CCDOPS for Windows Version 5.25 February 25, 2003 This document describes the changes made to CCDOPS for Windows Version 5 software since it was released. *** Installation Instructions *** * * IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS * TO THE LETTER FOR PROPER USB DRIVER INSTALLATION * 1. Installing the CCDOPS Software A. Windows NT/2000/XP users log in as Administrator B. Uninstall any previous versions of CCDOPS 5. You can have CCDOPS 5 and CCDOPS 4 installed at the same time but uninstall any CCDOPS 5 before reinstalling it. C. Run the Installer D. Towards the end of the installation the installer will run the SBIGDriverChecker.exe application for you. Click on the Update button to let SBIGDriverChecker update your SBIG drivers to the current version. You may be asked to reboot your computer at this time. If so, finish the installation then reboot. 2. Establishing a link to a USB camera for the very first time Note: This may vary slightly depending on which version of Windows you are using. Also there is a very detailed set of instructions in "Installing USB" App Note on our web site . A. With the power supply switched off or unplugged from the wall, plug the power supply into the camera B. Plug the Camera into the PC using the supplied USB cable C. Turn on the Power Supply. D. At this point Windows will show you the "New Hardware Wizard" E. Select the "Search for best driver" then click Next F. Select "Specify a Location" then click the Browse button G. Navigate to the "C:\Program Files\SBIG\CCDOPS5\SBIG Drivers" directory, click OK H. Click Next and the Wizard will say it found the "SBIG USB Loader" Click Next I. In a second or so the LED on the back of the camera should start to blink and the Fan should come on. This indicates the firmware has been downloaded into the camera. J. The "New Hardware Wizard" comes up again. At this point you may or may not have to repeat steps E through I. K. You’re all done installing the CCDOPS software and drivers. *** Files Included in Archive *** CCDOPS.EXE - The program file README.TXT - This File CCDOPS.CHM - Help file SBIGDriverChecker.exe - Utility to make sure you have the latest SBIG drivers installed SBIG Driver Directory - Contains the latest version of the SBIG Universal (Version 4.x) drivers SBIGUDRV.SYS- Low Level Windows NT/2000 Driver SBIGUDRV.VXD- Low Level Windows 95/98 Driver SBIGUDRV.DLL- Windows Wrapper DLL SBIGULDR.SYS- USB Boot Loader Driver SBIGUSBE.SYS- USB Camera Driver Misc DLLs and Files *** Revision History *** *** Changes made in 5.25 *** * Added some SBIG diagnostic code * Fixed a bug where the LED on the ST-7/8/... would go off every time you used the Camera Setup command *** Changes made in 5.24 *** * No user accessable changes. Added SBIG internal testing routines *** Changes made in 5.23 *** * Added support for 3x3 binning on TC237 guider based cameras * The AutoGuiding functions (Track, Self-Guide and AO Self-Guide) now allow you to set the resolution of the guiding CCD in the Camera Setup dialog from the Camera menu. The software used to use default resolutions and not it lets you choose *** Changes made in 5.22 Build 1 *** * Fixed a bug in the Fix Blooming Streaks filter that could cause a crash *** Changes made in 5.22 *** * When saving JPEG images you now have a choice of 3 quality settings. High gives best quality and approximately 5:1 compression, Medium is 10:1 and Low is 40:1 * Added the Fix Blooming Streaks command to the Utility menu that removes the Blooming Straks above and below bright stars in images take with Non-ABG type CCDs. * Added the ability to Auto Grab images in the Planet Master command that are above a certain Threshold in terms of Figure of Merit * Added the Fix ME Spikes command to the Utility menu to remove the artifacts above and below bright stars on images taken with ME (microlens) based CCD cameras *** Changes made in 5.21 *** * Added the ability to take 0.01 second exposures in Grab and Focus modes with the ST-2K Imaging CCD which also required updated drivers as follows: SBIGUDRV.DLL - Version 4.24 SBIGULDR.SYS - Version 1.0 Build 26 *** Changes made in 5.20 Build 3/4 *** * Added abiltity to guide to the cursor position in the Autoguide and Self Guide commands. Also Shows the Guide to coordinates in the Self Guide dialog and allows you to move the cursor with the Arrow Keys when the Image Windows is active *** Changes made in 5.20 Build 2 *** * Added the ability to Completely Disable the AO-7 in the AO Setup command *** Changes made in 