Issues using Atik 460exc with Nebulosity

[Martyk22]

I originally tried using the 460 with Nebulosity on a Mac but the driver apparently is still in beta and has not been updated in a while and thus is basically unusable. I subsequently moved over to Windows and while it does work the TEC is showing very high % values i.e. over 200% while trying to maintain temperatures around 0 to -5 degrees. When using this camera with other software using Ascom these numbers are much lower, well under 100%. My concern is whether Nebulosity is just reporting the % in error or is it driving the TEC at exceptionally high values and thus potentially causing damage. I don't even know if it's possible for the TEC to run above 100%. I've tried contacting Stark Labs about this but am getting no response and would appreciate some feedback from Atik even if it's a driver issue with Nebulosity.

Thanks,

Marty

[NickK]

Hi Marty,
The mac drivers are my work (although I don't work for ATIK) - I know Craig has a non-public version of Neb3 that use a larger version of the drivers on the mac.

The later drivers are also being used in TheSkyX on the mac.

Nick

[Martyk22]

Hi Nick,

Yeah I'm eagerly awaiting an update to Nebulosity Mac. In the mean time doyou, or anybody, have any idea what's going on with the TEC in windows? Do you know who wrote the driver for Nebulosity Windows? I'm having a great deal of difficulty getting any info on this issue.

Thanks,


Marty

[NickK]

I don't think you can control the power being used with the camera - the mac driver simply sets a target set point temperature. The windows driver is ATIK's own driver.

[Martyk22]

Nick,

First thing, I just tried using the ATik 460exc with SkyX Mac latest Daily build. The Atik driver says beta and while I can successfully connect to the camera, if I try to take an exposure the computer locks up and I get the spinning beach ball. Have tried a half a dozens times with the same result.

As far as the power goes with Windows, I know I can't control the power used I'm just saying when I use a program that uses the Ascom Atik driver it shows that the power used to get to a certain temp i.e. 0 degree, is much lower than when I use the camera with Nebulosity. Nebulosity is showing values way over 200% and I'm not sure if that means it's actually driving the cooler that much harder or it's just using a different scale to report the power used.

[NickK]

Hi Marty - which version of OS X are you running?

The drivers work with 10.8 and 10.9 however I have noted an issue with 10.10 (Yosemite) after upgrading late this week. It seems Yosemite has some unstated changes in USB behaviour which as cause a few issues for USB device makers.

Nick

[Martyk22]

Nick,

I'm using 10.9.5

[NickK]

Interesting - I'll have a look.

[Martyk22]

Hi Nick,

I just downloaded Nebulosity 3.2.2 which I think has an updated version of your Mac driver. When I went to choose the Atik driver, the program immediately crashed. I tried numerous times with the same result.

Marty

[NickK]

Hi Marty,
I found a minor bug however I'd expect only ExampleApp to attempt to use an unsupported precharge configuration.. that's been purring away with the 383L on OS X 10.10.

I've now got my hands on the TheSkyX X2 source, so I'll have a look at the X2 ATIK driver. I know of a possible issue that they fixed but they may not have released that yet.

I'll ping Craig, Nebulosity 3.2.2 uses R131 and the current one is R135. Although the R135 has a few minor updates it does contain a change to not send logs of debug logging to the console (the user will not see this but it's slows things from a fast FPS camera point of view).
If you can send me the exception report to me via email (just cut'n'paste) to: atikosxdrivers@adrenalin-junkie.net and I can have a look and advise Craig too if there's a problem.

Kind regards,
Nick

[NickK]

Hi Marty.. I've managed to replicate your crash with Nebulosity 3.2.2.

Looking at the exception report.. there's a segment violation within Nebulosity and the Objective-C runtime library. Thankfully not my drivers   (unless it's a call in that's not supported) I've passed this on to Craig.

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libobjc.A.dylib                  0x93b020a7 objc_msgSend + 23
1   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x0063c4ba 0x1000 + 6534330
2   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x0063c838 0x1000 + 6535224
3   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x0014a81f 0x1000 + 1349663
4   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00028b27 0x1000 + 162599
5   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00556dc7 0x1000 + 5594567
6   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00556e17 0x1000 + 5594647
7   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00663ea6 0x1000 + 6696614
8   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x0066528f 0x1000 + 6701711
9   com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00665381 0x1000 + 6701953
10  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00665239 0x1000 + 6701625
11  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x008a6f58 0x1000 + 9068376
12  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x006652b6 0x1000 + 6701750
13  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x008a6f58 0x1000 + 9068376
14  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x006652b6 0x1000 + 6701750
15  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x008a6f58 0x1000 + 9068376
16  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x006652b6 0x1000 + 6701750
17  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00665652 0x1000 + 6702674
18  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x0089fc5b 0x1000 + 9038939
19  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x007d71e3 0x1000 + 8217059
20  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x00724ef3 0x1000 + 7487219
21  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x007aa4f7 0x1000 + 8033527
22  com.StarkLabs.nebulosity         0x007a8a04 0x1000 + 8026628
23  libobjc.A.dylib                  0x93b09853 -[NSObject performSelector:withObject:] + 70

I may suggest a check for the selector presence before attempting to call - just in case..