Messages

1

Software Dev / Re: Python based simple camera interface

« on: April 02, 2020, 01:53:53 PM »

From the Main Menu, near the bottom there should be an option to Update your camera. From this menu, hitting the "Apply Software Updates" button will launch the software update tool, and allow you to switch back to the original GUI.

2

Chronos User Discussion / Re: transfer video to computer via code

« on: April 02, 2020, 10:33:52 AM »

We found a couple of bugs in the v0.4.0 voyager release that may have been preventing you from successfully mounting a SMB network share. If you update your camera to the latest release via the software update tool (the about tab should show version 0.4.0~beta38 or later) then should have more success.

You can follow the details in the v0.4.0 beta thread here

3

Software Dev / Re: Python based simple camera interface

« on: April 01, 2020, 09:11:35 AM »

Question: Will the HDMI port still give the live image?

Yes, the HDMI port will continue to give you the live video from the image sensor while either the web control page, or the RTSP stream are active.

4

Chronos User Discussion / Re: SSD Cage for Chronos 1.4/2.1-HD - 3D-printable

« on: April 01, 2020, 09:05:15 AM »

This is an SSD holder for the Chronos 1.4 and 2.1-HD. This accessory is invaluable when shooting DNG on the go; save speed is vastly improved compared to an SD card. The camera can write about 60MB/s to a SATA SSD instead of ~12MB/s to most SD cards. DNG saves at about 12FPS on the 2.1-HD and about 18FPS on the 1.4, at full resolution.

What is the maximum speed of the SATA connector? And in General, all the connectors through which you can write files, how can you find out their maximum recording speed? USB, SDcard.
camera 2.1

Or is it the maximum write speed of 12 MB / sec, regardless of the speed that the SD card can write

According to the SD card specs, we should theoretically be able to achieve 24MB/s on the Chronos 1.4/2.1, but in practice I have never seen any card exceed 10MB/s.

The vendor for our CPU quotes an ideal throughput of a little over 100MB/s for the write speed of the SATA port, but when dealing with filesystem access patterns and overhead we are more likely to see the performance of the SATA interface top out at a little closer to 60MB/s.

5

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 31, 2020, 04:46:48 PM »

Hmm, I wonder if this is something to do with Windows Firewall getting in the way of things.

My approach to debug this issue would be to SSH into the camera, and then run a ping command from the command line of the camera to see what occurs. Unfortunately there isn't a way to do this purely from the GUI. The command that I would run to test this would be ping DESKTOP-23CTSB5, which should show the resolution of DESKTOP-23CTSB5 into an IP address, plus responses from your Desktop.

6

Software Dev / Re: Python based simple camera interface

« on: March 31, 2020, 04:04:17 PM »

The web interface to the camera will only control a single camera at a time, but that doesn't stop you from opening multiple browsers or tabs, each of which can control a different camera.

The use of the REST API should enable simultaneous control of multiple cameras, but this is an exercise left to the reader - this was how we made the Chronos ring happen, but that project was little more than duct tape and bailing wire.

7

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Issue with horizontal darkening w/ bright things

« on: March 31, 2020, 11:49:10 AM »

This issue also appears to affect the Chronos 2.1 and the LUX2100 image sensor.

8

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 31, 2020, 11:43:42 AM »

Hi, I installed chronos-unstable-20200328.img and also chronos-voyager-20200331.img, but i got the same error 'DESKTOP-23CTSB5 is not reachable!'. Here are my steps to configure the smb file:

• For Windows:
• control panel -> programs -> Turn windows features on and off -> check all boxes for SMB 1.0/ CIFS
• Make new folder "smb" in drive c:\ -> right click on it -> choose "sharing" tab -> click on share -> choose owner -> click share
• to get my username correctly I opened cmd -> type (echo %username%) then enter


• For Chronos 1.4
• MSB Share: (//DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb)
• Username : I typed the username that i got from step 3 in Windows steps
• Password  : I typed the Password, that i use to login in to my laptop

When attempting to mount a Samba share, the camera will first test network connectivity to the server for the share (your Desktop in this case) and it does so by sending an ICMP ping, when you receive an error message stating the at the destination "is not reachable" it means that this ping has failed.

Further down on the network tab, in the Network Status box, you should see the status of the camera's Ethernet interface. Can you verify that the camera has an IPv4 address, and that your windows desktop is able to ping the camera? In the screenshots that I posted, my camera has an IPv4 address of 192.168.1.208

9

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 31, 2020, 11:29:38 AM »

I am a bit confused - are the described changes in the "standard" GUI also availabel or only in the "new" GUI, which is no longer being developed.