5.20 *** * Changed the Planet Master Image Acquisition mode to show the center portion of the current and best images like the STV and the stand-alone Planet Master software *** Changes made in 5.14 Build 3 & 4 & 5 *** * Fixed a bug at startup that could bomb if run without all the sub programs and DLLs in the directory * Added Fix Uncooled TDI Image command to the Utility menu * Fix yet another bug in the Upload Drak Frame command for ST-4X/5/6 * Added "Use GMT" checkbox to Preferences command that uses GMT in image headers when checked and local time when not checked. * Rearranged the Utility menu with sub-menus and added the Grade Image for Sharpness command that allows you to select multiple images and then grades them for best sharpness * Fixed a bug in the Upload Dark Frame command that would cause ST-6 not to reuse the dark frames uploaded in subsequent images * Fixed a bug where you could not upload dark frames to the old ST-5 and ST-4X * Added the "Enable Ethernet" checkbox to the preeferences command that allows diaabling Ethernet on systems that don't support it, and would cause the Graphics/Comm Setup command to not display * Added the Planet Master command to the Camera menu that takes the sharpest or brightest image from a sequence of images * Fixed a bug under XP that would cause the first display of images to include scrollbars * Fixed bugs where several menu items weren't disable in Focus, Track and Accumulate and Autograb modes *** Changes made in 5.14 *** * Allow the AO Exercise up to 3000ms * Fixed a bug in the Camera Info dialog where the whole string for the driver version wasn't getting displayed. * Updated drivers *** Changes made in 5.13-2 *** * Bundled with SBIGDriverChecker version 1.03 Build 3 that fixes a bug under NT/2000/XP where some drivers were installed in the wrong directory * Updated some drivers to current versions: SBIGULDR.SYS - Version 1.0 Build 23 SBIGUSBE.SYS - Version 1.0 SBIGUDRV.DLL - Version 4.21 Build 3 SBIGUDRV.VXD - Version 4.04 from 5/30/02 SBIGUDRV.SYS - Version 4.04 * No changes to CCDOps *** Changes made in 5.13 *** * Added the Image while Exercising command to the AO menu as a diagnostic for people having problems with their AO * Fixed a bug in the AO Calibrate when Calibrating from the Corner that could cause the AO to undercorrect when guiding * Added 2 buttons to the Calibration Results dialog: Show Vectors - This graphs the calibration vectors so you can much more easily detect the reason for calibration failures Copy to Clipboard - Clicking on this button copies the contents of the Calibration Results dialog to the Clipboard where they can be pasted into an Email for sending to SBIG in order to help track down Calibration issues * Updated the Help file with the AO Image while Exercising command *** Changes made in 5.12 *** * Added a 3 second delay after AO moves in the AO Calibrate command to let the Ao fully settle *** Changes made in 5.11 *** * Added option to the Preferences dialog to allow disabling Screen Blanking on Grab * Fixed monor bug in AO Self Guide where in some cases only one relay move would be made, not two *** Changes made in 5.10 *** * Improved precision of floating point entries in FITS headers * Changed the HISTORY keyword in the FITS headers to SBIGHIST * Updated FITSIN.DLL to read SBIGHIST keyword * Fixed a bug where the ST-6 ABG rate was not recorded correctly in the image header * Fixed a bug that stopped serial port cameras from using Track and Accumulate * Fixed a bug where dark subtraction of ST-6 images was not recorded in the modifications field * Fixed a bug in the SBIGUDRV.DLL where ST-237s and ST-237As were sometime misidentified when establishing a link * Added display of the ABG capabilites of the camera to the Camera Info command * Added the SBIGDriverChecker application to the archive * Fixed a bug where turning on AO Calibration Logging would bomb the program * Added an option to the AO Claibrate command to calibrate from the corner * Replaced InstDrv.EXE with SBIGDriverChecker.exe to update all drivers at once * Fixed a bug where turning on Track Logging would bomb * Major improvements to Help files, incorporating HTMLHelp * Expanded the scale of the histogram dialog to go down to a minimum span of 256 ADU vs 4096 * Fixed a Self Guiding bug where the relays could make the wrong corrections when the AO got to the Relay Kick-In threshold * Fixed a bug where the most recently used file list in the File menu would not have the file extension * Added a check-box to