Canon 20D, Windows 8.1 32Bit

[kd4pbs]

I know... I know... Supposedly there are no windows 8x drivers for the Canon 20d, but I did manage to seemingly get the vista drivers to install correctly on my Windows 8.1 tablet.  What I get with BYE 3.1.2 is a functioning "pseudo live view" from the camera in frame and focus mode (snapping a frame and seeing it on the display "rapid fire" style... well, if rapid fire means once every couple of seconds).  So, I had high expectations of this actually working and I rolled a serial cable shutter release for doing >30 second exposures.  It doesn't seem to want to work though.  I go to imaging mode, set the camera to M, and get two "chords of failure" with just an error stating that it aborted.  Pressing the check cable button, indeed the shutter release cable is functioning properly.

Am I just out of luck with getting things to work with 8.1?  Sure would be nice to be able to dither on the modified 20d!

[s3igell]

In Image Capture mode, does BYE complete an Exposure if the Duration is less than 30 sec (so it doesn't need to use Bulb mode) ??

 

Have you tried running BYE in Vista Emulation Mode ??

 

Just thoughts...

[admin]

Yes, the 20D with serial cable will work on W8 32 bits.

 

Send me the log file and I should be able to tell you more.  If the TEST cable does fire the shutter then it should work.

[kd4pbs]

I'll check and see if it works in vista emulation mode this evening.  In the meantime, I will try it out with 3.1.2 on the XP 32 bit machine here at work today and see what I see.
As a side note, one workaround I thought of last night after posting the trouble report was to use my 7D as I normally have been via USB, and simply use the shutter release cable to control the 20d.  That way I'd have the best of both worlds; shooting two focal lengths at the same time, and dithering with the 20d, limited only to having to shoot the same duration exposures on both at the same time.  It didn't work.  Evidently the serial port shutter release is disabled if connected to a camera that is known to do shutter release over USB?  Maybe I didn't hold my mouth right?

In image capture mode, BYE doesn't do anything.  Just the two chords of failure with no explanation other than it failed.  It seems that the only way I can get the shutter to release is either shoot in Tv mode via USB port shutter doing the pseudo-live-view or pressing the "test cable" button in imaging mode.  I've tried fractions of a second times all the way up past 30 seconds, and nothing would work in imaging mode.  I haven't looked at log files yet though.
Guylan, I'll send the logs later tonight, or if I can't get it to work on my XP32 machine, I'll send those too this afternoon.  I'll also report back either way on the XP32 tests.

 

Thanks guys!  It's finally clear here this evening too... I might be limited to shooting on the unmodded 7d tonight.  Better than nothing though!

-Matt

[kd4pbs]

Works like a charm on XP 32 bit.  FYI, here are the log files from it working fine doing a 60 second exposure using USB and serial shutter release...

logfile-20150116-12h08m04s031-backgroundworker-2552-2015-01-16.txt-2015-01-16.txt]

logfile-20150116-12h07m54s390-3548-2015-01-16.txt-2015-01-16.txt]

 

I'll post the logs from windows 8.1 32 bit tonight.

[admin]

ummm... it should have worked.  Let me dig up my 20D over the weekend and I'll try it on Windows 8.1 too.

 

Regards,

[kd4pbs]

More data:
Friday night was clear for a change.  I dragged it all out to the driveway and had a heck of a time getting things to work right.  Crazy things were happening like when I'd open up the frame & focus, suddenly PHD would die.  I actually had the sound up this time and heard the telltale windows "something that was connected is now disconnected" sound and noticed my video capture dongle for the guide camera stopped.  When I'd plug in the 20d the shutter would click 3-4 times in a few seconds even when nothing was commanded to click.  It was all nonsensical and random.  First I was thinking that it was a ground loop issue with the shutter release since I run the 20d on an AC adaptor, but then I remembered that this shouldn't be an issue since the shutter release cable I built is optoisolated with a 4N26.  I gave up with the 20d and BYE for the night and decided to just take some intervalometer shots old-school style without the benefits of BYE and dithering.  Got a good 1.5 hours or so of the horsehead, and decided to take some shots of the Whirlpool galaxy with the 7D since it was just rising.  Fired up BYE, plugged in the 7D, and went to start my routine.  I immediately got the double-chord and just a "failed" message in BYE.  It made no sense to me.  BYE just refused to do anything but connect to the 7D.  Then it dawned on me; I was using an ancient USB 1.1 dual serial port cable - one port for the mount, one port for the shutter release.  This is hooked up to a 4-port USB hub, and the 7D was hooked up to one of the ports as well.  I think the issue was simply that the USB is being throttled down to 1.1 speeds since the serial cable is 1.1 only.  The tablet I have does have two USB ports and are actually two separate devices (a USB2 and a USB3) but the USB2 port is also the charging port which limits my use of that as a USB port on the tablet, otherwise I'd just run the dual serial cable from that port and the camera control from the other.
Today I will purchase another USB2 to serial adaptor that is identical to the one I already have that is compatible with Windows 8, then I can ditch the dual serial 1.1 cable and go from there.

