Use BYEOS and BYN as camera module in SGP

So I have 2 Nikons, D600 supported by SGP and one unsupported D810A,
I tried to use the D600 as I wanted to do a mosaic and also would like to use plate solve and auto meridian flip …
While SGP works for a while a all to often encounter hangs of all sort which makes using my Nikon camera’s a no go. I do realise it’s not the main focus of SGP developers and the release of new Nikon and Canon Camera’s is at such a fast pace it’s an ongoing race for the developers.

Hence my feature request, just use BYN as the imaging camera, I’ve been using my D810A night after night without any issues, but do miss the extra feature of SGP, so please mary them!

BYN already provides support for this, Astrotortilla can use it over a local TCP port …

Please, Please, Please,

Thanks,
Yves

Ditto for this.
I am also a bit frustrated by the lack of support for Nikon 810A which is the first full frame dedicated astrophotography DSLR.
The Backyard EOS and Nikon developer got a loan of Nikon 810A from Nikon to support the camera perfectly.
It’s been done a month ago.
I’m wondering Mainsequence can do the same thing.
I bet Nikon will be willing to do that.

What kind of issues are you having with the D600 that keep you from fully using it with SGP? I have 3 scopes mounted on my Titan and take images using SGP simultaneously on all 3.
The cameras are: Nikon D600, Canon 6D, SBIG 8300M. The scopes have focal lengths of 2448, 714, 350.
The camera I use on the 2448 (a RC12") runs SGP with the targets, plate solve, PHD2 control, and dome and safety monitor. I don’t dither since the other 2 copies of SGP taking images with the other 2 cameras/scopes are not synchronized with the controlling RC12 camera. Anxiously awaiting true multi-camera control with the 2.5 release of SGP.
I have used all 3 cameras on the RC12 without any problems with any of them. I am currently using the D600 as the controlling camera and it works fine with plate solving, auto-focus,etc.
I’m planning to have it modded to remove the internal filters, if I don’t buy another 6D instead. My current 6D has been modded and is producing superb results. Both the D600 and the 6D are cooled with my homemade coolers to 46 degrees F below ambient. Give great results.

The issue with SGP for me is that even my D600 is not working reliable … Canon 6D was bit better anyway I will say this one more time …
SGP should just develop a network interface too BYE/N it’s not the job of SGP to try and support the latest and greatest Canon and Nikon camera’s … My experience with BYE/N is excellent, using the same gear NEVER results in connection issues I experience in SGP …

So please consider this, it would make me come back to SGP … now I’m using BYN … even if that limits my automation … I have learned to work around this for the moment.

Home made cooler, respect,
external only or with cold finger?

/Yves

Cooler completely encloses the camera. Very good foam insulation 1.5" to 2" thick. Commercial TEC 12 volt up to 8 amp. CPU heat sinks and fans on both sides of the TEC.

We may consider this but we’ve had issues using 3rd party applications for capture control in the past (if you happen to remember the dawn of SGP when we used Nebulosity). BYEOS and BYN have their own paths and we can’t dictate where that product goes or what/how the API changes. This can be problematic for support and previously occupied a HUGE amount of our time when we used Nebulosity (which is why we eventually dropped it.)

And yes, our Nikon support isn’t perfect. But unfortunately these things take time and as you mentioned Nikon is not our primary market.

Thanks,
Jared

Well if you see in how little time so many D810A users popped up I beg to differ, especially if you look at the FF market, it has been stagnant for years and Nikon and Canon really took a serious bite out this market and as long as there is no real innovation going on, DSLR’s will regain popularity (I have owned several full frame ccd camera’s but today my workhorse is the D810A)

So I hope one day this will happen!

Rgds,

Yves

I am also not a fan of this level of integration for all of the reasons @Jared mentioned. In addition to this, we would prefer to be able to give DSLR users the courtesy of not having to buy 2 pieces of software for their camera to work. We also don’t want to have to support our own implementation plus a BY* route… that is just too much. We will stablize, it will just take time. I am actually working with @donghun on some remote D810A integration right now.

@Yves (and others interested). Thanks to @donghun we have a mostly working implementation of the Nikon code for D810A. Live view acts a little funny and we are still working on seeing if we can get non-bulb mode imaging to create better quality bias frames (or really any very short exposure).

THANKS!
I’m on holiday wright now so I don’t have acces to my camera,
but I will surely test/give feedback …

LV is not that important, if basic functionality works reliable I’m more then happy, I use autofocus to fully automate, so basic functionality is really what I crave for!

Looking forward to test,
Yves

Yves,

I’ve been helping Ken on this and Ken’s newest version supports all the shutter speeds including bulb.
The only thing that doesn’t work is the live view but I agree with you.
Live view on SGPro is not that important for me if at all.

Did you do any imaging runs or just testing,
in other words is the implementation stable and usable for a complete night of imaging.

Can you elaborate on the non bulb mode imaging? How would you go over 30 seconds and why will it create better bias frames (one could always create bias frames manually by selecting shortest exposure time and fire away …)

Thanks for the hard work!

No testing done on our part. We still do not have a D810A.

When you go over 30 seconds we always use bulb mode.

With the shutter we can select the mode that is closest to a true 0 length exposure. Sending a 0 length exposure in bulb mode results in an exposure that is 0.2 ~ 0.25 s long. With shutter mode (for the D810A we can reduce this to 1/8000 s… This is significantly better and more representative of your camera’s true bias.

I haven’t done a real imaging session but 2.4.13 works for various exposure times both on frame and focus and exposures through sequences.
I tested both short (0 sec and 1 sec etc) and long (30 sec, 1 min and 10 min) and they all worked well.

Do not use ‘use always bulb’ option on the Nikon setting.
You don’t have to do this for D810A.
(I don’t think we need this option any more for any Nikon cameras as well).