Project:
Nikon D800 for astrophotography ?

Contents:

1. Nikon D800 overview
2. Adapter Nikon to Pentax 645
3. Lid, Dove tail, Tube ring
4. Focuser mechanism, driver
5. Off-axis guide camera
6. Computer module and DC/DC converter
7. DC/DC general triple converters
8. Main bracket
9. Wiring & USB-HUB
10. Test with Windows and APT
11. First Light
12. Balance system
13. Nikon vs Canon, Pentax FA vs Pentax
14. Tilt adjuster
15. KStars/INDI setup for Nikon
16. To be continued

Note:
I take no responsibility or liability for what are written here, you use the information on your own risk!

15: KStars/INDI setup for Nikon

Nikon has always been told to be hard to control from a KStars/EKOS. For me almost everything started to work direct after some basic setup. But there is one problem, sometimes when downloading images from the camera there can be a timeout. When it happens it's mostly the first image in a sequence.

Downloading timeout:

After the exposure is finished it start to download the image from the camera. Here it took very long time and nothing happened, it got a timeout. After a while it continue with the next image and then it succeed. I also noticed that it temporarily changed the setup to use FITS format instead for Native which is was from the beginning.

Looking in the folder where it stores the images I can see that it downloaded even the first image. But stored it in the format FITS, not native NEF which it was setup to do. The next coming images store in NEF format.

INDI Control panel:

The setup in INDI control panel looks like this for the Nikon camera. I read somewhere long time ago that Nikon must store its images on the SD card. The "Capture Target" > "SD Card" is the SD card in the camera.

I changed Capture Target from "RAM" to "SD Card" and then it start working as it should. At least for now. My Nikon D800 have both a SD card and a Compact Flash card. I tested, both works. After I took a sequence I checked the camera's SD card, nothing was stored in it, so KStars erased the images after it used it.

The download speed increased from 4 sec to 2 sec, but that is not all. If I take 60 60 seconds exposures and doing auto guiding with a dither for every 3rd image it take 74 minutes. There is no mirror delay or other delay activated. That is 13 seconds between each photo.

Notice how many pixels this camera have, it's eating the memory in a fast pace.

I also tested "SD Image", set it to "Ignore". The cameras shutter opens and close, but it doesn't download the image.

I talk to my friend who also have a Nikon D800. He said that he must remove the memory cards from the camera to have it to work. He has it connected to a Windows system, not Linux as I do.