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Messages - tesla500

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46
Chronos User Discussion / Re: Dark video relative to live display
« on: June 30, 2018, 10:48:52 AM »
The on-camera screen makes things look brighter than they actually are, your video is actually just dark but being masked by the screen. More light will help here.

47
Software Dev / Re: Software V0.3 RC1
« on: June 11, 2018, 07:25:24 PM »
RC2 posted, see the first post in this thread.

Notable Changes (from V0.3 RC1):
- White balance can be selected from 5 common presets in addition to taking your own as you could previously.
- Colour calibration (via Set White Balance) now works as expected, and produces vastly more realistic colours.
- Fixed bug where corrupted frames would occur randomly (only on some cameras)
- Set White Balance now calculates against 80% brightness white instead of 100% brightness white.
- File size warning when saving are generally more reliable now. (eg., 4+GB file warning now FAT32-only, since only FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit.)
- Saving doesn't change the marked region of video. (Previously, it would advance video marks to the end of the recorded area.)
- Changes to video saving settings are now applied as they are made, not just when the popup is closed.
- Added a visual button to add more pre-record slider time in the trigger delay window.

48
Software Dev / Re: Deploying camApp from Qt Creator
« on: June 05, 2018, 12:19:49 PM »
Hi Maja,

You might try going back to the QT folder but leaving the working directory as /opt /camera, or potentially going back to the old way but copying the calibration data into the required position. Another option to try is to remove the script that starts the camApp on bootup, which should be in /etc /init.d /, I believe it's just called camera.

Generally, if you use a breakpoint, the video system will become unhappy and require a restart, is it possible that is causing your crash? The debug version of the application may they not properly restart when you restart the camera, leading to the issues you're seeing.

In regards to your second question, could you describe the timings you are seeing, what specifically you're measuring? There is a delay of about 6-8 frames from image capture until the frames get displayed on the LCD, is this what you're seeing?

David

49
Software Dev / Re: Deploying camApp from Qt Creator
« on: June 02, 2018, 01:14:46 PM »
I would recommend leaving camApp running out of /opt/camera, and just back up the original camApp (rename it something else, then rename it back later). Otherwise, in the QT creator Run Configuration, you can change the deploy path. As long as the working directory is set to /opt/camera, it will find the calibration files, the application can be run from any location. Let me know if this works.

David

50
Chronos User Discussion / Re: No storage devices detected?
« on: May 31, 2018, 08:19:02 AM »
Check that the device is formatted FAT32. Many SD cards come formatted exFAT, and this isn't yet supported. If it's already FAT32, try reformatting it.

51
Software Dev / Re: Software V0.3 RC1
« on: May 09, 2018, 01:16:40 PM »
im getting stuck in the backup calibration data please wait, its been several minutes and no buttons do anything, tried restarting several times and get the same?

Try a different flash drive, or maybe reformat your current one.

52
Software Dev / Re: Software V0.3 RC1
« on: May 09, 2018, 08:56:35 AM »
Just a quick question about the update process. If I made an image of my current OS microSD card could it be used to roll back from 0.3 if I ran into problems? I'd like to test out the new colour handling but would also like a safety net. If so I shouldn't need to reload the calibration data correct?

Correct, you can image the card and remiage it if you want to revert. You can also restore using the reference image on the Software Updates page on the website.

53
Software Dev / Re: Software V0.3 RC1
« on: May 08, 2018, 09:51:19 PM »
Confirmed, duplicated it here as well. Looking into it now, will post an update in the main post above when we've fixed it.

54
Software Dev / Re: Start Trigger
« on: May 07, 2018, 11:41:45 AM »
Hi Laura,

The camera produces the same amount of heat in live preview as it does recording, since it's always running the image sensor at full speed, so there's no thermal benefit to having the camera on but stopped. The way to do a start trigger is to use a stop trigger with a delay equal to the record time, and leaving the camera recording just like post trigger.

The camera does get quite warm in a waterhousing, but it's not a problem. Do keep in mind you need to do a black cal while the camera is at full temperature to get the best image quality.

David

55
Software Dev / Re: Software V0.3 Beta - Updated May 3 2018
« on: May 03, 2018, 08:31:28 PM »
New update posted, see here

56
Software Dev / Software V0.3 RC2 (Updated June 11, 2018)
« on: May 03, 2018, 08:27:43 PM »
Update (June 11 2018): RC2 posted

Here is the release candidate for V0.3, for those of you who want to try the latest and greatest. An updated manual is also attached to this post.

Keep in mind this software is still a release candidate. It has not gone through full validation yet, this software is generally stable but we don't recommend using this for any critical applications where it's not possible to recreate your shot. We recommend waiting for the final release for any applications that require guaranteed stability.


    ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
   ┌┘                                  └┐
   │     Chronos V0.3 RC2 Changelog     │
   └┐                                  ┌┘
    └──────────────────────────────────┘


Notable Changes (from V0.3 RC1):
- White balance can be selected from 5 common presets in addition to taking your own as you could previously.
- Colour calibration (via Set White Balance) now works as expected, and produces vastly more realistic colours.
- Fixed bug where corrupted frames would occur randomly (only on some cameras)
- Set White Balance now calculates against 80% brightness white instead of 100% brightness white.
- File size warning when saving are generally more reliable now. (eg., 4+GB file warning now FAT32-only, since only FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit.)
- Saving doesn't change the marked region of video. (Previously, it would advance video marks to the end of the recorded area.)
- Changes to video saving settings are now applied as they are made, not just when the popup is closed.
- Added a visual button to add more pre-record slider time in the trigger delay window.


