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v2024.12.06

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@Alex-developer Alex-developer released this 21 Dec 15:21
· 4 commits to master since this release
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Changes that may require action (upgrades only)

The changes in this section may require settings changes; after upgrading, check that your settings and images look right.

  • The config.sh and ftp-settings.sh files are gone - their settings are now in the WebUI.
    Possible action: The upgrade should migrate your prior settings to the WebUI unless you have a very old version of Allsky in which case you'll be notified during the upgrade on what to do.
  • The CROP settings have been simplified to specifiy the number of pixels to crop from the top, right, bottom, and left of an image.
    Possible action: If you cropped your images the upgrade will notify you to re-enter the settings using the new fields.
  • The Remove Bad Images Thresholds settings are now between 0.0 and 1.0 instead of 0 - 100.
    Possible action: The upgrade should adjust your threshold values to the new range, but check.
  • Allsky now uses the mean brightness of an image to determine if it is too bright or too dark. This is the same way auto-exposure determines the exposure to use. Prior releases looked at the whole image including any dark borders.
    Possible action: You may need to adjust your Remove Bad Images Thresholds to take into account for this change.
  • (ZWO only) The mean brightness of an images is now a number between 0.0 and 1.0; it used to be 0 - 255. This matches the Mean Target settings which have always been between 0.0 and 1.0 as well as the Remove Bad Images Thresholds. settings, making it easier to determine what values to use.
    Possible action: If the MEAN variable is on your overlay you may need to change the format it's displayed in. A two or three-digit number is best.
  • The WebUI now hides the settings in each section unless there's an error in that section. To view a section's settings, click the symbol on the left side of a section heading.
    Possible action: This may take a little time to get used to. However, with the significant increase in WebUI settings it would be difficult to find what you want if the sections weren't hidden.
  • check_allsky.sh is now called checkAllsky.sh to be consistant with other program names.
    Possible action: None.

Enhancements / Changes

  • Setting up an Allsky Website on the Pi is now trivial - just enable the the Use Local Website setting and optionally set the number of days' images to keep via the Days To Keep on Pi Website setting. No more trying to figure out how to set the variables!
  • Setting up a Website on a remote server is easier since the only directory you have to specify is the top-level Image Directory in the WebUI.
  • Installing a Website on a remote server is significantly easier as well. Use the new remote_website_install.sh command; it will upload the Allsky Website files for you and remove any old, unneeded files. If this is a new remote Website, remote_website_install.sh will ask you whether or not to also upload any startrails, keograms, and timelapse videos on your Pi.
  • Images, timelapse, keograms, and startrails can now be written to a remote server in addition to, or instead of, a remote Website. This is useful if you want to include those images in a different website or want to archive them.
  • The new allsky-config command is similar to the raspi-config command but for Allsky information and configuration. This command is mentioned in several documentation pages (as well as below) to easily describe how to do something.
  • Execute allsky-config to see what it can do.
  • Running allsky-config samba allows you to mount the ~/allsky directory on a PC or MAC. See Copy files to / from a Pi for more information.
  • The new testUpload.sh command tries to upload a test file to either a remote Website or remote server. If the upload fails, the command attempts to tell you why it failed and what to do about it.
  • When changing settings, Allsky only restarts if it needs to. Some settings, like the Owner don't impact taking images so there's no reason to restart Allsky. A few settings cause Allsky to stop after being changed. Hovering you mouse over a WebUI data field displays a popup that indicates what will happen after changing that field.
  • The module Overlay Method is now the default for new installations. In the next major Allsky release the legacy method will be removed and the only way to add text will be using the Overlay Editor.
  • You can now have more than one ZWO camera connected, and on the Pi 5, more than one RPi camera connected. The installation will show ALL attached cameras.
  • If you change cameras without notifying Allsky (e.g., you shutdown the Pi, replace the camera with a different model, then restart the Pi), Allsky will not start and will put a message in the WebUI telling you how to properly change cameras. No message will be given if you replace a camera with the same model, e.g., an RPi HQ with another RPi HQ camera.
  • If you try using an unsupported camera you'll receive a message stating that and telling you what to do and how to request support for the camera.
  • All ZWO cameras as of September 7, 2024 are supported (library version 1.36).
  • Support for some new third-party RPi cameras was added.