If you want to see the logs from it erroring on Friday night, let me know.  I'm pretty sure it will point to wacky things due to lack of bandwidth though.
remember: those logs in the prior post was just an FYI baseline for it working properly on my XP machine at work.

[admin]

If this were me I would buy the DSUSB cable from Shoestring Astronomy instead.  It is one of the most reliable cable I have ever came across.

 

Regards,

[kd4pbs]

Interesting... what makes it superior?  Is it something in the serial port protocol that makes the serial cable route less reliable?  My biggest problem that caused me to go the route of using my old dual serial-USB adaptor is that it seems the market has been flooded with cheap knock-off prolific USB to serial adaptors, which I evidently had two of when I used my windows 7 laptop.  They function fine on Windows 7, but the latest prolific drivers for Windows 8 detect the counterfeit chip and won't work.  So I found a local supplier that I could get the genuine windows 8 compatible adaptor from, and it works like a charm.  Problem is, this was before trying to use BYE and the 20d, so I only have one right now that I use for the mount control.

[admin]

Interesting... what makes it superior?  Is it something in the serial port protocol that makes the serial cable route less reliable?  My biggest problem that caused me to go the route of using my old dual serial-USB adaptor is that it seems the market has been flooded with cheap knock-off prolific USB to serial adaptors, which I evidently had two of when I used my windows 7 laptop.  They function fine on Windows 7, but the latest prolific drivers for Windows 8 detect the counterfeit chip and won't work.  So I found a local supplier that I could get the genuine windows 8 compatible adaptor from, and it works like a charm.  Problem is, this was before trying to use BYE and the 20d, so I only have one right now that I use for the mount control.

 

It is a truly plug&play cable.  I have never had any issue in abusing a DSUSB cable for the past 7 years.

 

No fussing around with COM ports or RS232 adapters and/or drivers simply plug the DSUSB, select DSUSB in BYE and never look back.

 

Regards,

[kd4pbs]

Gotcha. 
I can get the "right" adaptor locally, and it's not a limited use type of thing; I can use it for anything that needs RS232 as well, so I'll likely stick with that route.  Seems to work perfectly when the right one is used, since I had 100% success on the XP32 machine with my home brew shutter release.
Still haven't got to the local vendor yet though... I'll let you know when I can test with the USB2 RS232 cable.

[kd4pbs]

]Okay.  So, I've got the chance to experiment more with this, and here's what I've found.

First, I tried doing a 45 second capture with the 20D in bulb mode.  The camera was connected, and again once I pressed the Start Capture button, it gave me the fail chime with no indication as to why.

I then quit BYE and copied the logs that were generated.

Here's the log files from that...

 

logfile-20150131-16h21m54s619-3624-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-16h22m10s744-backgroundworker-3728-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

 

Next I started BYE back up, connected to the camera, and did just a "cable check".  It successfully released the shutter.

I then quit BYE and copied the logs that had appeared since the first test.

Here's those logs...

 

logfile-20150131-16h26m23s400-1020-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-16h26m38s462-backgroundworker-2444-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-16h26m41s437-backgroundworker-708-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

 

I don't know why there were two backgroundworker logs, but that's what was there.  I also couldn't delete the old logs, even though BYE wasn't running.

 

Then I started BYE back up, connected to the camera, and went to frame & focus.  I successfully ran two one second F&F frames from the camera, and they indeed showed up on the screen... all worked as expected.

I then quit BYE and grabbed these new logs...

 

logfile-20150131-16h30m55s867-3732-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-16h31m10s713-backgroundworker-1036-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-16h31m14s664-backgroundworker-2708-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

 

Again, I couldn't delete all of the older logs or these, even though BYE was not running.  It seems the backgroundworker logs are the only ones that won't let me delete.

 

I hope this helps.  Let me know if I need to supply or try anything else.  I think my next move in the meantime is to totally remove and reinstall BYE.

Thanks!

-Matt

[kd4pbs]

I remembered one other thing... that I had issues with it controlling my 7D as well.  I just tried the 7D again, and indeed it is still not working; just the chord of failure with no explanation.

 

Here's the log files that came from that...