Notable Changes (from V0.2.5):
- Colour reproduction is greatly improved, especially reds
- Keyboard behavior improved, text is now selected when you tap an edit box
- UI can be flipped, or set to display the main screen menu on the left side
- You can configure the "Unsaved video in RAM" popup when you hit the record button with an unsaved video in memory. It can be set to "Always", "If not reviewed" (default), or "Never". The previous behavior was always "If not reviewed".
- Fixed bug in 0.2.5 beta that resulted in a small portion of saves failing (about 2%)
- Fixed bug where segmented record mode would produce many invalid segments

More notable changes (from V0.2):
- Trigger I/O's Trigger delay input was moved to the Trigger Delay screen.
- Added Trigger Delay screen and Record Modes screen, accessible from Record Settings.
- Black cal duration reduced by 10s to 15s or so at max resolution. (We still hope to make this much, much faster in a future beta.)
- Use any SD card. Previously, a class 10 SD card was required. You can now use slower cards. Of course, using a slower SD card means that videos save slower too.
- You can now auto-record after saving and auto-save after recording. This can loop.

Minutiae:
- Mark In and Mark Out have been renamed to Mark Start and Mark End, probably just until the video seek bar is made horizontal.
- Playback screen has 'region to be saved' marked. Each region saved is marked in a different color.
- The Enter key has been changed to say Apply, since you have to press it to apply your changes.
- The sliders on main screen the play screen have been made larger for ease of grabbing.
- There is now a Settings tab in the Util pages.
- Trigger IO window: The ratio between post-trigger frames and record length in frames is kept constant between resolution and framerate changes.
- Play → Settings: bitsPerPixel, maxBitrate, saved file framerate, format, filename and save location are now saved as soon as they are changed instead of when the Close button is pressed.

RC1/RC2 known bugs:
-The first few frames in saved videos are from the end of the recording


Installation instructions:
  • Unzip the Zip file into the root directory of a FAT32 formatted USB stick
  • This should result in a camUpdate folder in the root directory of the stick
  • Boot up the camera and insert the USB stick
  • Backup your calibration data. Tap "Backup calibration data" and wait for this to complete (about 5 seconds). The cal data is now backed up on the USB drive as cal_[serial number].tar
  • To install the update, tap Apply Software Update
  • A message box should pop up indicating the software update was found. Tap Yes to install the update.
  • The screen will go black, you may see a screen saying "updating", and the update will be installed. This will take about 30 seconds, potentially longer depending on the speed of the USB drive. There's no feedback that anything is happening, just give it time. The camera will restart at the end of this process
  • Done!

As always, let us know of any bugs you find, we'll get them sorted out as quickly as possible. We anticipate the fully validated V0.3 release in about a month.

57
Software Dev / Re: Deploying camApp from Qt Creator
« on: May 01, 2018, 06:12:29 PM »
Hi Matom,

Sorry, forgot about the block diagram, I need to draw that up still.

Trigger is controlled by the FPGA, the all the trigger inputs are optionally inverted, debounced, then masked, then OR'd together before feeding the trigger delay unit. A register is also OR'd into this for software activation of the trigger, which is not currently used in the software, but does work.

The addresses of interest are
TRIG_ENABLE_ADDR - 3-bits, selects enable (1=enabled) for each trigger source: Bit 0 - IO 1, Bit 1 - IO 2, Bit 3 - Input 3
TRIG_INVERT_ADDR - 3-bits, selects invert enable (1=enabled) for each trigger source: Bit 0 - IO 1, Bit 1 - IO 2, Bit 3 - Input 3
TRIG_DEBOUNCE_ADDR - 3-bits, selects debounce enable (1=enabled) for each trigger source: Bit 0 - IO 1, Bit 1 - IO 2, Bit 3 - Input 3

SEQ_CTL_ADDR, bit 0 (SEQ_CTL_SW_TRIG_MASK) is the software trigger bit, writing a 1 is like making one of the trigger inputs active. Be careful you don't clobber any of the other bits when changing this, use a read-modify-write.

Here's an example of creating a trigger from software:

UInt32 reg = camera->gpmc->read32(SEQ_CTL_ADDR);
camera->gpmc->write32(SEQ_CTL_ADDR, reg | SEQ_CTL_SW_TRIG_MASK);
camera->gpmc->write32(SEQ_CTL_ADDR, reg & ~SEQ_CTL_SW_TRIG_MASK);


Let me know if this helps.

David

58
Hi Matom, try the procedure on the software updates page near the bottom, "Restoring a camera that won't boot"

59
Chronos User Discussion / Re: 5V TTL triggering circuit
« on: April 17, 2018, 12:52:06 AM »
Hi pstest,

You can use anything that is capable of generating a TTL output, such as a DAQ card. It may be possible to use the control lines, such as RTS, CTS, etc on a serial port to do the same without buying an expensive card, you'd just need an appropriate cable and software to control those lines.

A software approach will be coming in the API release.

David

60
Chronos User Discussion / Re: Lens/Camera protection
« on: April 17, 2018, 12:49:25 AM »
Hi Andrew,

I've had good luck Lexan and Acrylic. The biggest problem I've found is that it gets charged up with static electricity and readily attracts dust. Other than that, it is perfectly clear as long as it has the protective coating intact. Also, watch out for reflections, best not to have any light coming from behind the camera that could reflect off the shield and into the lens.

David

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