Autofocus

[AndyVanderheide]

Hi,

 

In one of your Youtube presentations you mentioned that you would consider developing autofocus for BYEOS.

Que: would this software "look" at the FWHM number or like other software at an owner calibrated temperature vs set focus curve.

I will buy an auto focus motor if your (future) software does a "real" auto focus.

 

Andy

[admin]

Autofocus is not a function of BYE currently.  This has been discussed in lenght in the past and there is also a feature request in the feature request forum.

Although the process is not automated, BYE can control your ASCOM compliant focuser.

Regards,

[yknott456]

I just want to chime it on this.  I'm another one who would really, really like to be able to use autofocus using my BYEOS.  I already use it to focus manually with Rigel motors and I have a copy (unused as yet) of FocusMax v3 if that were to be needed,

 

thanks,

Al

 

[astroman133]

Use of BYE by FocusMax is unlikely to ever happen. It has been discussed several times over the years. Even though BYE provides an external API the API does not provide the functionality that the author of FM insists that he needs.

[dkerber]

I know this is a fairly old thread, but add me as another vote for autofocus capability in BYE. Not many of the standalone autofocus routines (focusmax, etc) can work with a DSLR,

[GaryCook]

Likewise, I would like to add my vote for an autofocus capability to be added to BYEOS. To be honest, the reason I bought into BYEOS a couple of years ago was specifically because there was talk of developing this function in future releases. Part of the reason this is so important is because Canon lenses (and probably Nikon too) are very sensitive to focus shifts with temperature changes. So without the autofocus function, it makes it very difficult to run a series of lights without having to re check the focus every 30 minutes in my ambient environment. The ability to pre-program a long series of lights with varying exposures, f-numbers, ISO settings is GREAT but it’s practicality is effectively negated if I have to stop the sequence every 30 minutes to refocus (which I usually do). Could we have an exposure sequence option to minimize the FWHM every X number of shots, or perhaps a command to minimize the FWHM once it exceeds a user specified diameter or when an external thermometer records a temperature change of more than 1 C? 

[astroman133]

Please post your request in the Feature Suggestion Box forum. That said, Guylain has said that implementing autofocus functionality is not a high priority (I am paraphrasing him). 

Some time ago I had asked for the capability to pause an imaging plan to allow switching to Frame and Focus for manual focus adjustment and then returning to Imaging and resuming the imaging plan. To me this is a significant improvement that still supports frequent manual re-focusing. It s valuable for me because where I live we experience 40-50 degree temperature drops during the course of a night.

 

[gfunkernator]

What is the technical aspect for integrating autofocus into BYE?  I use an ASCOM focuser.  It looks like BYE has everything it needs to perform autofocusing, except for another module/algorithm that would replace the user, analyzing FWHM and sending commands to the ASCOM focuser accordingly.

[astroman133]

As a long time user of BYE and frequent contributor to this support site I remember when Guylain hinted that he was planning on providing automatic focusing to BYE. If I remember correctly this was even before the initial release of BYN. Eventually he notified the group that he had decided to no longer pursue adding auto focusing to BYE.

Imagine, for a second, adding the complexity of FocusMax into BYE. In addition to the time needed to add the capability and to do it correctly there is the issue of the user interface changes that would be necessary to implement it. And to do it without sacrificing the current design, which in my opinion is extremely elegant. That is not including the time to understand and come to grips with the technical issues related to autofocus. It is not as simple as it might seem.

[gfunkernator]

That and it would take more time away from a session than just focusing manually.  BYE isn't SGP.  Other than scripting how many images to take at certain exposure lengths and ISOs, it's a manual program.  I sometimes take snaps to analyze the stars after finding my minimum FWHM to make sure they're as small as I can get them.