BTW I have the same problem like ieSe - I tried to setup smb like in the description and get the report 'DESKTOP-XXXXX is not reachable!'

These changes are in the standard GUI, there have been no changes made to the "new" GUI since the last build on 20200302.

10

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Issue with horizontal darkening w/ bright things

« on: March 31, 2020, 11:15:53 AM »

This effect does occur at full width, or without gain it just takes a stronger exposure to cause it. The effect is caused by overexposing pixels way beyond their normal saturation point, which requires a lot more light when there is no gain.

I don't recall if this also affects the LUX2100 (Chronos 2.1) off the top of my head, I will need to test that.

11

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 30, 2020, 07:11:49 PM »

We have pushed some updated software to the voyager software release, which should hopefully address some issues that you have reported, and improve the usability of the camera's software. You can access these changes using the Software Update tool found on the Storage tab of the Util window, and then downloading updates from the package repository.

Major Changes from chronos-voyager-20200302.img.xz to chronos-voyager-20200331.img.xz

• Improve exposure slider latency by using a different RPC transport when adjusting exposure (JSON-RPC).
• Report the last shutdown reason on the About tab of the Util window to help explain powerdown reasons.
• Reduce minimum vertical resolution to 32 pixels on the Chronos 1.4
• Fix math errors and improve error reporting in for auto white balance
• Redesign the static IP address widgets on the Network tab of the util window
• Enter recovery mode when both the record button and encoder wheel are pressed at boot.
• Fix errors in SMB mounting options when share is specified with a NetBIOS name, or a password is required
• Support for FUSE filesystems
• Significant changes and improvements to the HTTP user interface (we now consider this ready for use).

Full changelog for updated software

chronos-control: 0.4.0~beta29 -> 0.4.0~beta50
python3-pychronos: 0.4.0~beta29 -> 0.4.0~beta50

• externalStorage: Remove disk usage information.
• Fix introspection for inherity property setters.
• startRecording: fix string->enum parsing error.
• Documentation and cleanup.
• Fix rollover in auto white balance.
• Added property for getting PMIC firmware version.
• Added default reason code to lastShutdownReason constructor.
• Implemented ability to get last shutdown reason.
• Add Calls for video state changes, parse parameter docstrings.
• lux1310: Use the minimum of 64 and vRes rows during ADC cal.
• Add missing types.py from last commit.
• Move enums into types.py add TallyModes enum.
• Remove type annotations from parameter docstrings.
• Fixup some API method documentation.
• Add API call to configure video playback modes.
• startFilesave: Generate filenames if given an empty string.
• lux1310: Retry the reset if chip detection fails.
• JSON-RPC: Fix exception when processing unkown method.
• JSON-RPC: Fix bug causing all responses to be batched.
• lux1310: Cache gain and wavetable to improve latency.
• Add JSON-RPC bindings to camControl.

chronos-gui: 0.4.0~beta20 -> 0.4.0~beta38
chronos-update: 0.4.0~beta20 -> 0.4.0~beta38

• Samba: Add dependency on cifs-utils
• Util window: Use rich text to make IP addresses bold.
• samba: Fix error in SMB mount options
• camUpdate: Use encoder wheel to navigate the UI.
• camUpdate: Fix parsing bug when counting packages.
• camUpdate: Fail gracefully if network is down.
• camUpdate: Enable service when in rescue mode.
• camUpdate: Bring up eth0 when in rescue mode.
• Merge branch 'master' of https://github.com/krontech/chronos-cam-app
• Added messages on completion of cal data export/import.
• API cleanup and dead code removal.
• About: Added label for PMIC firmware version
• About: Added last shutdown reason string
• Add PNG graphic to frame preview.
• Include package download in progress bar motion.
• Convert static IP address widget to use nmcli.
• Update focus peaking on API notifies.
• Use JSON-RPC to update the exposure slider.

