5 replies to this topic

[oldguy47]

I have a ZWO ASI 183MC camera that I am trying to learn how to use.  Today, I connected the camera to one of my small newtonians during daylight just to make sure everything worked .  I am using Sharpcap Pro 4.0.  Connected the camera to my laptop and it was recognized and a nice picture of trees and housetops came up.  Played around with some of the settings such as exposure and gain, etc.  Had to leave the camera on for a few minutes to take care of a household problem.  When I came back, the capture area was dark.  No more picture.  When I pushed the "Live View" button, a message came up saying my camera was in "Still Mode".  I have no idea what that means or how to get out of it.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Sharpcap has a pretty steep learning curve I'm finding out.   Pat

[cjarvis64]

I am not a sharpcap user, nor a ZWO user, however if I were in your shoes I would try disconnecting your equipment in sharpcap (if you can do that), close down sharpcap, unplug the camera from your computer, plug it back in and restart sharpcap. It may have gone into some kind of "idle" mode if you were away from it for a while. Sometimes you just have to restart everything to refreshing things. If I ever have issues using N.I.N.A, a total restart (including rebooting the PC) solves it.

 

Best of luck

Edited by cjarvis64, 28 March 2023 - 11:31 PM.

[EGregerson]

my best answer: i don't know.  but when i have my computer on for awhile unattended, it shuts down (sleeps); when i wake it, PHD is bonked, capture software stalled  i have to re boot. It'll go to sleep while it's imaging & phd is guiding; amazing.  I set the windows control settings to stretch out the period til 'nap time'.     

[cjarvis64]

my best answer: i don't know.  but when i have my computer on for awhile unattended, it shuts down (sleeps); when i wake it, PHD is bonked, capture software stalled  i have to re boot. It'll go to sleep while it's imaging & phd is guiding; amazing.  I set the windows control settings to stretch out the period til 'nap time'.     

Oldguy47, I would also check your battery and power settings in windows, and set your PC to never go to sleep while it's plugged in, so you can be sure it won't do that while you're imaging. 

[Noah4x4]

Laptops and especially tablet manufacturers are obsessed with battery life. Software with 'battery savers' that put equipment into hibernation after a few minutes of no keyboard activity have blighted us for years. A reboot of all equipment (including laptop) will probably fix this. Microsoft Windows isn't the sole culprit. 

[oldguy47]

Thank you for the replies.  I finally found out what "Still Mode" means in SharpCap.  I googled the term and finally came up with what it is and does on the SharpCap Forums site.  There is a fairly long explanation of what and why this feature is now a part of SharpCap.  Basically, you can switch between video mode and still mode by toggling the "Live View" button at the left-hand end of the toolbar.  "Note that if you wish to start a camera specifially in live mode or specifically in still mode, you should select the correct state of the Live View button before opening the camera."  The basic explanation and main difference that in "Still Mode", "No images will be captured from the camera unless you press one of the capturing buttons."  Still learning how this software works but I'm finding out it is pretty darn powerful.