Eclipse 2017 Special Features Request Thread

[s3igell]

OK, Aug 21, 2017 seems a long way off...  But another Forum Member has gotten me thinking...

It's a Good Bet that almost EVERY single BYE/BYN User in North America will be pointing a Scope at the Sun for the "USA Total Eclipse".

There are probably a short number of Eclipse-specific Feature Requests that could be made to augment BYE/BYN.

And Guylain will need a good bit of Lead Time to address any of them that are "worthy"...

Hence this Thread.

[s3igell]

First Eclipse-related Feature Request:  Exposure Metering

Please search the SDK, and advise if ANY control over Exposure Metering is exposed (oops - pun unintended).

Given the fast nature of Events nearing and after Totality (if the shooter is lucky with Location), it will be rather difficult to properly coordinate a Capture Plan based on Fixed Exposures.

Hence, it seems that Av mode and Spot Metering (it's hard to predict how Evaluative Metering would perform, given the rarity of Eclipses and the rapid succession of DSLR Models) might be necessary.

[s3igell]

Second Eclipse-related Feature Request:  "Pause" / "Trigger" entry for Capture Plans

If users decide to pursue Capture Plans with some pattern of Increasing / Decreasing Fixed Exposures, they would benefit from the ability to manually Trigger the next Sequence in the Capture Plan once some Operator-determined condition had been met.

When BYE/BYN encountered a "Pause/Trigger" entry, it would "Pause" the Capture Plan until the Operator performed a "Press [space Bar] to Continue".  At which time the next Capture Plan entry would be executed.

This "Paused" condition should also be "Abort"-able using the standard Abort sequence.

As a suggestion, this could be the form and usage of this feature from the context of a Capture Plan Text File:

Seq=1|Exposures=2|Tv=1/4000|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=2|Pause/Trigger

Seq=3|Exposures=2|Tv=1/1000|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=4|Pause/Trigger

Seq=5|Exposures=2|Tv=1/500|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=6|Pause/Trigger

Seq=7|Exposures=2|Tv=1/100|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=8|Pause/Trigger

Seq=9|Exposures=2|Tv=0.5|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

 

It seems this feature might also be useful for those imaging Occultations or Satellite Passes.

[astroman133]

This "manual pause/resume" function would also have a use to for example allow the user to install a light box before shooting flat frames and remove it afterwards.

[s3igell]

On 3/22/2017 at 7:11 PM, admin said:

I made it a system setting to force (or not) a suspend between sequence.   Send me an email and I can send your download link to test.

I did receive a Test Copy with this new feature, but unfortunately my DSLR developed an Issue that required a Repair Center Visit - all before I could test the Feature.

Could you perhaps provide a quick Description of what "a system setting to force (or not) a suspend between sequence" means??

[admin]

It's just a check box in the Setting dialog.  To be honest I don't like this implementation, I may try to find some better place for it somewhere in the capture plan area.  It belongs there anyway.

[s3igell]

Hello Guylain,

As we are now at 150 Days from the Eclipse, can you comment on whether any of these or other Features which would Improve the Use of BYE/BYN for Eclipse Imaging are Planned ??  Forthcoming in time for the Eclipse??

I really like the idea of keeping BYE/BYN as my primary Imaging App for the Eclipse, but it would be valuable to know Soon whether I need to pursue other Software for this particular Event.

[admin]

No, not yet.  

I have serious issues with the website since about 4 months.  I can no longer add new products in the store, I can no longer add new files for download (latest releases are hosted on dropbox), I can only accept PayPal in USD, etc....

These issues are due to end-of-life of the current platform I'm using for the site.... I've been working almost exclusively on this for the past 4 months before something else fails.  I should be able to go live with the new site sometime in April.  I will look at a few features after this... hopefully before the eclipse.

Regards,

[s3igell]

Yes, overall Website and Transactional Functionality are higher priority.

 

Here's hoping that your Efforts come to Early Fruition - for all of us anticipating the Future of BYE/BYN.

[admin]

On 4/27/2017 at 6:03 PM, admin said:

It's just a check box in the Setting dialog.  To be honest I don't like this implementation, I may try to find some better place for it somewhere in the capture plan area.  It belongs there anyway.

Forget what I said about the setting dialog, I made it a lot more simpler and more coherent with the load/save capture plans.

