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BackyardNIKON 2.0.11 RC1 is available.


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Question

 

I just uploaded BYN 2.0.11 RC1 in the pre-release download section.

There are few changes in the capture section itself... perhaps the most prominent and useful one is the ability to have a mixed of LIGHT/DARK/FLAT/BIAS image in the same image run.  You will be prompted to cover/uncover the scope as required.

https://www.otelescope.com/files/category/24-pre-releases/

Regards.

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1 hour ago, EmberSkyMedia said:

Does this pre-release support the Nikon Z6? I’m raring to try it out and get ready for the next new moon cycle before Starfest

I guess you didn't read the release notes :), it's the first item in the list.

 

 

Quote

 

What's New in Version RC1 @ 2019-07-01

Released 

NEW FEATURE: Z6 and Z7 support added.

 

 

 

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Super, giving it a try, few things I've noticed so far...
1. Restart Required after install
2. Z6 requires an XQD card in the camera or BackYardNikon gets stuck "downloading" and times out.
3. Bitdefender does require several "exceptions" to be main to allow BYN to save files
4. For under 1 second subs (as I'm imaging in the day my backyard) I requested 10 & 5 images and instead got 8 & 4 [with a few files not producing JPEG, but rather just RAW and TIFF] when I switch to BULB and exposures of 1 second or longer I get what I requested (images are of course over exposed).
5. None of the Images are saved to the XQD card [I'm assuming that is normal for PC controlled]

Images appear to be of the correct quality, next opportunity I'll run it during the night and report back any encountered issues.
logfile-[20190706-07h52m56s008]-backgroundworker-[11968]-2019-07-06.txt

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Restart should not be required after an install, I do nothing that would require a restart.  Not sure why you had to... but its never a bad thing do restart anyways.

Set save to PC only.  Does it still get stuck downloading?  I've always found that saving to both card and PC is a hit and miss with some camera models.  BYE/BYN is design to save to PC only; saving to card is for convenience only.

Anti-virus software are always a pain to deal with with new releases as they need some time to figure out that it is a safe app.

Forget TIFF for now, just use RAW and save to PC.  This is the optimum scenario.

Thanks for trying it out.

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I think the restart was required as I had some Nikon Firmware/software uploaded to the computer.

I'm also using “camera 2” to run my system as it allows me to select the Nikon Z6 each startup.

Seems its best to turn on the camera (USB connected to the PC) then boot the software, not sure why but it plays nicer that way...

Beyond that it seems to image fine and I encountered no imaging issues (one restart because I bumped the cable mid-Imaging - my bad)

framing and imaging sections though were painful compared to using the back of the Z6 screen or cycling “previews” in imaging (I don’t have goto) and I’m not familiar with all the various tools the software provides. Perhaps I wasn’t understanding the settings for this but I don’t think what I was seeing was the full sensor read-out and Galaxy/nebulous was not shown in framing, just stars.

another night I’ll look at dither and other integrated tools, tonight I ran PHD2 separately and polemaster with no issues.

stellarium and BackYardNikon did have some issues in terms of swapping screens and seeing the active window. Not sure why but I could be I was maxing out the ram having three cameras / software running at the same time along with stellarium which is a bit of a beast for the laptop .

 

ill check the resulting files in the morning but they look to be all there initially and I managed to do my 800 vs 8000 iso Test along with other imaging. It’s nice to produce darks at the end of the night for all the different settings.

 

Zzz

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It may not have been a good idea to update the camera firmware, especially if there were no problems with the camera. In the past Nikon firmware updates have broken remote tethering with 3rd party apps like BYN and it has taken Nikon a few months to recover.

If the camera 1 and camera 2 programs are behaving differently it is due to the fact that they have different settings. Both executable files are built from the exact same code base.

Not quite sure what you mean by "boot the software". Do you mean starting up the PC from a power down state the PC or just launching BYN? However, you should only need have the camera plugged in and powered on before attempting to connect BYN with the camera.

Depending on how you are operating BYN, LiveView may or may not be displaying the full sensor. If you are unzoomed you are seeing the full field of view of the sensor, but at reduced resolution. If you are zoomed to 5X, then you are seeing a selected portion of the field-of-view.

