How do get rid of automatic delay between exposures?

[bluespeck@icloud.com]

Hi. I am new to Backyard Nikon and can't seem to figure out how to change the delay between exposures.  The application seems to be automatically adding a delay between exposures that is equal to the exposure time.  In other words if I try to shoot "X" number of 30 second exposures, it will insert a 30 second delay between each exposure... in effect doubling the elapsed time of the shoot.  

I do not have my camera set to "long exposure NR" and am not capturing additional dark frames.  

I have testing my new Backyard Nikon download using both a Nikon D750 and D7100 and get the same results.

Ideally I would just like to have a delay a second or two (to dampen any vibration) and do not want double the amount of time it takes to complete a session.  Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.   

[astroman133]

BYN does not add any "delay" as you suggest. That said, you have not told us which version number of BYN you are using or which model of camera you have.

A few weeks ago there was a similar question on the BackyardEOS Forum. The cause of the delay was never solved, but the original poster was able to work around it by saving his images to the camera's memory card rather than downloading them to the PC.  To my way of thinking that is not an acceptable solution. It doesn't give you the opportunity to see the images while you are shooting them. However, you do avoid the time to download the image to the PC and the time it takes BYN to "process" and display the image.

BYN does not edit the pixel data, but depending on the options that you have selected the steps are as follows:

1. BYN waits until the Nikon SDK says that the image is ready for download
2. Download the image. There could actually be 2 image downloads if you have told BYN to save RAW and JPG files.
3. Your anti-virus software may step in and check the image(s) for viruses. (you may be able to avoid this by whitelisting BYN with your A/V software)
4. Save the file to BackyardTEMP/Downloads.
5. Read the image metadata (EXIF data). (Optional)
6. Update the EXIF data in the image to add BYN capture parameters (Optional)
7. Move and rename the image from the temporary directory to the Download directory.
8. Update the user interface to display the new image, the thumbnail, and histogram of the new image.

Also if you have told BYN to save the image to the Camera and to the PC, it may wait to download the image to the PC until after it has been saved to the camera's SD card.

You can shorten the processing time somewhat by

1. Save only RAW (NEF) images to the PC only
2. Connect your camera to a USB port on the opposite side of the computer from other USB connections
3. Whitelist BYN with your anti-virus software
4. Make sure that the BackyardTEMP folder and the Download folder are on the same local hard drive.
5. Select Skip EXIF Read and Skip EXIF Write on the Advanced Settings dialog.

This does not even go into the possibility that there is some hardware issue like a flaky cable or hub that is slowing the download rate. If the camera supports USB3.0 and you are using a USB3.0 hub to concentrate your USB connections from other devices at the mount like the mount, focuser, and guide camera you may not be getting the USB 3.0 speed. If any of the devices are USB 2.0 devices then the entire hub may be slowed down to the speed of USB 2.0. If your imaging camera is the only USB 3.0 device, try connecting it to a USB 3.0 port on the opposite side of the computer.

Also keep in mind that newer cameras with larger number of pixels create larger images that just take longer to download.

I would also say that there is no need to "delay a second or two (to dampen any vibration)" if you have not touched the camera or scope. In fact, BYN does not support Mirror Lock delay because Nikon does not support it.

BackyardEOS is built on the same code base as BackyardNikon and for me with BYE 3.2.0 and 18 megapixel T5i, the time gap between images is about 6 seconds, regardless of the exposure duration. If you have a 35MP D800, it will take longer to download the image to the PC and your gap will be longer. There is no way around that if you have ruled out the above causes and taken steps to minimize them.

 

[admin]

THERE IS NO AUTOMATIC DELAY between exposures.  Sorry for the caps, I just want this to be clear right from the get go.

BYN will take pictures back to back, the only time in between is the actual download process and this depends one your physical connection.

If the delay is of equal time then you have LENR enabled despite claiming you have it turned off.

[s3igell]

As an additional item to check:

Make sure that Mirror Lock Up (MLU) is set to OFF in the Camera.

That "BYN does not support Mirror Lock delay because Nikon does not support it" should actually state "...because the Nikon SDK does not support it".  Because of this, if you still have MLU enabled on your D750, the 1st Bulb Shutter Trigger signal sent by BYN through the SDK would trigger the Camera's MLU Function (and nothing else - MLU requires a 2nd Bulb Shutter Trigger to actuate the Start of Exposure).  Then, when BYN was ready to End the Exposure, after the Time was counted via the PC Timer, BYN would send a 2nd Bulb Trigger signal.  This one would cause the MLU-enabled D750 to actually start the Exposure...

This might be the Long Delay that you are interpreting as the "AUTOMATIC DELAY".  And also explain why you see the same thing on your D7100...

[lwbehney]

Hello Bluespeck,

I had the exact same problem with my D7000. I was able to cure this problem today, when I down-loaded the new August update, and as I was performing this download, my computer got upset and told me this download wasn't trusted and might harm my machine. Somewhere among the actions that were options for me included one where I could tell microsoft that this was a trusted site. Now, I don't have to wait for BYN to finish its "busy" notification each time I capture an image using this new update. The administrator put virus security as a possible explanation for the symmetric time delay and perhaps noise reduction is a red herring, although that is also what I thought was happening. 

 

Larry

[bluespeck@icloud.com]

1 minute ago, lwbehney said:

Hello Bluespeck,

I had the exact same problem with my D7000. I was able to cure this problem today, when I down-loaded the new August update, and as I was performing this download, my computer got upset and told me this download wasn't trusted and might harm my machine. Somewhere among the actions that were options for me included one where I could tell microsoft that this was a trusted site. Now, I don't have to wait for BYN to finish its "busy" notification each time I capture an image using this new update. The administrator put virus security as a possible explanation for the symmetric time delay and perhaps noise reduction is a red herring, although that is also what I thought was happening. 

 

Larry

Thanks