QSI 683 super long downloading time

Hi all,

Would like to report an issue I encountered last night and would like some help to understand the behavior. Bascially have two consequtive image captures it takes 5 min to download, and during downloading the computer frozen. I restarted SGP later, and downloading time seems still very long compare to normal…

I’ve been imaged multiple nights in last couple of months and never run into this though.

My camera is QSI683, and I am using driver 1.0.0.3 (1.0.0.5 is not stable for me so I reverted it back to older version).

Thanks a lot for looking into this!

Yizhou

=======================
I don’t know how to attach files here… Below are some segments from log:

Image #1:

[05/15/20 00:05:03.869][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[05/15/20 00:05:03.869][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Display image preview using asynch task…
[05/15/20 00:10:09.142][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 305403 ms

Image #2:

[05/15/20 00:30:24.747][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 363295 ms

After SGP restart:
Image #3:

[05/15/20 00:44:53.527][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Created full file name: C:\Astro\Data\QSI CCD Camera\Light\ngc 7023\B\2020-05-15_300sec_-10C__2x2_frame25-1.fit
[05/15/20 00:44:53.579][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.579][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.581][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.582][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.641][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.641][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.641][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[05/15/20 00:44:53.676][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[05/15/20 00:44:53.676][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Display image preview using asynch task…
[05/15/20 00:45:45.509][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 51988 ms

Image #4 (this is the one that’s good though)

[05/15/20 00:51:01.535][TRACE][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Created full file name (file does not exist): C:\Astro\Data\QSI CCD Camera\Light\ngc 7023\B\2020-05-15_300sec_-10C__2x2_frame26.fit
[05/15/20 00:51:01.578][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.578][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.579][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.585][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.647][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.647][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.647][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[05/15/20 00:51:01.763][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[05/15/20 00:51:01.763][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Display image preview using asynch task…
[05/15/20 00:51:07.244][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 5717 ms

Image #5:

[05/15/20 00:56:22.126][TRACE][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Created full file name (file does not exist): C:\Astro\Data\QSI CCD Camera\Light\ngc 7023\B\2020-05-15_300sec_-10C__2x2_frame27.fit
[05/15/20 00:56:22.166][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.166][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.167][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.168][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.228][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.228][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.228][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[05/15/20 00:56:22.360][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[05/15/20 00:56:22.360][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Display image preview using asynch task…
[05/15/20 00:57:04.330][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 42213 ms

Image #6:

[05/15/20 01:02:55.011][TRACE][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Created full file name (file does not exist): C:\Astro\Data\QSI CCD Camera\Light\ngc 7023\B\2020-05-15_300sec_-10C__2x2_frame28.fit
[05/15/20 01:02:55.056][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.056][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.059][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.060][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.115][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.115][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.115][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[05/15/20 01:02:55.162][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[05/15/20 01:02:55.162][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Display image preview using asynch task…
[05/15/20 01:04:18.160][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 83157 ms

I have the same camera. I find my (1 X 1) downloads take about 30 seconds. Never had any problems so far. Good luck.

Thanks Robert. It also worked fine mostly for me in the past.

Which verison of driver do you use?

Thanks,
Yizhou

The issue got worse today and generally happened on each frame. Below is an SGP log. For this session you see the plate solving and auto focus are fine; Starting from 5/16/2020 21:30 it starts to going bad; the first frame took 87s to save; the next one (21:47) took 316s, and bascially hang up. It stucks at “Image preview opened” and just not proceeding unless I kill SGP. Same thing happened again on 22:33 after I restarted SGP.

I noticed that the image reading from camera is actually fine; around 6-7s for bin2, and 13-14s for bin1. And usually after 13-14s, I do see the “Histograms” window got updated. However the image does not show up in the image preview window, and it takes 5min for it to save file and display preview.

I switched USB cable, and same issue. Computer has plenty space (350Gb).

Can you guys help? This is going out of control… Thanks.

[05/16/20 21:42:11.372][DEBUG][Camera Thread][SQ;CC;] ASCOM Camera: exposure complete, waiting for camera to report image ready…
[05/16/20 21:42:27.683][INFO][Camera Thread][SQ;CC;] ASCOM Camera read image data took 13.68 seconds
[05/16/20 21:42:27.683][DEBUG][Camera Thread][SQ;] SGM_CAMERA_CAPTURE complete…
[05/16/20 21:42:27.683][DEBUG][Camera Thread][SQ;] Camera thread is IDLE…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.178][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] EventMarker(17) - t:arp 244 (3); e:0; f:32; o:
[05/16/20 21:42:28.178][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Image reported as complete. Continuing…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.409][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Collecting FITs headers…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.416][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] ASCOM Camera - Camera reports last image start time as: 2020-05-17T04:32:13.833 UTC
[05/16/20 21:42:28.416][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] DATE-LOC time provided by camera…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.638][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] GatherFitsHeaders: Writing header info for last solve…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.638][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] GatherFitsHeaders: Writing header info from UI…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.640][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Clearing timed monitoring events…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.661][TRACE][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Created full file name (file does not exist): C:\Astro\Data\QSI CCD Camera\Light\arp 244\L\2020-05-16_600sec_-10C__1x1_frame33.fit
[05/16/20 21:42:28.661][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Start…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.661][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Checking image data…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.661][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Create normal preview bitmap…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.669][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Locking preview bits…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.669][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Validating file name…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.669][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Starting byte traversal…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.669][TRACE][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Row padding → 0
[05/16/20 21:42:28.938][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Unlocking preview bits…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.938][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Saving preview bitmap to disk…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.938][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.938][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.939][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[05/16/20 21:42:28.946][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[05/16/20 21:42:29.186][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[05/16/20 21:42:29.187][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[05/16/20 21:42:29.187][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[05/16/20 21:42:29.210][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Displaying image preview in UI…
[05/16/20 21:42:29.210][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[05/16/20 21:42:29.210][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Display image preview using asynch task…
[05/16/20 21:47:45.550][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Done
[05/16/20 21:47:45.550][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 316898 ms

