Category Archives: Uncategorized

qDslrDashboard V0.3.3

qDslrDashboard V0.3.3 is now available for all the supported platforms.

Starting from this version the Android version is available from the Google Play Store.
Also the Android version isn’t free anymore (one reason for this change is that I’m still unemployed and the second reason is to make it equal to the iOS version)

For the Raspberry Pi 2 version the latest Raspbian (Jessie) image was used. You must use the raspi-config to set 256MB memory for the GPU.

On OSX El Capitan the only way I could get USB working was by executing ‘sudo killall -9 PTPCamera’ after the DSLR was connected with USB (hope there will be a better solution in future)

I also got reports that there is still a problem on iOS version with the Canon 5D MII DSLR (changing focus point in live view will crash the application) that I will address with a quick fix.

In V0.3 version I rewrote most of the core classes and fixed lot of the stability problems present in V0.2.9
Also reworked the UI and it should be faster now including live view.
New in V0.3 is the NMX control screen and the interval controller.

The NMX screen can be used for controlling the Dynamic Perception NMX Controller. On Android and iOS it can be controlled using Bluetooth, on desktop versions the USB connection (USB serial connection) can be used.

The Interval Controller (IC) can be used to create advanced interval captures using the NMX Controller and connected DSLR cameras.

qDslrDashboard V0.3 beta10 Android ARM

Here beta10 for Android ARM:  qDslrDashboard V0.3 beta10 Android ARM

  • added a live view preview for NMX screen if there is an active DSLR
  • some changes to the Nikon capture handling (should improve interval timer)
  • fixed the interval ramping in interval timer (also added easing for ramping)
  • added checks for LrTimelapse screen (exposure mode should be M, not in bulb capture, auto ISO disabled, RAW+JPG image format)
  • fix for NMX USB serial communication (should improve OSX USB serial communication)

Will see to build beta10 for other platforms in the coming days.

qDslrDashboard V0.3 beta

qDslrDashboard V0.3 first beta is available on following links:

Android ARM

Android x86

Windows x64

Windows x86

Windows XP

Linux x64

Linux x86

OSX x64

Windows and Linux user should just unpack the archive into an existing qDslrDashboard V0.2.9 folder and start with ‘qDslrDashboard_V0.3.beta1.exe’ on Windows or with ‘qDslrDashboard_V3_beta1.sh’ on Linux.

I put a lot of effort into V0.3 to make it more stable. Rewrote all the core components that are responsible for communication with the connected DSLR.

I also reworked the UI, it is more simple now and should be more responsive.

Please test it and report back any problems that you encounter on the forum.

HAME MPR-A2

A user pointed me to the HAME MPR-A2 portable wireless router and after checking that OpenWrt works on it I ordered one from here:

http://www.dx.com/p/hame-mpr-a2-3g-150mbps-wireless-router-5200mah-portable-charger-black-197321#.VVnzfvlsFBc

After around 1 month it finally arrived.

The OpenWrt images (with ddserver) are here:

HAME MPR-A2 uImage

HAME MPR-A2 sysupgrade

You need both images, first the ‘uImage’ is flashed using the original HAME administration interface and after that using the OpenWrt administration interface the ‘sysupgrade’ image is flashed.

I wrote a small flashing instructions : HAME MPR-A2 flashing instructions

Here is an image compared to TP-Link MR3040 (V1)

Hame_A2

qDslrDashboard V0.2.9

Uploaded V0.2.9 for all platform and also will submit for review for iOS devices

Changelog:
– fox for crash introduced in V0.2.7 that hit some of the Canon DSLR
– added D7200 (property values included)
– added new live view and image renderer
– added option to connect to all discovered DSLR (USB, ddserver)
– added option to sync DSLR date/time on connection start
– added live view ghost image with a dialog for JPG selection
– added image sharing for mobile platforms (Android, iOS) in gallery and image viewer
– fixed error in LRTimelapse that prevented ‘sunrise’ to work with ‘Auto direction’ enabled
– moved to LibRaw V0.17 Alpha4 (D3300 NEF files work now)
– added delay for focus stacking
– added delay for sky stacking
– fixed Unicode image folder on Windows
– other small fixes that where reported

Version V0.2.8 is skipped so that all platforms have the same version.

Interval Controller

The Interval Controller (IC) is an advanced interval timer that can control multiple channels.

ic_screen

After entering the IC screen the user should set the ‘Sequence duration’ (1). Under ‘Total frames’ the user can see how many captures are required to get the selected sequence duration with the current interval.

Under ‘Available channels’ (2) there is a list of channels that can be used with this interval controller, in my case these are the channels for the connected NMX Controller on address 3 ( NMX Slider, NMX Pan, NMX Tilt, NMX Camera) and the connected Nikon D5000 (DSLR D5000).

There are currently 4 types of channels:

  1. Interval – this is the interval channel and is always the first channel and it can’t be deleted
  2. NMX Motor – these are the channels for the connected NMX Controller motors (slider, pan, tilt)
  3. NMX Camera – these are the channel for the connected NMX Controller cameras
  4. DSLR – these are the channels for the connected DSLRs

The user can add the channel to the interval controller graph (4) by simply dragging the channel name to the interval controller graph (4) and dropping there. After the channel is added to the interval controller graph it name will be listed under ‘Channels’ (3)

By clicking on the registered channel name (3) the user can change the channel parameters if it supports it.  The following channel parameters are currently available:

  • interval – the starting interval can be changed
  • NMX motor – the motor starting position can be changed
  • DSLR – this channel support the ‘Perform capture’ option (if enabled the capture command will be sent to this DSLR) and the ‘Capture finished notification’ (if enabled this DSLR capture finished notification will be used for motor movement).

Channels also support operators that will change the channel value over defined time with an applied easing. Currently the ‘Interval’ and ‘NMX Motor’ channels support operator. Operators can be added by dragging the channel from the channels list (3) to the interval graph area (4). After the channel is dropped the operator dialog will be shown where the operator parameters can be changed(duration, easing, end value).

It is hard to describe all the functions so here is a small video demonstrating the NMX Controller integration and the new Interval Controller