your not going to get 25 fps out of the Scorpion SCOR-20SO. The
> maximum frame rate is about 17 fps when ROI cropped to 800x600 size
> AND you set the CCD cropping to the upper left corner at 0,0. That CCD
> simply don't transfer a lot of data per scan line above 14.98 fps,
> even though we can allocate more bandwidth for the camera,
>
> It's a FireWire 400 cameras so the maximum legal isochronous data
> rates is 80% of 400 mbps, roughly 38 megabytes per second. So you can
> run 1600 x 1200 in 8 bit at 15 fps or 1600 x 1200 in 16 bit at about
> 10 fps. About the largest size you can go in 16 bit and achieve 15 fps
> is about 1150 x 1150 pixels (which is about 38 megabytes of video data
> per second or 2.2 gigabytes per minute of recording).
>
> It does have small (4.4 micron) pixels, so running at higher frame
> rates for planetary likely won't be doable except with a light bucket
> scope (i.e 12" or larger aperture).
>
> HTH..
>
> Milton Aupperle
>