Run allsky-config show_supported_cameras to see the supported ZWO and RPi cameras.
The ZWO list is over 130 entries so if you want to check if a camera you're considering getting is supported, run:

allsky-config show_supported_cameras --zwo | grep -i "CAMERA_NAME"
replacing CAMERA_NAME with the name with OUT ASI, e.g., 178mc.
Checking for an RPi camera is easier:

allsky-config show_supported_cameras --rpi

  • The LAN Dashboard and WLAN Dashboard WebUI pages now display all network adapters, regardless of their names.
  • The endOfNight_additionalSteps.sh file is no longer supported. The few people that had that file should use the "night to day" module flow instead.
  • When taking dark frames, any images that is too bright is deleted. This can happen if you start taking darks before covering the lens or if the lens cover lets in some light, e.g., a plastic lens cap.
  • DHCP on the Pi can be configured via the WebUI's Configure DHCP page. This is an advanced option that is not used very often.
  • Overlay changes:
  • The overlay module debugging output is easier to read.
  1. You can now create different overlays for daytime and nighttime. The new Overlay Manager is available from the main toolbar in the Overlay Editor. Several overlay templates for different cameras are provided which can be customised to your requirements. If you have customised the overlay then during the upgrade process a new custom overlay will be created for you and assigned to both daytime and nighttime captures. If you have not customised the overlay then Allsky will attempt to use the best overlay for your camera.
  2. The Overlay Editor will display a warning if any of the fields on the overlay are outside the image area. The fields can be fixed which will move them into the bounds of the image. See [BUG] If a field is outside the image ...
  3. If images are not being captured the Overlay Editor will not start and will display a message and wait until images are being captured. This prevents a (usually much smaller) notification image from being used as the Overlay Editor background.
  1. Allsky AI - Detects cloud cover using AI
  2. Allsky Fans - Controls a fan based upon cpu temperature
  3. Allsky Border - Expands an image to include additional borders
  4. Allsky HDD Temp - Retrives hard drive temperatures using SMART
  5. Allsky ina3221 - Allows current and voltage measurements
  6. Allsky influxdb - Allows data to be written to uinfluxdb
  7. Allsky light - Determines light levels using a TSL2591
  8. Allsky LightGraph - Displays a graph of day and night
  9. Allsky ltr390 - Measures UV levels
  10. Allsky mlx90640 - Captures an IR image of the sky (very experimental)
  11. Allsky Publish Data - Publish Allsky data to Redis, MQTT, or REST
  12. Allsky Temp - Reads up to three temperature sensors and controls a gpio pin based upon the temperature

New Settings

  • Images Sort Order determines the sort order of the images on the WebUI's Images page.
  • Show Updated Message allows hiding the Daytime images updated every... message on the WebUI's Live View page.
  • Nighttime Capture and Nighttime Save are the same as the daytime settings but for nighttime.
  • ZWO Exposure Type specifies how images should be taken. See the documentation for a description of the different types.
  • Deleted Settings
  • The Image Width and Height settings were deleted since they are no longer needed. Use the crop and/or resize settings instead.
  • The Version 0.8 Exposure setting was deleted since it's functionality is incorporated into the ZWO Exposure Type setting.
  • The New Exposure Algorithm setting was deleted because it produced better results so is now always used.
  • The REMOVE_BAD_IMAGES setting was deleted to keep people from disabling the check. In addition to "too dark" and "too light" images, images that are empty and corrupt are also checked for, and those images kept timelapses from being created. If you don't want to run the brightness checks set their Remove Bad Images Thresholds to 0.
  • The Brightness settings were deleted since there is no need for them. Changes to brightness should be done via the Target Mean settings.
  • (ZWO only) The Offset setting was deleted. It brightened every pixel by the amount specified and is not needed with allsky cameras.

Bug Fixes

  • ASI_ERROR_TIMEOUT messages are mostly gone. Yea!!!
  • The ROI selection code assumed the captured image was always a jpg. It now looks in the settings to determine the correct image name. See Ensure the ROI editor uses the correct image
  • Date formats in the overlay editor are now working correctly

Maintenance

  • All setting names are now lowercase and boolean settings are "true" and "false" rather than 1 and 0. These changes should have no impact on users.