Q. How do I access a USB/Serial Converter about com6? A. Right click on
My Computer to access Windows Device Manager. Find the LPT and Com port section
and select the USB/Serial converter. Right click on the port and select
properties. Using the advanced section of the driver port configuration select
a new com port supported by the driver.
Q. Why does it take so long to download in RAW mode? A. The image is
probably 12MB or more of data. That is a lot to move over USB. Try using the
fast focus mode, or fast bin mode.
Q. Maxim/DL connects, but says "flushing" and no image shows up? A. This
can be caused by selecting the EOS driver for both camera and guider. This is
not supported, choose another guider that is connected or "None".
Q. Why won't my 20D/350 connect? A. Try switching from printer to PC
Connect mode on the camera.
Q. The picture is B&W and dithered. It looks bad! Why?
A. This is the RAW, unprocessed image. The “dithering” is because each
pixel has a different color filter on it. The Image must be processed before it
will look good. First subtract dark frames, then use Maxim's ConvertRGB menu
item to convert to color. Suggested RGB weights are in appendix A of the
Release notes or Manual.
Q. Why won’t my camera connect? When I plug in the Parallel control cable it
just starts shooting pictures and I can’t connect.
A. Because the Parallel port is uncontrolled before the driver starts
up, the signals stuck on the parallel line might be signaling the camera to
shoot. You should leave the cable disconnected until the driver is running and
then plug it in. Otherwise the camera will be active when the driver tries to
connect and it will not be allowed to control the camera.
Q. I tried to combine several images together. Now when I convert then to color,
the color is all wrong!
A. You must calibrate the image first. Then color convert. Then stack
the images. You can’t vary this order. Period. Or you will junk your images.
Q. My star profiles are flat on top in the fast readout mode. Why?
A. The fast readout uses significantly fewer bits for data (8 bits vs.
12bits). You just can’t get the range in those bits you need to show the range
of star magnitudes. To focus pick a star and exposure times that prevent the
star from maxing out the values thru the center. A star with soft edges means
there is more range of data to compute the focus.
Q. Wouldn’t it be better if you stacked a bunch of JPEGS coming out of the
camera? Why mess with these ugly B&W images?
A. JPEG has 8 bits per color. Using raw mode we get 12bits. We also can
do Dark frame subtraction on a per Pixel level, rather than on an area averaged
out around the pixel. The data is more accurate and with better processing it
will look superior in the end. EOS Digital cameras don’t really have any RGB
pixels. They are only one color at a time. Any format that combines colors
together before calibration or cuts the bit depth will lose information,
especially for the high dynamic range images from the heavens.
Q. It is really slow when I focus. What am I doing wrong?
A. There is a checkbox on the focus tab in the camera window. Set this
to enable fast focus. It should be a couple of seconds instead of tens of
seconds to download.
Q. Do you support firewire?
A. If your camera can talk to Canon tools thru firewire, it should work
with the Driver.
Q. I don’t know what I did, but the camera is hung up. It is not showing any
progress and the Start/Expose button is gray and it has been several minutes.
What can I do?
A. If you cycle the camera driver disconnect then reconnect this often
will clear up any issues. If that does not work: disconnect and power cycle the
camera, then connect again. If that still does not work: reboot your computer
and power cycle your camera. If you can reproduce a hanging situation please
report it to support@bearcreekobservatory.com.
Q. My camera keeps disconnecting. I push a button and it goes back on. What is
up?
A. The camera has a sleep mode, if you don’t use it, it goes to sleep.
To keep it from doing that, use an AC adapter. You can also set the auto power
off delay setting to OFF.
Q. When I try to expose an image the camera clicks and no image downloads. Why?
A. If you have a camera with the Mirror lock functionality, turn it
off. This version of the driver is designed to work without the mirror lock for
long exposures. Mirror lock will be available in version 2.
Q. All my exposures seem to take the same amount of time. Why?
A. If you have a camera that has variable stops (ie ½ 1/3 ) you need to
set the stops to 1/3. This allows the camera to expose and a finer granularity.
If you have the camera set to ½ the camera will ignore the time delay settings
sent to it.
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