(meteorobs) OT -Question to the UFOCaptureV2. -PAUL PUGH et.al.,

[Larry]

Yes Paco, the minimum processor & memory requirements for UFO Ver.2.22 is 
formidable.

The settings I outlined previously was to make UFO extremely sensitive to 
EVERY tiny apparent light motion in the sky. It is a good starting point to 
assess the effects of changing any other UFO parameter one at a time. This 
starting position is excellent for meteor radiants and total meteor counts 
using the "T" image....but not magnitude. The .avi's are flawless.

Since I seek only a reliable backup for Sentinel in case it misses a 
fireball during its number crunching reset time, It will work better(but not 
easier) than HandyAvi. These starting setups mentioned will NOT be what I 
will use for the actual Sentinel back-up operation.

(I believe) great care must be excersized on Scintillation Mask and Frame 
shift settings. Both can cause clipping on leading edges & trailing edges of 
a meteors weaker ablation. I understand that frame shift value determines 
how far back in the frames UFO looks in determining a trigger or ending a 
triggered .avi.... (IF) Head & Tail are short values. I will continue to use 
30 (1 second) on both and examine that function more closely later.

I will NEVER use Slow Object masking. I need the plane trails and also will 
not risk losing any part of slower fireballs. Another area of further 
investigation....

Dark Object masking could be (VERY) useful for Spiders & Bugs on the dome, 
Birds, etc., during the hours of subdued light. I get many of these 
irritations.

On captures to date: Numerous short meteors etc., down to 1/10 inch on 
screen and smaller. A lot of fireballs under 1/2 inch lately. About 4 
fireballs 3/4 inch and of course (LOTS) of "highly desired" plane traces 
superimposed as a composite which certifies everything is running well. :-)

On HandyAvi..... I am about to put it to bed. "Early-on" 3 or so years ago 
the frame skipping was measured here with a 1 second Oscilloscope trace and 
1 or more frames were dropping at what appeared to be regular intervals in 
every 1 second .avi.  I dismissed it as being caused by a slower computer 
with marginal Ram or the characteristics of the AverMedia capture card I 
had. Since then, I have ran HandyAvi on the 2.4Ghz. / 2Gb. Ram computer with 
the same frame skipping playback and jerky motion of moving objects. UFO 
uses the same model card without these defects.

HandyAvi was fine for a cheap, easy, back-up capture 
solution..........."back then". Here is a URL to a defective HandyAvi 
recording of an important Bolide. See insert of a correct composite image 
after .avi frames were re-arranged using the pre- and post- frame content.
http://cams.seti.org/sentinel/page2.html  HandyAvi pictures are difficult to 
enlarge.  :-/

Long post. Unavoidable if others are interested.

YCSentinel

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francisco Ocaña" <albireo3000 at yahoo.es>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: 2009/08/27 14:07
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) OT -Question to the UFOCaptureV2. -PAUL PUGH 
et.al.,


Well, I forgot to metion that UFOC needs a fast processor, at least
2Ghz. I tried a 1Ghz one, and the software runs only with half
resolution AVI. Not sure what HandyAvi needs, but Metrec beats them all.
And not everybody has a fast computer to use just for fireball recording
( I use one borrowed, hehe). Metrec option should be considered too.

Not sure why not using Scintillation Mask is the best solution for you.
I can´t detect faint meteors without it because starlight variations
would cause a trigger (but remember that the Scintillation Mask uses a
lot of your processor).

I find the Detect Level Noise Tracking really useful as the conditions
vary a lot during the night, maybe 10 or 20 "units" (far more than the 7
I use as a threshold value). And I use 3 as Detect Size as it works when
I was working with the settings.

The Frame Shift Diff. number I have always used '1'. I can not imagine
what a difference other value could make. Tell us your results. For the
planes I would recommend you to try the Slow Object Mask. The Dark
Object Mask works also quite fine during the twilight.

Do you have already recorded any fireball? Best,

Paco

Larry escribió:
> It is getting very interesting now.
>
> My settings are probably radical and I will list them shortly after I
> mention that the worst computer running UFO is 800mhz & 384mb memory. It 
> is
> still really flakey but does detect weak meteors even tho' it does not
> produce .avi's good or long enough to see all the full flight path. Same 
> on
> airplanes, jerky .avi motions. Settings are the the same as on a faster
> computer running UFO also. I plan on changing motherboards to 900mhz & 
> 512mb
> ram if it will fit the case on the slower one to see if that is the 
> problem
> with it.
>
> Meanwhile.... the bigger computer running UFO is 2392mhz with 2.048Gb ram.
> It has been capturing short and fast meteors and tonight captured a 13
> second aircraft and played it back perfectly as an .avi. (I am 
> experimenting
> on the Frame Shift Diff. number). It was at 5 when the plane was recorded
> and I am reducing it to 3 to see if bright planes drop out too soon. Long
> Plane flights are a good way of making sure UFO is working.
>
> Anyway to the settings.....
>
> Checking Detect level Noise & Scintillation Mask killed me. Even after
> reducing their effects with numerical adjustments. I used MaskW (with the
> Scintillation checked) to see how much reduction to try. It got better. As
> it turns out, not using Scintillation Mask (at all) was best for me. 
> Detect
> Level Noise also is not good because it is self adjusting and can make 
> weak
> meteors disappear altogether by ramping up the Detect Level.
>
> One of the key adjustments is to make Detect Size....really small! I use 3
> even with the detect level bouncing around 50. A small meteor will go 
> easily
> over these two adjustments and cause a trigger.
>
> Nothing else is checked except Superimpose date/time on the Input Tab.
>
> On the Operation Tab... leave everything alone on Still Image Capture box.
> Check the start-stop box and set the hours.
>
> I do not check any other box and leave everything else I would not use 
> there
> alone....the way it was. Then I save my settings.
>
> So for now..... I am trying to decide on what the Frame Shift Diff. number
> should be by observing its effect on both planes and short fast meteors. 
> The
> final number will be between 1 and 5 I think.....for tonight it is 3.
>
> UFOV2.22 is working (quite well at this point) on the faster
> computer....better than HandyAvi ever did. (IMHO)
>
> YCSentinel
>
>

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