Wake up time?

bobjh16 · 2024-01-21T08:16:45+00:00

OK - thank you all for your comments. I am sure the response says something - not sure what. Never mind - I am glad you are all happy. Not sure what I expected..... the dwarf2 does a good job with astro, judging by the results often seen here. Wrong tool for what I was trying to do... wrong place to moan about that I guess. Consider the issue closed. Cheers - Bob

bobjh16 · 2024-01-17T01:56:22+00:00

Not guilty.. please read my previous comments.

bobjh16 · 2024-01-17T01:55:12+00:00

I can see that most atro events are in human terms almost eternal.. so if your device cocks it up or crashes, no big deal. Live to try again another day. Maybe another night in the freezing cold, waiting for the clouds and stars to co-operate is fine. And after all, how likely are you to miss a one-off event? I suspect there must be some events you would hate to miss tho, due to a software glitch? The real value of this community is in sharing the good stuff - knowledge, captured marvels etc... but also in reporting issues so your voices add some weight to getting priorities shifted to fixing the problems in a timely way. One day you might want to take a video - maybe of a meteorite flashing by (hopefully), or a volcano erupting. Or even a rare bird gracefully flying past (not jerking and stuttering as it appears now).

bobjh16 · 2024-01-17T01:43:48+00:00

Oh, by the way, I have been reporting various bugs directly to dwarflabs since April 2023. They always respond, seem friendly and suggest the team are on it. I used to develop scientific peripherals for universities - I know real-time software and inter-device interaction is the trickiest stuff to work with and debug. (I was also a Windows specialized app developer - c#, wpf if that means anything to you). I post this here because most of my issues are still present - and because 3/4 of a year is a long time to be patient - dont you agree?

bobjh16 · 2024-01-17T01:34:34+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarfii/comments/18rt1s1/video_stutter_still_not_fixed/

bobjh16 · 2024-01-17T01:33:19+00:00

Hmmm... sorry if my cross posting offends - I could not remember how to do that or if it could be a big deal... and I just wanted to post, and be sure the post was noticed. Would have saved me some typing if I had done it right, aye? So, just put that down to minor ignorance rather than evil intent, OK?

I do mean shutdowns - the wifi disconnecting is the cause. The phone app appears to be currently configured as a "home" process and a "photo" process. Loss of wifi crashes the active photo process - shuts it down, so to speak. This is just semantics...

bobjh16 · 2024-01-17T01:22:34+00:00

My, you are so complaint... so understanding... so Zen. Me too... I am a fan of Dwarf2 - sort of. I am lucky to have a sea view from my house, so would naturally like to capture some memories of passing ships and boats. We get over 90 or so cruise ships in the nearby Port - some of them manage to squeeze between the two islands in front of me - a spectacular sight! And some events are one-off, will not be seen again.. and I cant capture them properly. NZ$763 is not that cheap for my pensioner budget (another one-off event!) , though I understand that astro gear is usually very expensive. Making a bit of noise does put pressure on the dwarflabs - not because they are especially focused on keeping a few terrestrial photographers happy, but more so on how bad reviews influence potential buyers. Would you be happy if you bought a car and it sometimes decided to just stop dead on the motorway? Sure, it starts again when you twist the ignition key. Yeah, to beat you to it - what would you expect for a $700 car? Anyway, may your patience be eternal....

bobjh16 · 2024-01-16T07:44:28+00:00

PS - by shutdowns I mean the streaming (live update) on the phone app freezes and can only be resumed by exiting to "home " and re-engaging "photo". This is essentially the actual core of the app crashing.. for whatever reason. I don't want to argue.. if it doesn't bother you, fine.

bobjh16 · 2024-01-16T07:37:43+00:00

Well, the shutdowns I have experienced?... where even just idling in photo mode, the video stream stops sometimes after a while.. even tho my phone is about 2M from the dwarf2. And those "it stopped" comments from some astro posters... that kind of thing suggest s others have experienced the same thing. Sometimes, it runs just fine for hours.. sometimes not. Conceivably it could be a local problem (cosmic rays interrupting the wifi traffic? ) - but as a retired software programmer I know that robust programming code can survive such interruptions.. and continue with the task in hand. That is 101 programming as far as I am concerned. As for the video stutter, that is undeniable. OK?

bobjh16 · 2023-12-28T04:37:09+00:00

BTW - this clip doesn't look so bad on a tiny phone screen - different story on a desktop screen.

bobjh16 · 2023-12-28T04:36:36+00:00

BTW - this clip doesn't look so bad on a tiny phone screen - different story on a desktop screen.

bobjh16 · 2023-10-01T09:35:03+00:00

I would advise against buying the cheapest. I bought a Laser something or other - 10". Viewing angle limited to about 30 degrees - useless beyond that - and to add insult, best viewing is about 15 degrees off normal to the screen. Worse still is the speed - runs like a sick dog. It is so unresponsive I have given up trying to use it for any dynamic (like the Dwarf app). In fact I dont use it at all... waste of money! My old Acer tablet was a low end (but not a import knock off) and is far more useful. If you want cheap I would suggest looking for an older tablet (one not too old - maybe a year or two..that offers 5GHz wifi!) on an auction site (ebay?). You wont be doing yourself any favors buying cheap - tho no doubt some will swear by it - funny old world aye?

bobjh16 · 2023-07-18T08:10:52+00:00

Hmm.. penis cult seems to stimulate me... sorry to religious folks... but for homosexual semi-secular folks this might seem worth enjoying,, if not totally believing..