 

logfile-20150131-17h23m39s511-4056-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-17h23m54s363-backgroundworker-4040-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

[kd4pbs]

Perhaps the USB cable has issues?  This would be odd, since I use the exact same cable with the 7D on my laptop (Win7 64) with no problems.

[kd4pbs]

Nope; just tried a different USB cable and have the same problem.  Sigh.

[admin]

Your hard disk is almost full.

 

2015-01-31 16:24:54,247 [Main] DEBUG - ButtonPlus_MouseClick(btnImagingCapture = 'Start Capture')
2015-01-31 16:24:54,401 [Main] ERROR - LOW DISK SPACE at C:\Users\Dad\Pictures\BackyardEOS
2015-01-31 16:24:54,401 [Main] ERROR -    at BinaryRivers.Common.Helpers.DiskIOHelper.CheckDiskSpace(Int64 minimumrequired)
   at BinaryRivers.BackyardEOS.Modes.CaptureMode.StartCapture(Boolean preview)
 

 

Go to Settings -> Advance Settings and check "Skip disk space check" and try again.

 

EDIT: You should make space however, disabling this check is just a temporary solution.

 

Regards,

[kd4pbs]

Still no-go after a re-installation.

[kd4pbs]

I'll try that... this is a small netbook and I don't save to HD.  Let's see here...

 

Nope.  With the 7D it did do some more gyrations, and I almost thought it would work, but it failed again.  Haven't tried with the 20d yet since changing that setting.

 

Here's the log files since re-installing.  First attempt was before I saw your suggestion.  Then I changed and still... no-go.

 

logfile-20150131-17h38m32s734-4088-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-17h38m48s420-backgroundworker-1384-2015-01-31.txt-2015-01-31.txt]

 

[kd4pbs]

Let me delete some stuff and see if that helps...

[kd4pbs]

Wow... one has to just love windows... Uninstall some windows updates and end up with less disk space that before, even after a "Disk Cleanup"  Grr.... this might take a while.

[admin]

I'll try that... this is a small netbook and I don't save to HD.  Let's see here...

 

Nope.  With the 7D it did do some more gyrations, and I almost thought it would work, but it failed again.  Haven't tried with the 20d yet since changing that setting.

 

Here's the log files since re-installing.  First attempt was before I saw your suggestion.  Then I changed and still... no-go.

 

logfile-20150131-17h38m32s734-[4088-2015-01-31.txt]

logfile-20150131-17h38m48s420-backgroundworker-[1384-2015-01-31.txt]

 

2 things wrong here...

 

you are still low is diskspace...

2015-01-31 17:40:15,643 [Main] ERROR - LOW DISK SPACE at C:\Users\Dad\Pictures\BackyardEOS

2015-01-31 17:40:15,643 [Main] ERROR -    at BinaryRivers.Common.Helpers.DiskIOHelper.CheckDiskSpace(Int64 minimumrequired)

   at BinaryRivers.BackyardEOS.Modes.CaptureMode.StartCapture(Boolean preview)

 

and your 7D... turn the dial to B for bulb images.

2015-01-31 17:41:47,253 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] ERROR - Make sure camera is set to BULB, turn dial to 'B'

2015-01-31 17:41:47,253 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] ERROR -    at BinaryRivers.Common.Model.CameraModelBase.SetDialBulb()

   at BinaryRivers.Common.Model.CameraModelBase.<>c__DisplayClass1.<CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved>b__0()

2015-01-31 17:41:47,284 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] INFO  - Imaging session cancelled

 

Regards,

[kd4pbs]

Ha!  I figured out the 7D problem - that was just a "dumb" one, and I did notice that error in the program and rectified that.
I freed up enough space, and it all works A-OK.  Thanks a bunch, Guylain!  Maybe in a future release, add the "Your disk doesn't have enough space left" error to the scrolling status window?

[admin]

Ha!  I figured out the 7D problem - that was just a "dumb" one, and I did notice that error in the program and rectified that.

I freed up enough space, and it all works A-OK.  Thanks a bunch, Guylain!  Maybe in a future release, add the "Your disk doesn't have enough space left" error to the scrolling status window?

 

I thought it already was, I'll double check

[kd4pbs]

I can duplicate too if you need me to... I am pretty sure I never saw anything like that, and that's why I couldn't easily figure out what was going on there.  No worries; you figured it out for me!  Thanks so much!

Can I request a feature addition here or would you prefer a new thread?

[admin]

I can duplicate too if you need me to... I am pretty sure I never saw anything like that, and that's why I couldn't easily figure out what was going on there.  No worries; you figured it out for me!  Thanks so much!

 

Can I request a feature addition here or would you prefer a new thread?

 

Use the Feature Suggestion Box forum for suggesting new features