Add autofocus run results to the HFR History X-axis

[Ara Jerahian]

As a user, I would like to visually ascertain when the AF routine kicked in based on my settings. Ideally, this could be added as a small triangle just above the X-axis (above the exposure count tick marks), at the frame number where before which the AF ran. A mouse over the little triangle would show:

• Position before / position after
• Focused HFR before / HFR after
• Temperature

The temperature would be recorded IF the focuser includes a temperature sensor, ELSE IF from an environment temperature, ELSE blank.

Of course, all of this would only occur/appear if a focuser is connected.

As such, this would not change the way the HFR History currently displays the HFR or Star data at all (i.e. no change in Y-axis limits). It just adds information to the X-axis.

Thank you for considering this enhancement request and for such a great product!

[Eric Walden]

Seconded. And the same goes for Plate Solve events at the start of sequences, on the start of new targets, and meridian flips.

Thanks

[Dale Ghent]

It actually used to be the case that every exposure during a sequence was analyzed and plotted in the HFR graph. After user complaints and observing that the AF and plate solve exposures essentially made the graph too cluttered to the point of being illegible, we made it reflect only sequence light frame exposures. So, we’ve been there and done that, and I don’t see it going back. I certainly wouldn’t vote for it.

[Eric Walden]

Then how about showing a history of AF and PS on the respective tabs on the imaging page so we can reference how things went in a session, good or bad?

[Dale Ghent]

The HFR for autofocus is already plotted on the graph as the AF curve. I’m not sure what the value of a HFR graph would be for PS exposures since plate solve failures can happen for any number of reasons outside of HFR. The distinction I’m trying to point out here is if there is a true value to going through the effort to display these, or are they desired just out of sheer curiosity. If anything I would be open to logging the values. Devoting screen real estate to graphing them just doesn’t seem right.

[Stefan B]

The HFR Plot Intend is to give information about the imaging run to quickly see if the focus shifts or sky conditions changes over time using the sequence. This can only be visible when the graph is limited to the sequence exposures, as those have the same duration. Otherwise it is just a noisy unreadable graph. (see screenshot below where every image was tracked)

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The Autofocus already gives a good plot about the focus points and in 1.10 inside %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\AutoFocus each autofocus run contains a json file with the datapoints and determined focus position to recapture. Platesolving also doesn’t require HFR values. Either the platesolve works or it doesn’t.

[Ara Jerahian]

Sorry, my original request here had nothing to do with plate-solving information. That is of no interest to me and really shouldn’t be part of the HFR graph. Unless the main devs feel the same about both, I wouldn’t like that additional request to muddy up my original enhancement request.

That said, my request wasn’t to include AF information for every data point, only at points where the AF routine actually ran. I want to visually see when it ran on the graph, with a mouse-over showing what the AF point was before the run, and what it calculated after the run, and the temperature. Again, only when the AF routine runs. These would be dots on little triangles without a line connecting them.

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[Ara Jerahian]

I’ll try to do a mockup next time I have NINA running with a full HFR History graph, to illustrate what I mean. Thanks.

[Stefan B]

Ah now i understand the request a bit more. sounds interesting

[Dale Ghent]

Something like a vertical line of a certain, distinctive color, marking where on the graph an AF session was executed?

perhaps thickness of the line could denote how many attempts were required?

[Ara Jerahian]

Here is a mockup/example of what I’m envisioning. Note the subtle blue boxes (can be whatever color is best represented with the corresponding theme) along the x-axis identifying that the AF routine ran before that frame. So, in this example, I can see the AF routine ran before frame 11 and before frame 21.

Also note the mouse pointer hovering over the blue box. This would present a little popover identifying the starting AF position, the new calculated AF position, and the temperature at the time of AF run. Once again, from this example, I can see my initial AF position was 178 when the first AF routine ran. It finished at a calculated new position of 132. The temperature at the start of the AF run is also recorded, either from the focuser equipment or from the environment if focuser temp is not available.

Thanks,

Ara

[Dale Ghent]

Good idea, I like it. I don’t know how feasible the tooltip-like info box is to implement, but I like the concept.

[Ara Jerahian]

Thanks, Dale. I think it would be greatly beneficial to others as well.

BTW, I based the tooltip-like box on the box that currently appears when you hover over (or is it click on?) one of the data points for either the HFR or Stars. They’re generic in what they currently show, which are X:Y values of that data point.

Anyway, I hope it’s doable. Many thanks!

[Ross Walker]

I would like to see the temperature delta included in the pop-up. That would give users an idea as to whether their temp compensation value is in the ballpark or not.

[Stefan B]

Ok after some hours of fiddling around I have come to this result so far. Need to tweak it a bit but it will work already.

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[Ara Jerahian]

Stefan, that’s fantastic! Exactly as I imagined and way better than my mockup

[Stefan B]

Feature is part of nightly 54

[Ron Kramer]

the history graph was pretty cluttered. But a good solution would have been several little check boxes to toggle ON or OFF the data to be graphed. that way we could switch to view, choose the clutter or customize what we want to view. Just a thought. I like the NEW and OLD POS addition inclusion.

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[Bill Richards]

I was just about to request this exact feature when I came across this thread in a search.

While imaging last week, I had everything set up to run “automagically” (thanks to all the great features in NINA), but when I woke up several times during the night to check on things, I could not tell if the auto-focus routine had been running in accordance with my settings.

Stefan indicated that this feature was added to the nightly builds nearly 2 years ago, but it’s not in the currently released version 1.10.HF3. When will this be in a released version? I think it will be a greatly useful feature.

[Dale Ghent]

Stable lines (which 1.10 is the current representative of) are bug fix-only lines. This is in 1.11, which is the current development (“nightly”) line. These nightly releases are available to all to try and use. It will soon enter a Beta release phase in the run-up to it replacing 1.10 as the new Stable.

[Bill Richards]

I’m excited for all those new features to be available in a Stable release. Holding breath now…

[Dale Ghent]

The more people who help test the nightlies, the quicker they come to fruition as the next stable.

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[Bill Richards]

If I had the ability to test it in my back yard, I would happily do so. As an engineer, I understand the need to get lots of test time into new software before releasing it. But I have to travel nearly 100 miles to get to an area where the skies are dark enough, so my imaging sessions are limited to once or twice a month, best case. As such, I’m just not in a position to risk losing precious time with potentially unstable software. I wish there was some other way I could help.