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K3CCDTools Features

 
What's New in K3CCDTools
 
System Requirements
 
Features Comparison List
 
General Interesting Features
 
K3CCDTools 1 Screenshots



System Requirements

Requirements K3CCDTools 1 K3CCDTools 2 K3CCDTools 3
Basic


  • IBM PC/AT compatible computer with at least Pentium processor
    (Pentium II or higher is recommended)

  • One of the following operating system:
    Windows 95
    Windows 98
    Windows 98SE
    Windows Millenium
    Windows NT 4.0
    Windows 2000
    Windows XP

  • Display with High Color (16-bit) or greater, resolution 800x600 pixels or more
    (True Color 1024x768 or more is recommended)

  • Video capturing Windows compatible video capture device supporting one of the standards:
     
  • Video for Windows (VFW)

  • Video for Windows (VFW)
  • Windows Driver Model (WDM)
  • TWAIN (for SAC8 cameras)




  • Note:
    WDM capture requires installed DirectX (at least 8.0 version) -
    Microsoft DirectX Downloads


  • Video for Windows (VFW)
  • Windows Driver Model (WDM)
  • TWAIN (for SAC8 cameras)
  • DSI drivers (for DSI, DSI II cameras)
  • Lumenera drivers (for Lumenera cameras)
  • Note:
    WDM capture requires installed DirectX (at least 8.0 version) -
    Microsoft DirectX Downloads


    Features Comparison List


    Video Capturing Mode
     
    Feature K3CCDTools 1 K3CCDTools 2 K3CCDTools 3
    Supported capture device standards
     Video for Windows (VFW)
     Windows Driver Model (WDM)
     TWAIN
     DSI, DSI Pro, DSI II, DSI II Pro
     Lumenera
    Supported video capture hardware
     web-cams (parallel port or USB)
     video cameras / video recorders
     using video VFW capture cards
     video cameras / video recorders
     using video WDM capture cards
     Digital 8 and DV cameras


    (+ camera control interface)


    (+ camera control interface)
     DV cameras
     Other FireWire (IEEE 1394) devices
     SC modified webcams (long exposure)
     SC modified webcams (long exposure) controlled via USB (Shoestring LXUSB adapter)
     JG modified webcams (long exposure)
     SACIV-B,SACIV-C,SACIV-D, SAC7, SAC7b
     
     SAC8, SAC8-II
     
     Perseu ATIK - ATK-1C, ATK-2C,
     ATK-1HS, ATK-1HS II, ATK-2HS
     
     Meade LPI with full exposure control
     Meade DSI, DSI Pro, DSI II, DSI II Pro
     Lumenera
     Artemis and ATIK 16-bit cameras
    (e.g. ART429, ART429C, ART285, ART285C, ATK-16, ATK-16C, ATK-16HR, ATK-16HRC, ATK-16IC)
    VFW Video capture modes
     standard (fast) video sequence capturing
     enhanced modes for standard (fast) video sequence capturing
    (3 enhanced modes - segment AVI capturing, breaking 2GB AVI size barrier)
     single frame capturing
     with adjustable period and repeat count

    (+ high precision timing)

    (+ high precision timing)
     timed video sequence capturing
     SC long exposure mode (parallel & serial interface)
     SC long exposure batch capturing
    WDM Video capture modes
     standard (fast) video sequence capturing
     timed video sequence capturing
     SC long exposure mode (parallel & serial interface)
     SC long exposure batch capturing
    TWAIN Video capture modes
     single frame capturing
     JG long exposure mode (e.g. SAC8)
     JG long exposure batch capturing
    Brighthness Level Meter
     number of working modes (all combinations) 4 36
    (+ low pass filter)
    36
    (+ low pass filter)
     separate RGB channels
     histogram
     live view during video sequence capturing
    (in WDM mode)

    (in WDM mode)
    Focusing Aid
     Focusing Aid tool
     LX200 focuser commands
    Live Histogram
     Live Histogram tool
    Illuminated reticle
     number of patterns 1 4 4
     reticle during video sequence capturing
    (in WDM mode)

    (in WDM mode)
    Other features
     Night Vision mode
     Big Display (showing details about capturing)
    (enhanced - user defined size and colors)
     Port Commander (for camera port control)
     disabling screen saver during capturing
     video capturing alarm
     
