Downloading problems on USB 3.0 with Altair Hypercam IMX178

Sequence Generator
1

I am having an issue with my Altair Hypercam IMX178 and SGP. The camera sticks on “downloading” before timing out.

I am running the following:

O/S Windows 7 Professional SP1 on a Lenovo T410
SGP version: SGPro 2.6.0.18
Startech Powered 4 hub USB 3

What I have tested so far:

The camera works fine on USB on other software packages (Altair Capture, Firecapture, Sharpcap) but stalls on SGP

The camera DOES work in SGP if I run it off a USB 2.0 port (albeit at the expense of data speed).

I am running the latest ASCOM and Altair drivers for the camera.

My Altair GPMono camera will work on USB 3.0 port in SGP (although it is a USB 2 camera)

I have attached two log files:

IMX178_USB2.0_SUCCESS.txt
IMX178_USB3.0_FAIL.txt

IMX178_USB2.0_SUCCESS.txt (282.7 KB)
IMX178_USB3.0_FAIL.txt (71.6 KB)

2

@UKJay1971

It’s hard to tell, but my initial guess is a possible incompatibility with the ASCOM driver and USB 3.0. We might be able to provide more details if you are able to also provide the Altair ASCOM logs.

Do any of Altair Capture, Firecapture or Sharpcap use ASCOM or do they use native drivers?

3

Hi Ken

Here are the related Altair log files. I can see from the failed sequence what appears to be the relevant issue. I suspect that the developer of the Altair ASCOM driver needs to amend the driver however could you confirm this is the case and what the main issue seems to be?

Thanks

Jay

AltairASCOM.log…FAIL.txt (2.0 KB)
AltairASCOM.log.SUCCESS.txt (1.3 KB)

4

Neither log fragment seems to indicate a driver problem. Optional properties are generating errors. The FAIL log shows an error with GetLastExposureStartTime because no exposure has been done, nothing wrong with that.

However log fragments can be very misleading it’s always worth providing full log files.

5

I’ll re-run this evening and upload verbose logs when done.

Thanks

Jay

6

Here are the verbose log files

sg_logfile_20170311192005.txt (19.8 KB)
sg_logfile_20170311191055.txt (66.7 KB)
sg_logfile_20170311191055.txt (66.7 KB)
sg_logfile_20170311192005.txt (19.8 KB)
LOG_FILES.zip (36.1 KB)

7

@UKJay1971

Thanks for the logs. According to SGPro your image should have completed integration on the camera at:

[03/11/17 19:11:27.164]

At this point SGPro started polling the camera to ask if the image was ready for download. This continues for 480 seconds and the camera never reports that it has made the image data ready for download. Looking at the camera logs, this is returned throughout the polling period:

2017-03-11 19:12:34,679 [Camera Thread] DEBUG Calling: get_ImageReady()
2017-03-11 19:12:34,679 [Camera Thread] DEBUG ImageReady Get : False

If the camera where to have indicated it were ready to provide image data we would have seen:

2017-03-11 19:12:34,679 [Camera Thread] DEBUG Calling: get_ImageReady()
2017-03-11 19:12:34,679 [Camera Thread] DEBUG ImageReady Get : True

Bottom line is that we cannot speak to any reason why the camera was in this state.

BTW, not super important, but the fact that Altair logs the name of the SGPro threads from which calls were invoked makes troubleshooting WAY easier. I wish all logs posted thread names.