From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>
Date: June 18, 2010 5:58:36 PM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Chameleon USB 2 - First Light with Astro IIDC
Let me make this perfectly clear.
I am not doing other USB Cameras or USB Devices within Astro IIIDC. If I add other Camera manufactures, it would be in a new product.
The only reason I am adding the PGR USB cameras is because PGR are using the IIDC Protocol for Camera Control. The only thing that is different between a PGR USB and PGR IIDC camera is the low level method that I use to talk to the cameras - the I/O Camera Controls are the same for a PGR IIDC or USB camera, but ONLY for PGR Cameras. So I have very little Camera code to re-write and mainly need to make minor changes to the original code.
All the other USB cameras (Including TIS's) use Proprietary USB Camera Controls. So the Companies have to share their low level information with me before I can write the low level control code, and they will not do it. I recently hand another fruitless conversation with TIS representative and they aren't interested.
Lastly, there is ZERO money in supporting a whole bunch of camera companies on the Mac. The sales of Astro IIDC do not justify me investing the tens of thousands of dollars for hardware and software in doing this. And I see zero increase in sales over the last 18 months, so I don't know where Apple's increase in new Mac users are, but they certainly do not do science. 80+% of my sales now are for microscopy and if it wasn't for the fact I do Astronomy, I would not be adding ANY new Astronomy features. From talking to other Mac Astronomy developers, I'm not alone and sales are absolutely flat or falling.
Hope that explains things..
Have a nice weekend.
Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#1106 - 428 Chaparral Ravine View SE.
Calgary Alberta T2X 0N2
1-(403)-453-1624
On 18-Jun-10, at 4:16 PM, Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D. wrote:
Milton this is very good news.
Have you commented before on which USB cameras will work with Astro_IIDC?
I have two Meade DSI cameras and a number of video cameras that I use for occultation work which I currently stream through my MacBook Pro by using a video converter to take the analog video and convert it to digital/USB video for the Mac.
Will some, many or most of these USB video paths be supported? Do you have to receive the individual drivers from the manufacture or does Apple establish and maintain the code for USB video devices that work with Macs?
Just curious.
Terry - W6LMJ - 14.287
Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D.
Redding Observatory South, West Palm Beach, Florida
http://olt.net/learningstyle/Site_2/Learning_Style_Research.html
How do amateur astronomers learn?
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American Association of Variable Star
Observers (AAVSO): RTN http://www.aavso.org/
On Jun 18, 2010, at 5:47 PM, milton_aupperle wrote:
Hi Folks;
Here is First Light (Image) with the PGR Chameleon USB 2 camera.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/Other/ChamleonUSB2_DesktopView.jpg
Thats a screen shot of Astro IIDC controlling the PGR EXView HAD camera, running at 1280x960 pixels for color images. I just got the control code spliced into Astro IIDC code base yesterday and got the bulk pipe code running this afternoon.
I still have a tonne of work for test things out and have several known issues to fix, but if we are lucky Astro IIDC 4.06.00 Alpha 8 will support fours USB 2 /3 Cameras by the end of next week.
Have a great weekend..
Milton Aupperle