So it appears this is happening when we attempt to display the image on the screen and not in the actual save. If you disable image history does this problem cease? Guessing that’s what’s actually causing the hang up. I’ll look to address.

Thank you,
Jared

Thanks Jared. Actually this set of log is with disabled image history (in tools --> image history --> uncheck “enable image history”?), so it doesn’t solve/mitigate the problem…

Can you reproduce the issue with this build:

I’m not sure what is going on but that at least has more logging that should help identify where it’s occurring.

Thank you,
Jared

Thanks Jared, I’ll give it a try.

Meanwhile, I restarted my computer, and it seems worked fine afterwards for 2nd half of the night… I got roughly 10-20s “Save file took” duration, seems reasonable… Didn’t do anything else…

I’ll install the latest version and keep an eye on it. If the problem got reproduced I’ll share the log.

Thanks,
Yizhou

Hi Jared,

I was able to recreate the issue last night. Please see the attached log. It appears to me that the time spent on “solver meta data” when downloading the most (but not all) light frames. What does that mean?

Thanks,
Yizhou

Hi Jared,

Just checking if you got any chance to look into the log I just shared? Issues still occuring…

Thanks,
Yizhou

Do you have QSI legacy driver version 7.4.1824.0? The last two drivers from QSI are junk.

If you don’t have the legacy driver, I can upload mine to dropbox. It works with Windows 10.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks! No I don’t. Would appreciate if you can share. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.

Yizhou

Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hqpvtzliu3jkrdo/driver_7.4.1824.0.zip?dl=0

I suggest to first uninstall all QSI drivers before installing legacy driver. I believe I installed the 64 bit version and works well. It’s up to you which version to install: 32 or 64 bits.

I am not responsible for any problems the legacy driver may cause. They were downloaded directly from QSI web site before they were bought out by Atik.

Good luck and I hope this driver will resolve your issues.

Peter

Thanks! Will give it a try.

Also want to hear from SGP team to know if they think it’s driver-related or not.

The majority of the time seems to be in the “Solver meta data” portion of the call:

[05/20/20 02:46:21.998][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Solver meta data...
[05/20/20 02:52:07.475][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Set path data...

Unfortunately I can’t identify anything in there that would be taking an abnormal amount of time. So here’s another version with additional logging if you could please run the same set of tests. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n3cwqc87la1bq61/Sequence%20Generator%20Pro%203.1.0.496.exe?dl=1

Thank you,
Jared

Can you test during the day by taking dark subs and see if the download times still takes too long?

Peter

Hi,

Thanks. I actually did that in the day time, and during taking dark frames I don’t have such an issue. It downloads normally in reasonable time.

For the problematic light frame session, I did turn off the image analysis (by uncheck the “image history”. I suppose that’s the way?) if that’s what you suspect.

Hi Jared,
Going to try the 3.1.0.496 to collect log but noticed the target planning doesn’t show the transit of the target and I cannot specify start/end of exposing. It was working fine before installing this v496. Can you check if this is a bug in v496 or I have some other problems?

Thanks,
Yizhou

My bad. Ignore it. For some reason when creating a new sequence the User Profile is not automatically loaded. Now it works.

Hi @Jared

I did some more tests and I can (not always) replicate the issue and v491 log is attached. I have three cases that took about 90-140s for saving (see below), and I found that most time gap is at “Got exposure time”. Can you please help checking? Thanks!

Case 1:
[06/08/20 01:22:30.027][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got plate scale
[06/08/20 01:22:30.027][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got exposure time
[06/08/20 01:24:49.968][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got scope position
[06/08/20 01:24:49.968][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Set remaining values

[06/08/20 01:24:52.398][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Done
[06/08/20 01:24:52.398][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 143623 ms

Case 2:
[06/08/20 02:18:12.441][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got plate scale
[06/08/20 02:18:12.441][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got exposure time
[06/08/20 02:20:09.991][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got scope position
[06/08/20 02:20:09.991][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Set remaining values

[06/08/20 02:20:11.309][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Done
[06/08/20 02:20:11.309][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 119945 ms

Case 3:
[06/08/20 03:32:19.577][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got plate scale
[06/08/20 03:32:19.577][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got exposure time
[06/08/20 03:33:51.010][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Got scope position
[06/08/20 03:33:51.010][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] MDI Open Image: Set remaining values

[06/08/20 03:33:51.461][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] SaveFileAscom: Done
[06/08/20 03:33:51.461][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] =========== Save file took 93271 ms

Dropbox - sg_logfile_20200603161830.log - Simplify your life