Request to bypass camera detection and assume RPI camera

[james-dmu]

Hi,

I have been using your software for some time to control cameras used to monitor noctilucent clouds and aurora, a little different than the intended allsky use but it works really well.

These have, until now, been using RPIHQ cameras however I have now changed the cameras to the Arducam 64mp Owlsight cameras which whilst being officially supported by Libcamera/Raspberry Pi OS they do not report as RPIHQ cameras and so Allsky understandably refuses to use them as it only officially supports the RPIHQ and ZWO cameras. I have managed to bypass the check during installation but am running into issues with "capture-RPi" reporting "No RPi cameras found". I believe if I can disable that check and recompile the code and get it to just assume it is an RPIHQ I can probably get it to work.

I understand this is a little outside the scope of what Allsky was intended for and not something you would be looking to support in future however if it runs the same Libcamera commands the RPIHQ would use I believe it should work. I'm not asking for it to be rolled out as a major change to the software merely asking if there is an obvious part of the source code (capture_RPi.cpp) I should look at changing to make it just assume the camera is the RPIHQ and not question it please? I can experiment myself but thought I would ask just in case you can point me quickly to the section of the code I need to look at.

I'd love to just keep using Allsky for these cameras however if I can't easily bypass this check then fair enough I'll have to find another solution but the software has been great with the RPIHQ cameras.

Thanks.

[EricClaeys]

@james-dmu, James, please run libcamera-still --list-cameras and let me know what it returns.
The next release of Allsky, in testing now, supports the "arducam_64mp" camera, which might be what you have.

If it's not, run:

libcamera-still -v --metadata - --immediate 0 --nopreview --thumb none --timeout 1 --shutter 1 --output /dev/null

and post the results. It's fairly easy to add a new camera once I have its info.

Eric

[james-dmu]

Thanks for the quick reply. Here's info from both commands just for completeness:

libcamera --list-cameras.txt
libcamera.txt

[EricClaeys]

@james-dmu, haven't forgotten. I was driving home for 3 days from my observatory and got Covid for my first time so have been holed up in our guest room and sleeping a lot.

Thanks for the files. I'll add support for that camera to the next release of Allsky, which we're testing now.

[james-dmu]

No problem, Take it easy and hope you get well soon.

One thing I have discovered with this camera is that every time it initialises it will refocus the lens. This can be done via command line to set it to a set focus position however if libcamera is run and re-run (which I believe it still is with Allsky) it may mean there's a lot of use of the focus motor and so may cause a lot of wear so I'm not 100% sure it will be a good idea to use it with this camera. However it will be good to have it supported anyway but no rush, get well first.

James

[EricClaeys]

@james-dmu, James, If you add "--lens-position 0" to the Extra Parameters setting in the WebUI it will focus on infinity. You can of course try different numbers.
I'm pretty sure, and would appreciate you running the following, sticking your ear close to the lens and see/hear if it moves every time. I suspect it will move the first time but is smart enough to realize it doesn't have to move every subsequent time.

sudo systemctl stop allsky
while true; do libcamera-still --lens-position 0 --timeout 1 --shutter 1 --output /dev/null --nopreview; done

after you are convinced what the outcome is, stop the command (either CTRL-X or CTRL-C or simply close the window).

Please let me know what you find - I'm curious myself.

[james-dmu]

Unfortunately from tests I have done it appears to reset and re-move to that position each time the command is run. I haven't tried running the first command with --lens-position and then leaving it off subsequent commands though as this might not move the lens but I suspect it may default to a position instead. I found that using the timelapse ability of libcamera it remains stationary after taking the first shot however this means libcamera remains running until killed.

I'm still experimenting though so if I find anything else out I'll let you know.

[EricClaeys]

run libcamera-still --help to see what other lens-related options there are. I'm pretty sure there's one to NOT do auto focus, which I suspect causes the lens not to move.

If all else fails, ask on the libcamera GitHub page.
They are very responsive.

[EricClaeys]

Closing Discussion since the Arducam 64mp Owlsight camera is supported in the next release of Allsky, due Dec 6, 2024.