DslrDashboard stops working at some point, no errors

qDslrDashbord error reports
aaronpriest
Posts: 21
Joined: 20 May 2015, 12:20

Re: DslrDashboard stops working at some point, no errors

Post by aaronpriest »

hubaiz wrote: It is not the same when you start a capture with an external trigger or when you start a capture from application with a PTP command.
You can use your external trigger with qDD and have 0.1 interval.
Interesting. That means I could still use DslrDashboard and the LRTimelapse component to do my exposure ramping for holy grail, but trigger the camera with another remote or intervalometer? This would help with my panoramic timelapses, having my robotic head trigger the camera.

I didn't try this yet, but if I set a bulb exposure of say 8 minutes in DslrDashboard, and then press the shutter button on the camera, will it take an 8 minute photo? Or does it need an external trigger? My D810 has a special "time" shutter mode where it keep the shutter open after first shutter button press until second button press, so you can time it with your cell phone or whatever. I wish my D700 had this feature, it's a very nice addition.
GonzoG
Posts: 469
Joined: 24 Feb 2015, 08:52
Location: Poland

Re: DslrDashboard stops working at some point, no errors

Post by GonzoG »

aaronpriest wrote: Interesting. That means I could still use DslrDashboard and the LRTimelapse component to do my exposure ramping for holy grail, but trigger the camera with another remote or intervalometer? This would help with my panoramic timelapses, having my robotic head trigger the camera.
Yes you can use external intervalometer with qDD and LRTimelapse. You jest need some gap between shot so qDD could set exposure. With 0.1s the is no time for this.
aaronpriest wrote: I didn't try this yet, but if I set a bulb exposure of say 8 minutes in DslrDashboard, and then press the shutter button on the camera, will it take an 8 minute photo? Or does it need an external trigger? My D810 has a special "time" shutter mode where it keep the shutter open after first shutter button press until second button press, so you can time it with your cell phone or whatever. I wish my D700 had this feature, it's a very nice addition.
You need external device to control shutter in BULB. Setting time in qDD does nothing to camera unless you release shutter with qDD.

Back to lag with qDD - when controlling camera with USB you cannot take another photo unless first sequence has finished. This means ale the photos taken in sequence have been witter to memory card. With some camera setting this can take some time.
D300/D700 are much slower with 14b RAWs.

The "Time" mode is added in pro Nikons to control shutter with remote shutter release without holding it down.
It is in all Nikon DSLRs with IR release so you can use BULB with IR remote which sends only one impulse with each press of a button.
aaronpriest
Posts: 21
Joined: 20 May 2015, 12:20

Re: DslrDashboard stops working at some point, no errors

Post by aaronpriest »

One of the reasons I bought a D700 over a D300s was not just because it was full frame, but also because there was nearly no performance hit with 14-bit NEFs vs the D300/D300s which takes a severe performance penalty compared with 12-bit NEFs. With a wired connection on the Ramper Pro and RAW + JPEG (small/basic) a 1 second interval is enough for the ~375kb file to transfer and the histogram to be analyzed. The D700 and a good memory card is the fastest camera we've found yet for this. The D800/D810 takes more like 5 or 6 seconds to be safe.

I wish Nikon included IR on their pro bodies. I miss that little IR remote from my D70, it was very handy for quick family group photos. I don't recall bulb working that way with the IR remote on that model, but that's an ancient camera body now. Still works! Gave it to my sister-in-law and she still uses it.

So, in summary, I need to buy another shutter cable for my Promote Control to use bulb on the D700, there really is no other practical solution with anything I have. And from what you guys are all saying, a 5 second interval should be enough on the D700 for holy grail with LRTimelapse feature, but it was not for me with the TPLink and wifi. 10 seconds worked on my iPad however without issue, but that leaves gaps in star trails. Also, I've yet to get sunrise or sunset ramping to work stably for longer than 2 hours with any camera or tablet combination, so I'm going to try an OTG cable and see if wifi is causing my troubles.
hubaiz
Site Admin
Posts: 2001
Joined: 27 Jan 2015, 18:58

Re: DslrDashboard stops working at some point, no errors

Post by hubaiz »

I just made a quick test with D5000 and D7100
I used the NMX Controller as external trigger and the new interval controller (not yet released).
On D5000 with 2sec interval it was working (1sec was to much for it and I have a slower SD card in it)
On D7100 with 1sec worked (Samsung PRO 32GB SD card)

On both I used RAW + JPG BASIC with S size.

LRTimelapse module was able to change the settings (shutter / ISO).

If capture is initiated from qDD then 3sec is the minimum (between capture end - next capture start) in my testing.
Depends on camera model, SD/CF card, communication used (USB fastest ; ddserver middle ; WU-1a/1b slowest)
aaronpriest
Posts: 21
Joined: 20 May 2015, 12:20

Re: DslrDashboard stops working at some point, no errors

Post by aaronpriest »

Well, I hate to be the bearer of frustrating news, but DslrDashboard was a disaster during my entire week long night timelapse workshop. It randomly crashed and locked up or just stopped shooting all week long, sunrises, sunsets, and even during stable light during the night. It wasn't just auto holy grail either, it did the same with HDR brackets and no timelapse at all when shooting a panorama. We tried three Android tablets of various models and ages (mine being the newest and latest Android OS), and a couple iPhones and iPads, with 4 different Canon and Nikon camera bodies, both wired and wireless. We'd be listening to the cameras clicking away and at some point, between 20 and 150 frames, it would just randomly stop working. We'd go check out the screens and it would either have crashed, or closed, or be sitting there unresponsive. It only worked twice for a short sunrise and a short sunset during the entire week, nothing over an hour was possible, and often it wouldn't work for 5 minutes. We tried the new version 3.0 beta as well as that came out during the workshop, no fix.
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