chronos-http: 0.4.0~beta17 -> 0.4.0~beta54

• Disabled buttons and menu items that don't do anything right now for release to users
• Added step sizes to the offset values in the resolution box. Technically, any vertical offset will
      be accepted, but that throws the colors off. Also, the horizontal offset snaps to the next-lowest
      value in increments of 16, so often it is not exactly centered, but this is a compromize so that
      the calculation to center it is easier; once the apply button is pressed, it snaps itself to an
      acceptable value.
• Changed sliders and number inputs to be more responsive This includes changing the start / end
      frames while dragging the timeline / start marker / end marker around Also now support scrolling /
      quickly typing / using the up/down arrow keys inside number input fields
• Made sliders and numeric inputs continuously updatable The checks and communication with the camera
      are done while the number is changing. To prevent this from sending too many requests, a new
      request can only be sent once a previous one has returned.
• Fixed the offset and centering calculations to work with different sensors I was just using
      hard-coded constants for the horizontal and vertical resolutions before, and then I forgot about
      them. Now, I've replaced the constants with values that come from the camera itself.
• Started adding pop-up / overlay messages Pop-up / overlay messages are needed to give the user a
      chance to save their footage if they forgot to save it, to give the user some information, and to
      notify the user if the camera is unreachable. I have started to add the capabilities for these
      messages, but they are not implemented yet.
• Cleaned up some timing, themes, sizes, etc.
• Added transparent / no border property for :-moz-range-track so sliders look right in firefox
• Added some limiters for number inputs so that they can't go outside of the min / max values
• Detect when using Edge / IE and use different style-sheet and change "onchange" to "onmouseup" for
      sliders
• Made the 'onchange' property get replaced by 'onmouseup' when using Internet Explorer so that it
      doesn't overload the camera and cause the webserver to fail
• Fixed record / play bar height differences across browsers
• Worked on cross-browser compatibility (IE, & Edge mostly, some Safari) Did a lot of re-styling of
      the sliders and other elements to fit and work properly Also added some additional checks and fixes
      so that the javascript runs on all browsers
• Added support for browsers that don't do server sent events Also updated the menu behaviour and
      fixed its z-index Tried to add slider styling changes for Microsoft browsers
• Moved the colors into separate theme files and adjusted the colors to match the themes Also added
      control for the video state (play mode vs record mode/live display) to navigation menu dropdown
• Changed the font source The fonts are now stored on the camera so it should show up correctly no
      matter whether or not the user has an internet connection.
• Adjusted spacing, styling, font position, and look on different browsers
• Started to split styling out into css files Also fixed the timeline sliders on chrome
• Adjusted functionality, behaviour, and look of Play&Save screen Dynamic sizing (screen width) has
      been set, and some of the blocks resize so that they look nicer at certain screen sizes.
      Downloading from the camera now works for image files that are in folders.
• Added play&save screen functions like save to and download from camera More advanced settings can
      be configured for the filesave (bitrate, fps) The current frame, starting frame, ending frame, and
      length of clip can be manually entered
• Added feature to download videos from the camera Added some number fields in a few places, but they
      don't do anything yet. Split the "Save Video" block up; the "Storage Device" dialog is now its own
      block. I also  made the "play" button switch the video system into playback mode if it's in record
      mode, though that may have been undocumented in a previous commit.
• apidoc: Refresh parameters when clicked.
• Rename startAutoWhiteBalance to startWhiteBalance
• Add Krontech logo to the API documentation
• Move parameter value column to an collapseable button.
• apidoc: Use parsed docstrings for params, add method dropdown.
• Added timeline, start frame, end frame control and it now saves according to those settings
• Fixed icon active colors
• Added a catch for non-usable resolutions so that different sensors can be used
• Added start and end frame sliders and a fill between them
• Added new 'Play and Save' screen. I also added links to go betwen the main screen (record screen)
      and the play/save screen in the top navigation bar.
• Made page layout responsive Made things look nice across various screen sizes. Also made some
      changes to some of the spacing.
• Save files, display save progress, display whitebalance overlay, display video state
• got rid of the need for the 'screenShots' folder and its contents
• Added a folder for writing the screenshot(s) to
• Added a lock to accessing the screenshot, and changed the permissions of the file
• Fixed icon highlight color problem. Also adjusted some sizing

chronos-pwrutil: 0.4.0~beta14 -> 0.4.0~beta50
chronos-tools: 0.4.0~beta14 -> 0.4.0~beta50
chronos-video: 0.4.0~beta14 -> 0.4.0~beta50

