It would appear that 4.x has changed something that works fine in 3.x.
If I set my camera gain to 100 using the camera settings, the setting is applied, if I then run the Flats Calibration wizard, it somehow changes the camera back to a gain of 0, if I run the wizard and go back into the camera settings, confirmed it is now back to 0 again.
I have verified after applying the setting, going back into camera setting the gain is 100
Before setting:
Setting applied:
Verified by clicking on OK and going back into camera setting. Then I run the flats wizard and click start
After wizard completes, camera is back at Gain 0 and my calibration was performed at Gain 0 as I noticed it produced the same times as when the camera is at Gain 0
It happens the moment the camera is asked to take the first frame
SGPro is changing the Gain back to 0 as I see here in the logs:
[08/29/21 17:45:23.759][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] Filter move is complete…
[08/29/21 17:45:23.759][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] Performing analysis for mode 1x1
[08/29/21 17:45:23.763][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] Taking auto flats exposure at 5s
[08/29/21 17:45:23.764][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] ASCOM camera: frame and focus…
[08/29/21 17:45:23.765][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] SetAscomGain to 0
[08/29/21 17:45:23.779][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] Camera gain set to 0
[08/29/21 17:45:23.779][DEBUG][Camera Thread][NONE] SetAscomNormalSpeed…
This basically means I am unable to perform a flats calibration against anything but Gain 0, which means I have to manually calculate the flats for Gain 100
Ok This actually goes further than just the flats calibration wizard, using the frame and focus option also sets the camera back to Gain 0, so it’s hard to get my flats timings, I thought I would be able to do it with Frame and Focus, but sadly not
I guess you have missed the option added to ASCOM/SGP to control gain directly from the software instead of just from the driver so it’s a feature, not a bug.
Unless I’ve missed the point there, but I do not think you are right
In my sequence for Darks, I have some Darks taken at 0 Gain and some at 100 Gain, and in the sequence this works perfectly fine. IN 3.x I could manually set the Gain at 100 in the “Camera Settings” and I could then run through the flats wizard, or frame and focus and it would retain the gain of 100, but in 4.x it resets the gain to 0 when using Flats wizard of frame and focus.
Like I said, the gain setting in the sequence works without fail
I have also noticed that if in my sequence I have a target that is 100Gain, and I have this set here:
It correctly assigns the gain as 100, as per my expectation. But if the next target does not have a gain setting applied, it remains at 100, so why does that not go back to 0 if the frame and focus and flats calibration wizard force the camera back to 0
Setting the gain as you set it, will force the camera to go to Gain 100 during Frame and focus and Flats Wizard, then I have the challenge if I want to run the Frame and Focus or Flats Wizard at 0 Gain, so again SGPro is overriding the setting that I have manually applied to the camera
Set the Gain as 100, in control panel as follows:
Set the camera gain to 0 in the ZWO Camera Settings:
Run the Frame and Focus or Flats Wizard, and the camera has been forced to 100 Gain
So the question is why SGPro is forcing the camera gain during Frame and Focus / Flats Calibration (Which leverages the frame and focus routine).
If this is to be, then there should be an option in the Flats Calibration Wizard to set the gain.
Setting the camera gain setting in control panel to “Not set” means SGPro will not chage the setting during the Frame and Focus / Flats Calibration Routine and will adhere to the gain level I have set manually in the camera settings
Normally people use the same gain value for everything, especially with the ASI6200 as gain 100 is the best value to use because of the very low read noise.
It’s also best to keep lights + all calibration frames to the same gain and offset value so they will calibrate correctly.
I use Gain 0 for bright targets and RGB, and Gain 100 for darker targets and NB, Gain100 has a much lower saturation level, so bright stars in Gain100 are a killer.
when I installed SGP 4 with the latest update it reverted the setting to 0 vs not set
worth checking what default values are
sorry didnt frame my question well … I knew it could but the setting was always not set but seemed to change but I did have existing profiles from SGP 3
Javed, I noticed these settings but haven’t used them because I have a QHY600 which also uses different Modes - so you might use Mode 1 Gain 57, Offset 30 OR Mode 0, Gain 27, Offset 30. Does we this mean I can’t use these settings?