 

... and note the Suspend=True on seq #3

Type=LIGHT
SaveTo=PC
Mirror=0
Target=Q1
Filter=
Delay=0
TvValues=BULB
AvValues= 
IsoValues=100|400|800|1600
Seq=1|Exposures=1|Tv=BULB|Duration=1|Iso=1600
Seq=2|Exposures=1|Tv=BULB|Duration=1|Iso=1600
Seq=3|Exposures=1|Tv=BULB|Duration=1|Iso=1600|Suspend=True
Seq=4|Exposures=1|Tv=BULB|Duration=1|Iso=1600

 

This should do the trick

And the next logical enhancement for this feature (not now but in the future) would be to move the Image type down into the sequencer and allow a mix of LIGHTS/DARKS/FLATS and force a suspend in between those items to allow the user to put the cap on for DARKS of the light source for FLATS.

Regards,

 

 

[admin]

On 12/17/2015 at 0:55 AM, s3igell said:

Second Eclipse-related Feature Request:  "Pause" / "Trigger" entry for Capture Plans

If users decide to pursue Capture Plans with some pattern of Increasing / Decreasing Fixed Exposures, they would benefit from the ability to manually Trigger the next Sequence in the Capture Plan once some Operator-determined condition had been met.

When BYE/BYN encountered a "Pause/Trigger" entry, it would "Pause" the Capture Plan until the Operator performed a "Press [space Bar] to Continue".  At which time the next Capture Plan entry would be executed.

This "Paused" condition should also be "Abort"-able using the standard Abort sequence.

As a suggestion, this could be the form and usage of this feature from the context of a Capture Plan Text File:

Seq=1|Exposures=2|Tv=1/4000|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=2|Pause/Trigger

Seq=3|Exposures=2|Tv=1/1000|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=4|Pause/Trigger

Seq=5|Exposures=2|Tv=1/500|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=6|Pause/Trigger

Seq=7|Exposures=2|Tv=1/100|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

Seq=8|Pause/Trigger

Seq=9|Exposures=2|Tv=0.5|Av=f/3.5|Iso=400

 

It seems this feature might also be useful for those imaging Occultations or Satellite Passes.

 

 

This is now implemented, it will be in the next release sometime in April.

Regards,

[s3igell]

Hot Damn!!

[admin]

Hot Damn!!

 

I made it a system setting to force (or not) a suspend between sequence.   Send me an email and I can send your download link to test.

[admin]

On 12/17/2015 at 0:41 AM, s3igell said:

First Eclipse-related Feature Request:  Exposure Metering

Please search the SDK, and advise if ANY control over Exposure Metering is exposed (oops - pun unintended).

Given the fast nature of Events nearing and after Totality (if the shooter is lucky with Location), it will be rather difficult to properly coordinate a Capture Plan based on Fixed Exposures.

Hence, it seems that Av mode and Spot Metering (it's hard to predict how Evaluative Metering would perform, given the rarity of Eclipses and the rapid succession of DSLR Models) might be necessary.

 

[jimwc6491]

Quote

 

 

[jimwc6491]

Guylain

what upgrade will this be in. 3.1.9 or 3.1.10 ?

thanks

[admin]

In 3.1.10 which has yet to be released.  I still have one bug to address before release.

[jimwc6491]

Thanks

Ill be looking for it.

[Gregorio]

Here's a thought - for eclipses and a few other phenomena, as long as we know the coordinates of where we are, we can easily find out the exact time of events.  For this total eclipse, we know the time of First Contact, Second Contact, Midpoint of totality, etc. 

It would be great to be able to put in the actual local time to trigger the sequences based on your computer time!  Something like "@9:45:04 start this sequence", then "@10:04:02 start this sequence", etc.  Being able to say, "@10 seconds later do this" and "@5 seconds before Second Contact do this" would be icing on the cake!  Even better would be to have the logic to know that if one sequence went over, stop that sequence when the next fixed time comes up.

Just a thought,

Gregorio

[Daniel_Marcus]

For the eclipse Is there any way to increase the number of exposures you can take in a minute?? My Canon T3i can take about 1 frame every 3 sec or so with the shutter button shutter speeds above 1/30sec, but even when saving to camera using raw BYEOS takes about 7 sec per frame.  at 150seconds of totality that is around 21 frames compared to 50 taken with the shutter button. any suggestions on how to improving the frame rate?

Daniel Marcus

[admin]

I have also increased the number of lines from 25 to 100.  It could be limitless.  Should I add a setting in advance config so users can increase it beyond 100?

[admin]

Sadly this is at the core of BYE's design.  It would require a complete rewrite of the capture plan engine to fix

[admin]

Oh, I also made the sequence plan to FILL the area so if you have larger screens you should see more than the usual 5 lines now.