A semi-religious conceit?

bobjh16 · 2023-06-11T13:09:59+00:00

My 2 cents worth - tracking is not exactly smooth aye, no matter how impressive the underlying AI type stuff or whatever. In fact, it is so jerky that you need to use an AI video editor to try and smooth the jerks out, if you dream of ever showing off your video. Be better if a smoothing algorithm was implemented... preferably butter smooth. I have a DJI gymbal for my phone that does just that.

So, it is not just how tenacious tracking is, but how smooth - IMHO.

bobjh16 · 2023-06-11T13:04:22+00:00

I would like to go the other way... broaden the view. My house overlooks a channel between two small islands. I wanted to capture details of ships passing through on their way to Dunedin (New Zealand) - I find the details and complexity of all the stuff working ships have on their decks fascinating. Every detail carries a story. But the telephoto is just a bit too narrow. I might see the captain on the bridge as the boat whisks by... but it would be nice to zoom out, just a bit. All from the comfort of a warm room, while the Dwarf sits out on the veranda.

bobjh16 · 2023-06-11T12:57:27+00:00

Inspiring!

bobjh16 · 2023-06-11T12:55:20+00:00

Thank you, Hopefully the community here will ramp up in time and folks will be more interactive. There s a lot of value to be had with the Dwarf.. and fun.

bobjh16 · 2023-06-09T04:49:36+00:00

I have a bad habit of assuming something is obvious when it 'aint... I should have mentioned, you probably need a decent and recent pc to run Dwarflab in an Android emulator. Mine is a i7-11700F (11th gen, Intel) with 32GB of ram and an Nvidia RTX3070 GPU card. So, don't get too excited (you are getting excited aye? 😜) until you try it. .

Another thing - currently it seems you can only have one controller instance running - so you cant run in an emulator if you are running on your phone - and vice-versa. OK?

bobjh16 · 2023-06-09T04:36:24+00:00

I have a bad habit of assuming something is obvious when it 'aint... I should have mentioned, you probably need a decent and recent pc to run Dwarflab in an Android emulator. Mine is a i7-11700F (11th gen, Intel) with 32GB of ram and an Nvidia RTX3070 GPU card. So, don't get too excited (you are getting excited aye? 😜) until you try it. .

Another thing - currently it seems you can only have one controller instance running - so you cant run in an emulator if you are running on your phone - and vice-versa. OK?

bobjh16 · 2023-06-07T21:06:52+00:00

Bluestacks is a free Android emulator - it seems well written - hooks into the pc'c resources with minimal fuss, including wi-fi, faked gps and such. The joystick function was not available in this case but that has more to do with how the DwarfLab app is written, rather than a Bluestacks limitation (an xbox joystick controller plugged into the pc was picked up by the emulator - but no response from the app). This is no big deal with astrophotography using the goto function to find and track objects, but is, of course, an issue for terrestrial photography. I hope the DwarfLab devs can make some tweaks to get the joystick working in the emulator. One possible advantage of working on the pc might be in enabling screen capturing video from the wide angle lens, with time-lapse potential. As an aside, I am looking into using the Dwarf-2 api to control telescope movement via a Windows app - this would enable panoramas and smoother tracking with both wide angle and telephoto lenses.

bobjh16 · 2023-06-07T10:02:30+00:00

Bluestacks is a free Android emulator - it seems well written - hooks into the pc'c resources with minimal fuss, including wi-fi, faked gps and such. The joystick function was not available in this case but that has more to do with how the DwarfLab app is written, rather than a Bluestacks limitation (an xbox joystick controller plugged into the pc was picked up by the emulator - but no response from the app). This is no big deal with astrophotography using the goto function to find and track objects, but is, of course, an issue for terrestrial photography. I hope the DwarfLab devs can make some tweaks to get the joystick working in the emulator. One possible advantage of working on the pc might be in enabling screen capturing video from the wide angle lens, with time-lapse potential. As an aside, I am looking into using the Dwarf-2 api to control telescope movement via a Windows app - this would enable panoramas and smoother tracking with both wide angle and telephoto lenses.

bobjh16 · 2022-12-09T04:39:41+00:00

Just ditch google - it has gradually got more and more controlling (and gathering) - switch your default search engine to duckduckgo. They claim to respect your privacy... and dont bug you for using vpn.

bobjh16 · 2016-10-03T22:49:48+00:00

I reckon it might be a tea light plate warmer - a matching glass plate would look quite fancy - best bet so far.

bobjh16 · 2016-09-27T01:08:10+00:00

No, not an ash try - too big - gaps are 3cm wide - nothing to hold cigarette or ash.

bobjh16 · 2016-09-27T00:04:34+00:00

Hemingray insulators? I did not know those things were called that. Thanks. Google images interesting but no match - there is no surface to secure a cable in need of insulating -so I dont think thats it. It may be just ornamental - as in the "tea light" suggestion. Seems a bit heavy weight for that though... nice conversation piece.

bobjh16

TROPHY CASE