Waiting to Start Download

STXL-11002M. Maxim DL v.6.21.
When running continuous exposures, the subject message stalls the exposures. Is there any info on this?

Alan

 

Colin,

Thank you for your reply. I will check this out and get back to you. Where is USB selective suspend?

 

Colin,

I turned threading on and made sure USB selective suspend was turned off. Below is my sequence of events.

1. My first exposure was Manual Continuous and no error message was received.
2. I stopped Manual Continuous and directed FocusMax4 to do an auto focus via Maxim. It was successful.
3. I returned to Manual Continuous and got the error message with each exposure.
4. I stopped Manual Continuous and took a Manual Single exposure. No error message.
5. I then proceeded one more time to Manual Continuous and received no error message.

So the error message happens right after FocusMax has played out?

Alan

 

FM4 v.4.1.0.98. Can you check this against Maxim v.6.20?

 

Should I try to revert to v.6.20 and is that feasible?

 

This message inserts itself after exposure and before download, and each time it occurs it consumes 10 seconds. This needs to get fixed.

 

Sorry, not accessible via internet. Using 6.21; however, a fellow amateur tried 6.22 beta and the message is still there.

 

Hi Colin--

I have spent a good part of today tracking this down and believe I found the culprit. I developed a script to isolate FocusMax from the testing and have found that a 10 sec delay is imposed when cam.AutoDownload = False is used. Further, this appears to be a premeditated change as noted in Help.

In the MaxIm V21 Help/Scripting/CCDCamneraProperties/AutoDownload I find "When AutoDownload is set to false, upon completion of the exposure ReadyForDownload is set to true, and up to 10 seconds remain before download begins automatically."

In the MaxIm V20 Help "Used in conjunction with ReadyForDownload and StartDownload. When AutoDownload is set to false, the camera will not read out automatically upon completion of the exposure. Instead, ReadyForDownload is set to true. During an exposure, the client should poll ReadyForDownload".

Once FocusMax has initiated an image, the 10 sec delay will remain in effect even when the MaxIm Expose button is pressed which is what Alan is reporting.

FocusMax has used AutoDownload property for over 20 years. This change is imposing a significant performance penalty which is affecting all FocusMax customers and any other 3rd party who use this property. I hope this is helpful to the Diffraction Limited team and can be quick solution can be impelmented.

Best regards,
Steve Brady


The VB script follows:
Dim cam                          
Dim ActiveCamStartX
Dim ActiveCamStartY
Dim ActiveCamNumX
Dim ActiveCamNumY
Dim ActiveCamBinX
Dim ActiveCamBinY
Dim ActiveCamExposure
Dim ImArray
    
Set cam = CreateObject("MaxIm.CCDCamera")

'Store camera settings
Call GetCameraSettings

'Internally cache MaxIm  settings
cam.CacheCurrentExposureSettings

'Take an image
cam.DisableAutoShutdown = True

cam.LinkEnabled = True
if Not cam.LinkEnabled Then
    wscript.echo "Failed to start camera."
    Quit
End If

'Set autodownload off
cam.AutoDownload = False

'cam.Expose 1, 1, 0 
cam.Expose 1, 1

Do 
    WScript.sleep 100
Loop While cam.ReadyForDownload = False

Do While Not cam.ImageReady
    ' Don't consume CPU time while waiting
    wscript.sleep 100
Loop

'Download the image
cam.StartDownload

'Get image array
ImArray = cam.ImageArray

'Restore camera Settings
Call RestoreCameraSettings

'Restore cached internal MaxIm settings
cam.RestoreCachedExposureSettings

'cam.SaveImage "Script.fit"
wscript.echo "Exposure is done"


Sub GetCameraSettings
    ActiveCamStartX = cam.StartX
    ActiveCamStartY = cam.StartY
    ActiveCamNumX = cam.NumX
    ActiveCamNumY = cam.NumY
    ActiveCamBinX = cam.BinX
    ActiveCamBinY = cam.BinY
    ActiveCamExposure = cam.ExposureTime

End Sub

Sub RestoreCameraSettings
      cam.StartX = ActiveCamStartX
      cam.StartY = ActiveCamStartY
      cam.NumX = ActiveCamNumX
      cam.NumY = ActiveCamNumY
      cam.BinX = ActiveCamBinX
      cam.BinY = ActiveCamBinY
      cam.ExposureTime = ActiveCamExposure
End Sub

 

Hi Colin--

Happy to help with any testing if you need it.

Best regards,
Steve Brady

 

Colin,

What is the status of the fix for this issue? It makes it impossible to use v20 or v21. The issue causes my plans to fail in ACP. Thanks to Steve for tracking this down, as I've spent many hours working around it. I'd appreciate an update on when a fix will be available.