Nina Shut down while using A7S ascom usb driver

[stéphane debalme]

Hi,

While using Nina with my DSLR Sony A7S through the driver Ascom, the Soft shut down after a while during the sequence after a few pictures (12 to 40 pics). It seems to be a problem with the temperature because Nina cannot get the info from the dslr. Is it possible to disable this function?

stéphane

[Dale Ghent]

I think the error you are seeing in the logs is not related to this “soft shutdown” you describe. The Sony ASCOM driver is throwing the incorrect error. ASCOM camera driver should throw a PropertyNotImplementedException if the camera does not have or make available any kind of sensor temperature telemetry. The driver’s use of InvalidValueException is improper in this context.

As for this “soft shutdown”, this isn’t being reflected in the log file you included. Is is a complete crash of the app? If so, a crash will not be reflected in the NINA log file simply because the process is no longer alive to put something in the log. You must look at the Windows Event Viewer for the cause instead. Reference here: https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/develop/site/troubleshooting/general/#application-crashes

[stéphane debalme]

Hi

Thanks for you fast reply and sorry to see it just now. To answer, yes it s a total shut down. NINA simply turn off.

I downgraded to the stable version of Nina and could manage 200 exposures of 20 sec without problem.

I think I will wait until that the 2.0 become more stable.

Unless you want me to test something else.

Thanks

Stephane

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[spccb]

Hi
Just to add details to try to help; I had the same issue since a couple of weeks with previous nigthly versions before the beta, since maybe end of October. Before it was working with nightly too. I don’t know since what version because I used the automatic update engine, but if I can get previous nithgly I could try to see since what version.
About the crash it’s very hard to see where/when it crashs because there’s no log showing something wrong, it’s a dry crash. I tried to understand by observing and maybe it could be a delay issue when a new shoot is asked to the camera because in bulb mode with a manual delay (5s) in the sequence between each exposure it “seams” to work a longer time.
Could it be because the camera transfer the image to the computer in RAW format via USB, and in the same time another file is recorded in FITS format (I don’t see how to force to not record the FITS in NINA), and in the same time NINA ask to start a new exposure ?

[Stefan B]

Driver issue needs to be fixed by ASCOM driver maintainer.

[spccb]

It’s not sure what it comes from the driver. The same driver works nicely with APT and ZWO software with ASCOM, so if it was a driver issue we could see the same problem with all softwares.
After a longer time of experimentation NINA crash just at the end of the acquisition, between the end of the exposure and the start of the downloading of the image data from the camera. But there’s no log create, no info on screen, NINA just crash/shutdown.
It looks timing exception or something.

[Dale Ghent]

NINA could be using an ASCOM property in the driver that APT does not, which triggers the crash. Or it might be that we’re using it in a way that APT does not. Either way, NINA interacts with ASCOM drivers per the ASCOM specifications and it’s up to drivers to ensure that they react accordingly and, of course, do not crash. Every ASCOM driver is different internally, so comparing it to a seemingly working ZWO ASCOM driver will only point fingers more at the Sony driver having issues.

It’s very well that it’s an issue in the Sony ASCOM driver’s interaction with the underlying camera SDK that it uses. This C# to C/C++ interface (ie, managed to unmanaged code) is quite often a point where crashes can happen if data is not correctly handled or referenced. Given my experience writing drivers, it can also be a crash that’s specific to a particular model of camera due to different ways that the underlying SDK deals with it compared to other models, and perhaps the ASCOM driver shell around it is not accounting for.

[Stefan B]

ASCOM drivers are all treated the same. So if it would not be the driver everyone would experience it using N.I.N.A. - However this problem only occurs with the Sony Driver.
Furthermore other Astro Apps are mostly x86 which works differently and they might also not be calling the properties in a similar asynchronous way.

[Stefan B]

Removing version: 2.0 Beta (automated comment)