Scripting with video samples and Forum posting, Multiple camera clusters, arrays and sharing

Hello,

I have been using Sharpcap for testing cameras.  But I am only now getting things set up after several years of trying to select or design the telescopes and cameras.

For single cameras I am running these kinds of manual captures. I have to manually set the gain, exposure and processing steps. Then I run these for a day or more.  I am getting ready to run one month samples.  This particular one is a ZWO ASI 224 MC. But I have about 30 cameras I have tried and want to re-run. I want to run several sites far apart.

List of folders with names like Capture 32×32 at 450 FPS for 800 sets of 48000 frames (implied gain, exposure, temperature, etc)

My plan is to monitor the directories, see when new files get posted, process them, monitor the results, devise still more algorithms.  Most of the basic algorithms (statistical mostly) are written and tested over the last couple of decades.

My difficulty is, it is getting harder to see. So manually clicking tiny things on complex pages is not the way for me to go.

Can I run multiple instances of SharpCap headess so I can test or use several cameras at once?  I have several instances where clusters of cameras are used to remove noise and to verify results.  Different cameras on the same subject. “Identical” cameras on the same subject.  Similar cameras on the same subject to see if they can be inter-calibrated.

How do I set all the properties of the camera programmaticly, then save the files?  I use Javascript for processing the files, I hope to have access to an early version of a streaking fast native Javascript compiler along the lines of the old Turbo Pascal.  If you are old enough, that might make sense to you.

I have been tracking In-The-Sky.Org on Facebook and their group website.  https://www.facebook.com/intheskyorg

One of the people there has an all sky camera, but also several individual cameras watching certain regions.  It is easy to set up clusters of cameras now – except for gathering, comparing, calibrating and using the several cameras. But “clusters” at one location, and “arrays” from one area, or “arrays of arrays and sensors” globally.

Gathering the data is hard, if a human has to be in the loop clicking things, limited to single cameras, with no processing lined up. and no global sharing to make the algorithm development faster and better and more fun.

I could not see how to post a message on the Forum.  Searching is problematic.  Mostly it is too much, too busy, too faded and hard to read.  No FAQs or summaries of key issues.  Because it gives me a headache, I hate forums that are long long lists of fragmented conversations with no context, no complete results, no shared and working examples, etc etc etc.  I might just be tired, but I know there are better ways.  Right now, I am not interested in fixing the Forum.  I just want to know how to capture videos in SER format on a regular schedule for ten or more cameras.  If I have to buy a computer for each one, I might. But then I probably won’t use Sharpcap, except it has many good features and a community of people interested in machine vision, astronomy, astrophysics and related things.

I will keep at it, but I am getting tired.  I have been trying to solve this one problem for several years, with roots that go back decades.  But getting the data from cameras onto a disk is so hard, and probably trivial for those who know how. The professional solutions ALL strip the data I want.  I want exactly what is coming from each pixel.

These kinds of discussions are for kids who have lots of time to waste trying things.  EVERY person is making their own it seems.  What would we do if everyone had to make their own car, or cell phone, or house?

Richard Collins, Houston Texas