• scgi: Set Cache-control: no-cache in the response headers.
• Fixup SCGI cross-origin request handling.
• Disarm PMIC watchdog in rescue mode.
• pcUtil: Add timeout to rxDataReceive()
• Add support for automounting FUSE filesystems
• Updated PMIC firmware to v9, modified pmic debian service.
• Add dependency on alsa-utils for audio mux control.
• neoncrop: Add explicit cache flush after transform.
• Fix D-Bus types reported for G_TYPE_DOUBLES.
• Add crop/padding to source video frame.
• gstneoncrop: Add passthrough mode and flip support.
• Added special format string to assembly statement.
• Updated PMIC firmware file to version 8.
• Merge branch 'master' of https://github.com/krontech/chronos-cli
• Implemented ability to query PMIC's last shutdown reason.
• Add an experimental Gstreamer NEON/crop element.
• Return to the previous state at the end of a filesave.
• cam-json: Add mode to make API calls using JSON-RPC instead.
• Merge branch 'liveRecordDev'

u-boot-ti81xx: 0.3.5-201006psp4.4.0.1 -> 0.3.6-201006psp4.4.0.1

• Boot into systemd recsue mode when recovery mode is detected.

12

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Issue with horizontal darkening w/ bright things

« on: March 29, 2020, 10:38:08 PM »

This is a known behaviour of the LUX1310 image sensor that powers the Chronos 1.4. It occurs under conditions of extreme overexposure which appear to degrade the sensitivity of the entire line as it is digitized. This is an analog characteristic of image sensor, and we don't have any way to avoid it other than to reduce the exposure or aperture until the image is no longer clipping.

13

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 28, 2020, 12:21:54 PM »

I haven't used the new UI in a while, but I think the new UI's network menu won't let you use it at all until you set a password on it. I believe it sets the root password for ssh for both the USB and ethernet connections.

There are 2 buttons beside the text box on the App & Internet access screen. Either enter your own password, or tap the button with the dice on it to generate a random password. The network accessible features should be displayed once you have a password and tap the button with the diagonal lines.

Thank you skronstein for your replay. I installed the software V0.4.0 Beta again without applying the new UI. I tried the instructions but it didn't work. Here is the error "Mount Failed: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on //192.168.0.102/smb, missing codepage or helper program, or other error (for several file systems (e.g nfs, cifs) you might need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)". I think this is a problem with sharing files between Linux and windows.

Hardware Setup

• My laptop is connected to the router through wireless network.
• Chronos 1.4 is connected to the same router through the Ethernet cable.

My laptop is running Windows 10 Home. You can find my network sharing settings in images.
I thought that smb file location address might differ from the instructions file, so i tried these addresses but none of them works too.
In Mount tab:

• smb
• \\DESKTOP-23CTSB5\smb
• \DESKTOP-23CTSB5\smb
• DESKTOP-23CTSB5\smb
• //DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb
• /DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb
• DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb

Did i make something wrong?

Hi, just to follow up on this. The latest updates to the unstable branch should now have resolved some of the issues that we found in the SMB mounting code. In particular there were two bugs that you were likely running into. The first was that shares requiring a username and password were failing due to an error in the setting of the mount options, and the second was that cameras were missing some support packages that would enable name resolution. To get these fixes, you will need to ensure you have software build 0.4.0~beta38 or newer, as shown on the About tab of the Util window.

I have attached some screenshots of how I have configured my camera so that it is able to save footage to a Samba share on my Windows 10 PC. Note that the layout of the network settings window has changed slightly between voyager and unstable.

The first step is to share a folder on your windows 10 PC, and ensure that SMB 1.0/CIFS file sharing support is enabled. In this particular case, my username on this windows 10 PC is "Owen" and I am the owner of this share.


We can then configure the camera to use this share via the Network tab in the Util window, and then hit Apply to mount the share and make it permanent.


After this, the network share should appear in the Storage tab of the Util window when successfully mounted.


And it should be available as a storage device when saving video.

14

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 24, 2020, 11:00:39 AM »

I enabled SMB 1.0/CIFS Client but the camera still can't access smb file due to the same error. And when I pressed "Test", I got "SMB share cam on 192.168.0.102 is not connected".

I've spent a bit of time looking into this, and it seems like we might have a bug in the SMB mounting code, I'll let you know as soon as I have a fix ready to be deployed.

15

Software Dev / Re: Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

« on: March 24, 2020, 10:51:13 AM »

That's quite sad, but you having to focus your ressources is very valid.
Features I'd like to see in the old GUI:
* Zoom
* Battery Charge indicator as changing icon
* python scripts (should still be possible over ssh anyway)
* stored file playback

I'd love to see all of those features made available on the old GUI too, especially the zoom, as I have often found the limited screen real estate to be quite difficult to workaround when faced with weird aspect ratios (try focusing a camera at 1280x96 to see how fun this can be).

Unfortunately, stored file playback will probably be a long ways out, since this is one of the screens in the new GUI whose functionality is not implemented.