The jpegs can be viewed with any image viewer, though personally i really like FastStone link. The website is klunky but the tool is great.

The FF files are best viewed with a tool that was created specially for them, CMN_BinViewer. Because they're not normal FITS files, tools like FitsLiberator or Pixinsight will misunderstand them. More info on CMN_Binviewer can be found here.

Yes. The system is designed for scientific data capture, and so image quality is discarded in favour of data quality.

Some cameras appear darker than others. They also seem to get dimmer with age. As long as RMS can identify 20 stars it should be ok however do check you've run the configuration script

Scripts/RMS_SetCameraParams.sh

.

There are three possible causes:

• Bad network connection from camera to Pi. Test the cable isn't damaged, loose or wet, and replace if needed.
• Pi is overheating. Check the fan and check its not dusty or in full sun or in a location with high ambient temperature.
• You have a Pi4 with the old 'gstreamer' data capture routine. See Pi-and-Camera-FAQ#Advanced for advice.

The data analysis we run on the server removes these but if you want to generate cleaner data for outreach or sharing you can use CMN_binViewer to eliminate bad data. See this FAQ for more details.

See this section of the GMN wiki for why that might not actually be true. TLDR: although the files are FITS images, they're not standard astronomical mono or even RGB images and some astronomical imaging software display them in an unexpected orientation. Remember, there's no up or down in space, so for space images its an arbitrary decision whether (0,0) is at the top left, bottom left or even a different corner.

This is most likely a powersaving issue. The Pi can be set to switch off the network if not in active use all the time. This seems a great idea, but actually its a terrible one because it means you can't connect to it! Unfortunately the good folk who manage the operating system keep changing their minds and so periodically, powersaving gets re-enabled by an update. To disable it do the following:

edit /etc/rc.local and add 
  /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off
just above the exit 0

Note that you will neede to use sudo permissions to edit the file.

There are a few things to try.

• If the Pi is connecting over 5GHz wifi then try the 2.4GHz band. And vice-versa if its on the 2.4GHz band already.
• Make sure nothing is plugged into the USB3 ports. There's a known problem with USB3 on Pi4s creating wifi interference.
• Its also possible there's a nearby radio-loud source interfering with wifi. Ring doorbells, wireless printers etc are possible culprits. Many of these devices contain a Wifi Access Point which can swamp your router's signal. Try turning them off or disabling their AP if possible.
• Finally, if signal is weak its possible the pi is simply losing the network connection. The script described [here](https://github.com/markmac99/ukmon-pitools/wiki/Network-Check-Script-installation here) might help. Note that this is quite a techy solution.

If you tried running ShowLiveStream but got some gobbledygook followed by Can't open video stream: rtsp://192.168.42.10:554/user=admin&password=&channel=1&stream=0.sdp Press any key to continue...

The error indicates that the camera isn't responding when the software tries to connect to it. Usually, this is a cable or power issue, though it could be that the SD card is corrupt or even that the camera is dead.

First confirm that the Pi can't talk to the camera: open a terminal window on the Pi and type "ping 192.168.42.10". If this returns no packets, then the Pi is unable to communicate with the camera. If it DOES return packets, then the SD card is corrupt. Backup your config and reflash the card.

The commonest issue is that the PoE converter has failed, either at the Pi end or in the camera cable. Another possibility is that the network cable has failed internally.

First check that the camera has power. The green light in the camera cable should be on. If this light is off then it indicates power problem. If its on, then its most likely a network cable fault.

If the light is on, there could be a problem inside the camera cable. To confirm that the camera is getting power from the cable use a multimeter across the red/black pair. Also test the back of the main chip which should feel warm to the touch. If you have a portable 12v supply, and your camera cable has a 12v socket, try plugging it into the camera.

Also try using a different network cable, if possible. Water can get into the cables and cause shorts.

If the camera comes to life when you plug in a 12v supply, then it is most likely the PoE adapters. if it comes to life when you swap network cables, its a network cable fault. If neither helps, it could be a fault inside the camera cable.

Sometimes, the Camera Cable comes without the white connectors attached so the imx291 pin layout and imx307 pin layout may be useful.