    (after achieving a selected number of frames)
     cooperation with Martin Burri's WcCtrl program
     number of Zoom mode sizes 5 5 10

    Digital Camera (DSLR) Shutter Control
     
    Feature K3CCDTools 1 K3CCDTools 2 K3CCDTools 3
    Features
     control via parallel port
     control via serial port
     control via USB port (Shoestring DSUSB interface)
     autofocus pin control

    Autoguiding / Periodic Error and Drift Measurement
     
    Feature K3CCDTools 1 K3CCDTools 2 K3CCDTools 3
    Autoguiding interface support
     LX200 compatible mount
     
    (if you have not LX200 compatible mount,
     you can use
    LX200 Guiding Emulator)
     LX200 pulse guide
     (LX200 GPS mounts)
     ST4 guiding interface
     (enables guiding with a lot of mounts,
     including Celestron NexStar 8/9.25/11 GPS,
     NexStar 5i/8i/8i Special Edition,
     CGE and AS-GT scopes)
     ST4 guiding interface via USB
     (Shoestring GPUSB Interface - allows to guide ST-4 devices without need of parallel port)
     Astromeccanica DA-1
     PISCO interface
     (including
    modified GEM1 mount)
     modified TAL controller
     ASCOM platform support
    (supports a lot of mount interfaces)
     KITSRUS 108
     file interface
    Other features
     guiding with webcams
     guiding with SC long exposure modified cameras
     guiding with JG long exposure modified cameras (incl. SAC8)
     guiding with Meade DSI, DSI Pro, DSI II, DSI II Pro cameras
     guiding with Lumenera cameras
     camera angle correction
     selectable corrections in DEC direction:
     DEC+, DEC- and DEC+/-
     resizable drift/periodic error graph
     (enables to change horizontal and verical scale)
     graph displays drift/periodic error in arcseconds
     realtime statistics
     (actual error, trend, maximum error, standard deviation)
     RA/DEC Backlash compensation
     LX200 moving speed selection buttons
     autoguiding + WDM sequence capturing with a single camera (enables to keep the planet in center of field of view during capturing)

    Sequence Processing
     
    Feature K3CCDTools 1 K3CCDTools 2 K3CCDTools 3
    Input formats
     AVI (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit Grayscale)
     AVI (Type-1 DV from some DV capture programs)
     multiple AVI files processed as one sequence
     AVI file barrier 1GB for WDM,
    2GB for VFW
    1GB for WDM,
    2GB for VFW
    no barrier
     BMP (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     PNG (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     PNG (48-bit color and 16-bit grayscale)
     JPG (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     TIFF (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     TIFF (48-bit color and 16-bit grayscale)
     FIT (16-bit and 32-bit)
     maximum number of processed frames 5000-10000
    (higher number is loaded very slowly or cannot be loaded at all)
    5000-10000
    (higher number is loaded very slowly or cannot be loaded at all)
    virtually no limit
    Output formats
     AVI (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     BMP (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     PNG (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     JPG (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     TIFF (24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale)
     TIFF (48-bit color and 16-bit grayscale)
     FIT (16-bit and 32-bit)
     FIT color planes (3x16-bit and 3x32-bit)
     Animated GIF
    Dark Frame and Flat Field formats
     24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit grayscale formats
     48-bit color and 16-bit grayscale formats
     48-bit color dark frames for 24-bit color sequence
     16-bit dark frames for 8-bit grayscale sequence
     48-bit color flat fields for 24-bit color sequence
     16-bit flat fields for 8-bit grayscale sequence
    Color RAW processing
     Debayer filter
     number of debayer algorithms for RAW webcams -- 2 2
     Debayer filter for Meade DSI RAW frames
    Additional tools
     extract L/R/G/B components
     from group of pictures or AVI sequence
     expand frames
     
    (expands group of pictures to the same size)
    Other features
     input filters support
     (R, G, B, L, Y, U, V, Debayer fast, Debayer HQ)
     output filters support
     (Text Output)
     stacking algorithms Sum
    If Lighter
    Sum
    If Lighter
    If Darker
    Sum
    If Lighter
    If Darker
     sequence quality and difference graph
     Planetary Wizard
     (Easy and fast processing of planetary sequences)

    (enhanced version)

    (enhanced version)
     blinking comparison of arbitrary two frames
     thumbnail view style
     Zoom Tool
     Live Histogram


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    Last Update: 06.08.2007