the Focus Mode Setup dialog that allows you to control whether dark frames are used or not. * Removed the warning when use the Manual Offset command * Fixed a bug where some ST-237A Readout Modes had no names in the Camera Info command * With outograb sequences the index (001, 002) will no be put before the extension and the extension will be .ST7, etc if you don't specify an extension in the AutoGrab name * Fixed a bug where switching from one camera to another with various readout modes selected could cause bogus image data until you used the Camera Setup command * Fixed a bug the when selecting the tracking CCD the Camera Setup command you could select invalid Readout modes * Now allows truning of the Fan on ST-7/8/9/10/1K cameras in the Camer Setup dialog * Reordered and neatened up the items in the ST-7 Camera Setup dialog * Fixed a bug that when established a link to an ST-1k and had been using the Tracking CCD would say "Invalid Parameter" until you manually selected the Imaging CCD * Allow processing of wider images (up to 20,000 pixels) * SBIG Image Note is now under the FITS keyword NOTE vs previously COMMENT * Modified the FITS Import to include the NOTE and OBSERVER fields * Now uses a single Crosshairs and Histogram Window for all open images, updated when different images are activated * The Histogram window is now always auto scaled to the data * Fixed a bug where image header could show exposure times shorter that the minimum for ST-7 type cameras (0.12) * Included new builds of the low level drivers with the following: SBIGUDRV.DLL=4.03 Build 2 - Minor internal changes SBIGUDRV.VXD,.SYS=4.03 Build 2 - Fixed a bug with parallel cameras where the top few lines of images were corrupted with doark or light values SBIGULDR.SYS=1.0 Build 12 - General development SBIGUSBE.SYS=1.0 (Build 1) - No changes * Added Rotate CW and Rotate CCW commands to the Utility menu * Fixed a bug where could try to set the Saturation level of Color TIFF images * Fixed a bug where hitting the 'T' key or changing the boxsize in the crosshairs would not always update the pixel factors in the Crosshairs window * Fixed a memory leak in the File Save/SaveAs command * Allow reading FITS file now but warn that header may not have been fully initialized * Allow turning off FITS warnings in the Prefences dialog * Added the Note to the FITS header when writing FITS files * Now allows having multiple images open at one time with the File Open command *** Changes made in 5.03 *** * Added DDP command to Utility menu * Major revisions to USB support routines in driver * Blackouts the screen for the Grab command * Added the Ultra-Low readout mode to the ST-7, etc with 9x9 binning for faster framing in focus mode * Fixed a bug where the File Save dialog would not change the file extension when you would change the file type (.JPG, .GIF, etc.) *** Changes made in 5.02 *** * Added the Set Pixel Saturation command and don't force ST-237 saturation in the driver *** Changes made in 5.01 *** * Don't auto establish a link at startup since Ethernet can take a long time *** Changes made to Version 5 *** * Fixed a bug where total exposure was not accumlated when co-adding images * Made it so the software won't automatically try to establish a link at startup due to the time it takes to establish a link under Ethernet if no camera is attached. * Revised the various dialogs to no longer show the number of pixels in the resolution pop-ups since some of these were incorrect. * Updated the Help files * Allows you to enter 0 for the exposure time and will fill in the minimum for you rather than give you an error message * Added the Image Note to the File Save dialog * Added support for the ST-1K * Fixed a file header compatibility bug with DOS * Show the most recently used 8 images in the File menu * Made the icon bar dockable * Added a "turbo" mode to the Focus mode for ST/7/8/... cameras that allows 0.01 sec exposures by simply leaving the shutter open all the time * Added sharpen option to the Contrast window * Added crosshairs preview mode * With "Click To Position Crosshairs" option in the Preferences dialog you can now use mouse clicks to position the XHair and then use the arrow keys to move the XHairs. Also, right clicking the mouse in image gives menu with Astrometry/Photometry options in this mode. * Remembers the crosshairs position so when you place them, close crosshairs the reshow crosshairs they are in the same place * Added support for USB cameras * Added support for Ethernet cameras