From: Kevin in Fort Davis <fsm79734@gmail.com>

Date: May 24, 2015 3:50:27 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] IR Cut Filter Necessary?

Thanks for that information, Milton.  When I'm back in to work next

week I'll do some tests with the 8-bit setting.  Why it never occurred

to me to try that, I can't say.

I thought of something that did occur to me that I failed to mention

regarding the presumed bandwidth issue and on which the 8/16 bit

setting might or might not have any bearing.  The problem I normally

see is that, when launching Astro IIDC and selecting which of the

(now) two cameras I want to use, either it only lists one of the

cameras, and sometimes neither of them.  Then again, sometimes it

works fine and lists both of them.

The reason that I bring this up is, regardless of the 8/16 bit

setting, shouldn't Astro IIDC see both of the cameras upon launch?  In

other words, I would think that if my problem is a bandwidth issue and

the 8/16 bit setting were to make a difference with that, then that

would occur only after I had chosen a resolution/bit depth setting and

"starting video" in Astro IIDC.  Does that make sense?

Also when I'm back into work on Tuesday, I will send you a sample

capture file so that you can see some of the details.

Again, thanks so much for taking time to assist with this!

-Kevin

On 5/23/15, Milton Aupperle maupperl@gmail.com [Astro_IIDC]

<Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi Kevin;

Thanks for the info. it sounds like that Hub / Repeater should be able to

handle the distance and power requirements just fine.

If your just previewing video live, then 8 bit (256 shades) is usually more

than adequate for a monitor. If your processing the images or movies and

looking for subtle details (i.e. nebulas, cloud patterns on Venus, faint

prominences etc.) then 16 bit likely helps a lot. If you want to try an

experiment, try dropping the bit depth to 8 bit and see if that solves the

start up issue and is good enough quality for your needs.

The issue might be that there is barely enough per packet bandwidth to run

them at the same time in 16 bit. If you check the CAP_Date_Time_L.txt file

that Astro IIDC creates when you record a movie or grab a frame, the first 8

lines in the file indicate the cameras current setup. For my Grasshopper it

might looks like this for a recorded movie:

=================== File:20130520_052311_U.mov #frames 101

Monochrome Camera = Model:'Grasshopper2 GS2-FW-14S5M' SerialNumber:

0xA94B07

IIDC Format:7 Mode: 0 ClrCode: 5 MaxFps: 27.12 MaxPacketSize: 9720

Camera Display Format: 1384 x 1036 16 bit

CCD Image Left: 0

CCD Image Top: 0

CCD Image Width: 1384

CCD Image: Height 1036

If you can post those first 8 lines in your own CAP text file for those

cameras, I'll have a look at the camera specs and see what the packet size

is.

HTH..

Milton Aupperle

On 2015-05-23, at 3:30 PM, Kevin in Fort Davis fsm79734@gmail.com

[Astro_IIDC] <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Thanks for those great suggestions, Milton.  The FW800 hub I'm currently

using is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/NitroAV-8-Port-FireWire-Professional-Repeater/dp/B00506K4NC

and its power supply is rated at 12V/3A.  When I first started having the

FW bandwidth issue (everything worked fine for nearly two years before

this problem developed), I tried swapping in the exact Kramer hub that you

mentioned, with the same result. I've also replaced all the cabling end to

end.

I have not tried running the cameras at 1624x1224 8bit.  Will the image

quality not suffer at 8 bit?  I will try that as soon as it stops pouring

rain.

I will ask PGR if their USB3 cameras can run at USB2 speeds and what the

minimum frame rate is.  Unless I've missed it, they only specify a "frame

rate" which is presumably the fastest frame rate.

-Kevin