7.4 FTP_DetectMultipleFF.exe

If the detection happened during the night and was successfully completed, then skip this section and go to section 7.3.3.

If you have chosen to run FTP_CaptureDonglesAndDetect.exe with flag 0 (no detections) for the night, or something went wrong and no detectinfo has been created during the capture session, then you have to run FTP_DetectMultipleFF.exe. This is a very time consuming procedure and therefore we recommend to let CAMS do the detections during the night while capturing, unless the CPU of your computer is insufficient to manage the job during the capturing itself.

FTP_DetectMultipleFF.exe will analyze all captured bin-files for any suspect moving objects that could be meteors. Each bin-file with some suspect movement will be copied or moved under ‘c:\CAMS\ArchivedFiles’ and a text file FTPdetectinfo_… .txt will be generated with all data of the positions etc. for the moving objects that were detected, calibrated with the earlier obtained astrometry file (= ‘Cal’ file).

Unfortunately FTP_ DetectMultipleFF.exe is the most CPU consuming routine in the loop and to reprocess the data for a single camera and a single night your PC may be running for a while. Therefore it is recommended to take advantage of the night time and have your PC do the reprocessing during the capturing session. To achieve this from the very first night, the trick is to have a valid calibration or Cal-file before capture starts.

Figure 42 – FTP_ DetectMultipleFF.exe will prompt you to choose the archive flag, to enter the number of detection processes (1 is recommended) and to select the capture folder that needs reprocessing.

 

  • Start FTP_DetectMultipleFF.exe
  • Navigate to the right directory ‘C:\CAMS\CapturedFiles\yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm_ss\’
  • Select ‘C:\CAMS\Cal’
  • Select ‘1’ to copy all bin-files with suspected motion under ‘C:\CAMS\ArchivedFiles\yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm_ss\’

More about FTP_DetectMultipleFF.exe (post capture) by Pete Gural

Multi-daughter process/multi-cores detection on previously captured FF files. Multiple daughter detection processes – exe required: FTP_DetectSingleFF.exe.
Input files: CameraSites, LASTSETTINGS, ReprocessParameters, CAL*.
Output files: DetectStats.log, FTPdetectinfo_0001.txt to #processors used. Note that detectinfo files need to be merged via FTP_CombineDetectinfo
FTP_DetectMultipleFF can be run by double clicking on the executable or via a batch file command line.

Clicking on the FTP_DetectMultipleFF executable icon will go into interactive mode where the user enters the detection archive flag, the number of child processes to spawn, and the FF file folder to process. Note: all the FF files will be processed with a unique numbered detectinfo file generated for each child process. Typically the number of child processes used matches the number of cores available. But if the user intends more interactive use of the computer, fewer processes can be specified and the processing load will be distributed over a longer period of time. The CAL folder (to be used for applying the astrometric solution) will be derived from the FF folder tree structure assumed for a typical CAMS installation.

Various options for the command line entries:

Executable_name  archive_flag  #detect_processes  FF_folder_pathname:

FTP_DetectMultipleFF                User prompted for archive flag, process count, FF files folder pathname
FTP_DetectMultipleFF  0            User prompted for process count, FF files folder pathname, no move/copy of detected FF files
FTP_DetectMultipleFF  1  4        User prompted for FF files folder pathname, 4 detect processes, copy detected FF files
FTP_DetectMultipleFF  2  2  …\CAMS\CapturedFiles\2013_11_10_00_01_03    No user prompts, 2 detect processes, move detected FF files

If archive_flag is copy (1) or move (2), a new folder …\CAMS\ArchivedFiles\2013_11_10_00_01_03\  is created for the potential detection files given in last example above. The code also looks for a Calibration directory named …\CAMS\Cal\. If not found then the user is prompted for the calibration folder.

Error return codes

  • 0 – Normal completion
  • 10 – Memory not allocated for working arrays
  • 11 – Critical section not initialized
  • 16 – Writing FF thread not created
  • 17 – Writing FF thread could not begin
  • 20 – Detection thread not created
  • 21 – Detection thread could not begin
  • 22 – Could not open output log file
  • 27 – Twilight calculation error for very high latitudes
  • other – Sensoray error codes – refer to their software manual for the 817 board

More about FTP_DetectSingleFF.exe (post capture) by Pete Gural

Single instance/core detection on one FF file
Input files: CameraSites, LASTSETTINGS, ReprocessParameters, CAL*
Output files: FTPdetectinfo* or append to user defined FTPdetectinfo_####_*
FTP_DetectSingleFF can be run by double clicking on the executable or via command line.

Clicking on the FTP_DetectSingleFF executable icon will go into interactive mode where  the user will be asked to navigate to the FF file, and a Detectinfo file will be auto generated. This program only processes a single FF for detection and either generates a Detectinfo file or appends to an existing one the user specifies via a command line call. The exit code returned is 0 for detection, 99 for no detection, and 1 for other errors.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A CAL file may be applied to this data if it exists. The program searches up into the FF file CAMS path for …\CAMS\Cal\. Or use ApplyCal2Detect once a calibration file is available to update Detectinfo.

Running from the command line there are alternative options as follows:

Executable name   FF_file   Detectinfo_pathname
FTP_DetectSingleFF      User prompted for FF file, Detectinfo auto-generated
FTP_DetectSingleFF  D:\CAMS\…\FF*.bin       No user prompts, Detectinfo auto-generated
FTP_DetectSingleFF  D:\CAMS\…\FF*.bin   D:\CAMS\…\Detectinfo_000123_case1. No user prompts, Writes detection information to existing Detectinfo file

NOTE:  Format for Detectinfo should follow this convention:

Detectinfo_######_*.txt  where ###### can be any six digit number except 000000 but usually follows camera number convention

More about FTP_CombineDetectinfo (post capture) by Pete Gural

Merges multiple detectinfo files in a folder into one file.

Input files: FTPdetectinfo* and preferentially “C” appended to end for dedup.
Output files: FTPdetectinfo_0000_*

Combines all FTPdetectinfo files in a user specified folder that  have camera numbers greater than zero and preferentially “C” appended to duplicate filenames that had applyCal2Detect run. It produces an FTPdetectinfo_000000_* file that merges all those  files into one and places it in the same folder for coincidence processing. The FF folder in the file header will be updated to  reflect the specified folder and the CAL folder written to the header will be a modified version of that folder …\CAMS\Cal\.

FTP_CombineDetectinfo can be run from a batch file
FTP_CombineDetectinfo.exe  FTPdetectinfo_Folder
FTP_CombineDetectinfo.exe        User prompted to navigate to FTPdetectinfo_* folder
FTP_CombineDetectinfo.exe  C:\CAMS\ConfirmedFiles\2012_11_18_00_12_59\ No user prompts except for confirmation responses