Hi,

Thanks for the great app here. Is it possible to include a UVC USB camera in your app? For an example, https://github.com/edu27/pyReflectorCollimator

Regards,
Tom

Hi @sajmons

I had a go with the app and I can compile on Linux and it works (still to try on arm but I do not expect any issue)

What I would like to achieve tho is a ready to be installed app for ArchLInux (x64 and aarch64) and here I would need some guidance because I am a .NET dumb (never done in my life).

I would need a step by step guide to reach a point where a given folder containing the needed bits can be unpacked on the disk to the right place in order to work.

Specifically:

• I see there are two libraries that are shipped with the zip packages, are you bundling them by yourself when packaging? Could you add them (in all fashions) to the repo so it will be easier to bundle them?
• I see an appstate..json is also bundled within the zip archive, where that file should live given, that the executable will be under /usr/bin?
• the archive contains also a CollimationCircles.pdb, same question as above ^

Thanks!

Mattia

When compiled to Win x86, the transparent background does not work on x86, but works on x64. Can this be fixed?

If user detach settings and closes application, there is no way to get settings back.

There si no icon available when user runs application. Only default.

See here for some documentation
https://www.kurokesu.com/main/2016/01/16/manual-usb-camera-settings-in-linux/
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/11105

More of a general feedback.
Just downloaded the latest binary release (1.0.3) and installed the dotnet-runtime on my system (openSUSE Tumbleweed; MS only has a repo for Leap, but it works fine).

I use KDE as DE, running on top of X11. There, transparency only works if compositing is enabled (can be toggled with Alt-Shift-F12)

What does not work for me is the positioning of the window with cursor keys. Instead of moving one pixel in the direction intended, it only jumps a full height of the window top bar down (regardless which direction key I pressed). It is probably is coming from KDE/plasma itself, I've seen that with other applications like the XV image viewer.

Apart from that it seems like a really flexible and easy tool with a clean interface. Great work.
Can't test it for real collimation, as I'm away from my telescopes until April...

Hi @sajmons

I found a weird issue which I am not sure where it originates from since I am a .NET sheep.

So, everything works correctly if I run the commands you gave me and the app starts, but when packaging for Arch the package got broken.

The error:

❯ /usr/bin/CollimationCircles
Failure processing application bundle; possible file corruption.
Arithmetic overflow while reading bundle.
A fatal error occurred while processing application bundle

After some investigations I found out that stripping symbols completely breaks the executable.

strip is generally used to remove unneeded symbols from libs/bins and it helps making also the program smaller (122MB not stripped VS 21MB stripped)

do you know if there is a way to strip safely an executable generated with the .NET sdk?

in the meanwhile I will skip stripping for the ArchLinux package

to replicate:

• compile the program
• run strip CollimationCircles
• run CollimationCircles an error will appear

hi @sajmons I compiled the 2.1.0 but I noticed that it lost its transparency when running the app.

I have the compositor enabled and it indeed stays on the top of other windows always, but the BG is black.

I thought it was the new flags for removing the debug symbols, but I compiled 2 versions (with and without) and the effect is the same

hi @sajmons

I know the readme says it works with .NET7, I got .NET8 and I looked here and I gave it a try

I am able to compile it but when I run it it fails with the following:

Unhandled exception. System.Exception: Application requirements are not met. Try to set 'minLevel' to 'Trace' for 'logconsole' in NLog.config, for more information.
   at CollimationCircles.Program.Main(String[] args)
[1]    58494 IOT instruction (core dumped)  CollimationCircles

important notes:

my scripts were used to copy libHarfBuzzSharp.so and libSkiaSharp.so but I see those are not dynamically linked anymore and I am not copying them over under /usr/lib

❯ ldd build/CollimationCircles
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffce357d000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x000072c7bcf84000)
	libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x000072c7bcf7f000)
	libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x000072c7bcf65000)
	libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x000072c7bce79000)
	librt.so.1 => /usr/lib/librt.so.1 (0x000072c7bce74000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x000072c7bce4d000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x000072c7bca00000)
	libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x000072c7bc81e000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 => /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x000072c7bdaa0000)

the command I use to compile is still dotnet publish -c Release -f net8.0 -r $_flag -o build --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true /p:PublishReadyToRun=true

do you have any idea what I did wrong?

I did try the "Window always stays on top" setting but without success on my setup. I'm running KStars on Raspbian OS (Debian) on a Raspberry Pi 4 on the scope. I guess there are lots of potential conflicts in the fight for "who's on top" in the stack in this case - Qt framework, .NET Core/Mono, compositor, etc.

Hi!
First, many thanks for the excellent app, and that you made it also for Linux users available!
I am using Ubuntu 22.04 with multiple cameras: Lenovo Notebook builtin, old Logitech Quickcam Pro for notebook using UVC and Sony A6500 over gphoto2.
I downloaded the current binary version (3.2.0.0. beta3) of the software and started it. Now the software starts without problems, but the list of available cameras is empty. I tried to use the remote field, and I defined there /dev/video0 .. video4, but it didn't react.
Is it a bug, or am I doing something false? Other applications like zoom, vlc, guvcview can use the camera stream.
However, it is not a show stopper in my case, as I can open the camera stream in an other app and I just overlay the transparent CollimationCircles window on them, but it would be more elegant/simple to use the camera stream directly from the app.

Thanks!
Zoltan

Hi,
thanks for the next version of the collimator! I have published the new version in a German astro-forum.
There is a user question about the comparison to the OCAL commercial collimator product.
The OCAL gives the possibility to adjust a cameras offset if the chip is not installed in the center of its housing.

Does CollimationCircles have or will have such a feature? Don´t ask me how it is done, it`s just a question... ;-)

Cheers
Hartmut

Sorry to bother you, I don't know if the problem is on my side or if it comes from the CC version 3?
Here is what happens, I launch CC, on the previous version I had created a Setup file in .json.
When I load it everything goes well, if I make a change in my setup and want to save the setup in a .json CC file crash!
I attached a video as well as my file.
Maybe it's my machine that doesn't answer very well?
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
Best Regards.
Vincent.
VV_Setup.json

Slight error when opening json files, you have to select . and select your scope from your created files.

hi! i have tried installing dotnet however i don't know if i did it right. here's my latest error:

~/CollimationCircles/CollimationCircles$ dotnet run
/usr/lib/dotnet/sdk/6.0.111/Sdks/Microsoft.NET.Sdk/targets/Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(144,5): error NETSDK1045: The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET 7.0. Either target .NET 6.0 or lower, or use a version of the .NET SDK that supports .NET 7.0. [/home/agwising/CollimationCircles/CollimationCircles/CollimationCircles.csproj]

The build failed. Fix the build errors and run again.

then i tried to build it then i got this error:

~/CollimationCircles/CollimationCircles$ dotnet publish --runtime linux-arm64 /p:PublishSingleFile=true --output ~/Home/CollimationCircles
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 17.0.1+b177f8fa7 for .NET
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Determining projects to restore...
/usr/lib/dotnet/sdk/6.0.111/Sdks/Microsoft.NET.Sdk/targets/Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(144,5): error NETSDK1045: The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET 7.0. Either target .NET 6.0 or lower, or use a version of the .NET SDK that supports .NET 7.0. [/home/a******/CollimationCircles/CollimationCircles/CollimationCircles.csproj]

please help thank you!

Hi, I’m trying to run on a fresh virtual machine with MacOS 14.4 on Apple Silicon (arm) processor.
I have “Unhandled exception. System. NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.” errors.

There is a little typo in readme file:
cd ColiminationCircles/ColiminationCircles
should be
cd ColliminationCircles/ColliminationCircles