Monthly Archives: March 2015

oaCapture 0.4.0 release

Version 0.4.0 is now released. There are few functionality changes in this release, but the API for the camera library has been changed beyond recognition. This has resolved a number of awkward issues in the code as well as indirectly fixing some bugs and misfeatures. The camera library itself now runs to somewhere around 25,000 lines and very little remains untouched from previous releases so it’s hard to believe a few problems might have been introduced along the way, but I think it’s now in a far better state than it has ever been. I intended to do the same for the filter wheel API for this release, but tempus fugit and I thought I’d best get another release done.

As well as the API, other changes for this release include:

  • Building against the latest ASI SDK
  • Support for the ASI “high speed” option
  • An attempt to get colour TIS FireWire cameras to work in colour
  • Possible fixed support for the Microsoft Lifecam
  • Experimental support for ZWO cameras using the v2 SDK

Downloads from the downloads page as usual.

There are some issues with this release that I will attempt to correct at least some of for 0.5.0:

  1. When using the ASI174, switching into 2x binning and then out again appears to cause the camera to stop delivering images
  2. The “high speed” control for ASI cameras shows as unset initially, even if it is set
  3. The colour TIS FireWire support is being done completely blind. I do not have such a camera and I know the camera claims to deliver mono data when in fact it is raw colour. I could really use some feedback on this.
  4. The experimental v2 SDK code for ASI cameras is disabled and can only be enabled by manually editing the configuration file. I’ve tested with several ASI cameras and the only one I can get to work reliably is the ASI120MM-S.