LiveView operation from the Frame & Focus and Planetary functionality cannot show dim features. I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand (lots of newbies make the same comment). Each LiveView frame has an exposure that is only a few milliseconds long. This is not a problem when shooting a bright daytime target, but LiveView is barely able to show any but the brightest stars at night. If you want to frame a nebula you will need to use the Frame and Focus capability of taking Snap images. With these you can select multi-second exposure times to allow you to see the dim content.

I'm glad that you had a successful and productive night.

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I meant the software on the laptop to support the Z6 RAW files etc - the camera firmware is still the same as I’m waiting for the RAW Video firmware update (and to wait a bit more for no one to report issues with the upgrade).

I just use camera 2, I may of messed up the settings on camera 2 when I was first using the software (?) and I don’t know how to reset to factory defaults.

okay, live view works different in BYN than the back of the camera (guess because it’s mirrorless) as I’ve had better success seeing faint objects with the camera screen as you roll up the exposure time / ISO then I did on BYN as the noise seems to overrun the software. I’ll use snap images feature in the future.

I’ll report back later today once I’ve recovered the files as I left it running into the early AM doing bias and darks (it’s in a water proof observatory).

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What BYN displays in Frame & Focus for LiveView is the same data that is displayed on the camera's LCD display. 

BYN uses the Nikon SDK and so is limited by the SDK's capabilities. One of those limitations seems to be that in order to cause the LiveView images to brighten you need to pause LiveView, before changing the exposure or ISO and then resume LiveView to see the effect. Also, when you are in LiveView, as you lengthen the exposure you are not really changing the readout speed which is always "as fast as possible" you are just brightening the data. This is the same as increasing the ISO...it makes the noise more visible and can overwhelm the stars.

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7 hours ago, astroman133 said:

One of those limitations seems to be that in order to cause the LiveView images to brighten you need to pause LiveView, before changing the exposure or ISO and then resume LiveView to see the effect. 

Thanks for that tidbit of info, that should help things tonight when I go with round 2. Images were all saved as expected so very happy.

I'm sure there is more to learn about the software as I continue but for now this means I'm really off to the races!

Andromeda-Web-Water-Marked.jpg

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I'm hoping to use BYN for planetary the next time there is a clear night, was doing some daylight testing and noticed a few things:
1. If the Camera is not Set on "M" Manual and you attempt to preview/image etc... it gets stuck trying to take the image and I needed to restart BYN and reconnect (Abort/Suspend did not kick out)
2. In planetary there is a 5x setting, however on the back of the camera I can push it one more zoom level and BYN actually zooms in as well, that is to my understanding the 1:1 maximum zoom capable of the camera.
3. The Z6 (and Z7) have a video mode and photo mode, the camera must be in Photo Mode or BYN loses control over the camera.
4. The Zoom in on Planetary does not follow the preview box, it's always zooms in center (but again once zoomed in you can change on the back of the camera manually).

I'll test BYN Planetary vs. In Camera method and see if they come out similar results, although using the Nikon for Planetary is not ideal, it is a neat option given I don't have a dedicated planetary camera.

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19 minutes ago, EmberSkyMedia said:

I'm hoping to use BYN for planetary the next time there is a clear night, was doing some daylight testing and noticed a few things:
1. If the Camera is not Set on "M" Manual and you attempt to preview/image etc... it gets stuck trying to take the image and I needed to restart BYN and reconnect (Abort/Suspend did not kick out)
2. In planetary there is a 5x setting, however on the back of the camera I can push it one more zoom level and BYN actually zooms in as well, that is to my understanding the 1:1 maximum zoom capable of the camera.
3. The Z6 (and Z7) have a video mode and photo mode, the camera must be in Photo Mode or BYN loses control over the camera.
4. The Zoom in on Planetary does not follow the preview box, it's always zooms in center (but again once zoomed in you can change on the back of the camera manually).

I'll test BYN Planetary vs. In Camera method and see if they come out similar results, although using the Nikon for Planetary is not ideal, it is a neat option given I don't have a dedicated planetary camera.

