JQuickTake - Version 1.3

JQuickTake - Version 1.3 Release

This release includes a small number of enhancements of varying importance.

NOTE: Before installing a new version of JQuickTake, please first uninstall the old version from your PC.

1 - Camera 'Wake-Up Process

There is a logic flow that lets the Camera know the PC is ready to establish a connection (via a Serial Port). The flow is such that the PC announces it's ready to proceed and then waits for the Camera to 'wake-up' and respond. If the PC receives a response within a defined wait-time, the PC will establish a connection and the Camera can be managed. If the PC does not received a response within the wait-time, the PC will determine there is a problem and confirm via UI that the Camera will not open

The PC previously waited about 1/10 of a second for Camera to wake-up. There is a possible flaw in this process for some specific types of Serial Port adapters for which 1/10 of a second may be insufficient. With this new Version 1.3, the PC will wait for the Camera to wake-up for up to 10 seconds before deciding there is a problem.

2 - Menu Bar

JQuickTake how has a menu bar with a few basic functions:

File > Exit to shut down JQuickTake

Logging > Configure Debug Logging to enable a logfile contianing debug info (more on this below)

Help > About JQuickTake to display the version of JQuickTake and few other pieces of info

3 - Configure Debug Logging

This new feature useful to the Poor Programmer who takes care of JQuickTake, but likely has minimal use for End-Users. Nevertheless, it will provide a pop-up that turns on logging, allows a selection of where the logfile will be created, and selection of Verbose logging. The logfile naming convention is:

QuickTake Log MMM dd yyyy hh-mm-ss.log

The log will contain entries from various areas JQuickTake. Normally, data read from the camera will be truncated at 200 bytes. If Verbose is selected, that truncation will be turned off, meaning that lots of data can be written to the log file (e.g. full stream of data for every picture read from the camera).

Release Binaries

Details are in the README, but the release binaries are:

JQuickTake-1.3.exe - Windows Installer that includes a bundled Java 17 runtime

JQuickTake-1.3.dmg - MacOS Installer that includes a bundled Java 17 runtime

app.zip/app.tar - Scripting and executables that allow JQuickTake to be run on Windows and MacOS using an existing Java runtime

Unless there is a compelling need, this is likely the final point-release of JQuickTake. Version 2.0 is under development (slowly) and is intended to support the display of images read from the camera (thumbnail and full image),. While this effort is in-progress, there is no timeline for completion beyond 'sometime in 2025'.