1. BYN should not freeze...but saying this I also need to say the BYN/BYE are meant for long exposure photography so you need to set the camera to M or B.
2. Don't confuse image resolution with zoom levels.  The 5x zoom in BYE/BYN is design to set the camera zoom to a 1:1 pixel resolution, meaning 1 pixel on the senor = 1 pixel on the image.  Any other zoom level and you are loosing resolution/quality.  Image quality is not a factor of zoom level, it's a factor of 1:1 pixel resolution.  Use what 5x zooms gives and never look back.  1:1 pixel resolution is the absolute best image quality your camera can provide.
3. Same as #2.  Video mode is not quality mode...it does not give a 1:1 pixel resolution.
4. That's a good observation, I don't think I make any attempt to re-position the in-camera zoom location.  I'll put that on the list to verify.

You should start a separate thread for your reports; this will make searching a lot easier in the future for other people with the Z camera... as it stands this will get buried in this pre-release thread.  Just an observation.

Regards,

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On 7/13/2019 at 9:18 PM, admin said:

1. BYN should not freeze...but saying this I also need to say the BYN/BYE are meant for long exposure photography so you need to set the camera to M or B.
2. Don't confuse image resolution with zoom levels.  The 5x zoom in BYE/BYN is design to set the camera zoom to a 1:1 pixel resolution, meaning 1 pixel on the senor = 1 pixel on the image.  Any other zoom level and you are loosing resolution/quality.  Image quality is not a factor of zoom level, it's a factor of 1:1 pixel resolution.  Use what 5x zooms gives and never look back.  1:1 pixel resolution is the absolute best image quality your camera can provide.
3. Same as #2.  Video mode is not quality mode...it does not give a 1:1 pixel resolution.
4. That's a good observation, I don't think I make any attempt to re-position the in-camera zoom location.  I'll put that on the list to verify.

You should start a separate thread for your reports; this will make searching a lot easier in the future for other people with the Z camera... as it stands this will get buried in this pre-release thread.  Just an observation.

Regards,

I have the Z7 ( and the D850 ) - and I downloaded the RC2....same as with the current version of BYN.... in the menu Z7 shows up but clicking on it - nothing happens. And yes, camera is at M and B and in photo mode... everything fine with the D850 but nothing with the Z7. However, if I click on Z6, it seems to work because BYN tells me that it is not a Z6.... any ideas, any solution?

Thanks and regards from Lower Austria

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Please don't post to multiple threads! The Z7 is not yet supported by BYN. Please be patient as it can take several months for a new camera to 1) be supported in Nikon's Software Development Kit and 2) the BYN authors to incorporate the new model into the software. The Z6 was only recently added as a supported camera in BYN.

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16 hours ago, gnnyman said:

I have the Z7 ( and the D850 ) - and I downloaded the RC2....same as with the current version of BYN.... in the menu Z7 shows up but clicking on it - nothing happens. And yes, camera is at M and B and in photo mode... everything fine with the D850 but nothing with the Z7. However, if I click on Z6, it seems to work because BYN tells me that it is not a Z6.... any ideas, any solution?

Thanks and regards from Lower Austria

 

This is confusing.  I have no clue what you mean. "However, if I click on Z6, it seems to work because BYN tells me that it is not a Z6.... any ideas, any solution?".  Does it work or does it not?

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6 hours ago, admin said:

 

This is confusing.  I have no clue what you mean. "However, if I click on Z6, it seems to work because BYN tells me that it is not a Z6.... any ideas, any solution?".  Does it work or does it not?

Very easy - if I click on the icon Z6...the systems tries to connect but fails, because it is not a Z6 which I connected. If I click on the icon Z7, nothing at all happens - not even a try to connect to my Z7...clear? Clicking on the Z7 icon, there is no reaction of the program at all..

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5 hours ago, gnnyman said:

Very easy - if I click on the icon Z6...the systems tries to connect but fails, because it is not a Z6 which I connected. If I click on the icon Z7, nothing at all happens - not even a try to connect to my Z7...clear? Clicking on the Z7 icon, there is no reaction of the program at all..

Okay, I get it now.

 

You have created a few threads and even went on the download page and reported the download for review by moderators and entered your support post there.  You are making it very hard to follow your comments when you post at 3 different places.

I will lock this thread.  Please use your other thread to continue this Z7 connection issue.

Thank you

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