"Pentax Remote Assistant"

I have just downloaded this software and updated the K10D camera firmware to v.1.2.

Can anyone tell me how I can view the images which are viewable on my laptop in full screen view. This would be of great help when used in the studio. THe software does not seem to support this but it doesn't seem logical-unless I am missing something!

Thanks

Neil

Neil,
Mentioned on this thread: https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4422&postdays=0&postord...

Must try it myself sometime...
HTH!
Matt

The software allows you to detach the image viewer, but it them becomes only slightly larger than the initial attached version. Hardly helpful!

You can of course fudge around by having a program (such as Adobe Bridge) watch the directory to where these images are stored. You can then open the latest image that way.

But nothing quite as automatic as you would have hoped from this tool. Remote Assist is nice, but I always get the feeling that it was thought of as a hold-over until a third party made something better.

Hi,

I was thinking of using this software with Adobe Lightroom to give a larger review of the images whilst shooting but I am a little concerned about upgrading the firmware on the camera. How big a risk is it and what can you do if it goes wrong?

Also do you know how long a USB cable the K10D can use?

Thanks
Kevin

Upgraded with each one so far with no problems. I also have yet to hear of anyone having a problem.
If your battery is charged to last a few minutes it should not be a problem. I don't know how much juice a upgrade uses, but you may just want to ensure you have the batteries fully charged. (Or get a external power supply)

If something does go wrong, unfortunately you very likely become the proud owner of a door stop that closely resembles a K10D. i.e. You need to return it to get a new brain.

USB cables have a theoretical maximum of 5 meters (I think??). You can buy extender cables and chaining them together (to the max of 5M), or you can get powered hubs or cables to go greater lengths. I have two cables chained at the moment for nearly 3m with no problem.
There is another thread on here somewhere from not too long ago that has some good detail on the issue.

Having braced my nerves and fully charging the battery I had a go at upgrading the firmware. And despite ~90 nerveous seconds everything seems to have gone correctly and my K10D now reports version 1.20 Hooray.

So I had a go at installing the remote software and plugging in the Camera. Windows installed 2 devices correctly for the card reader and camera but unfortunately the pentax software dosnt see the camera. Oh well.

I saw in the other post linked above that it can be sensitive on USB ports so might look at getting a card or a powered hub.

Are you using a USB 2.0 slot?

Yes it is USB2.0, tried the case front ones that plug into the motherboard headers and the ones on the back that are soldered on.

Most things work fine and it saw the camera memory card fine but I have had an external USB disk that had problems with this computer. Its an Asus motherboard by the way.

It seems a bit confusing as the drivers appear to install fine for the camera when it is plugged in but it is like the Pentax software just cant see them.

Those of you who have it working do you remember if it installed 2 devices or more?

I hate to ask, but how old is the motherboard? I used to have LOADS of problems with USB on ASUS motherboards. There are/were two standards for USB. One was supported by Microsoft Windows, the other was not. ASUS seemed to have the best motherboards except for their use of this oddball USB protocol. Most items still worked but you'd hit the odd device or piece of software that would have problems.

That was three or four years ago so I'd hope they worked that out, but then again maybe not. But it may be worth looking into. If it is the motherboard no HUB will help. You may need to get an expansion card with more USB ports. (Seems stupid but it was my solution at the time).

I think it is about 12months old but time flys so could be longer. I think it could well be the ports as it dosnt seem to complain about power or report any issues, the hub was a bit of a forlorn hope . It does behave a bit strange with booting with some USB card readers as well so maybe it will help with that.

One thing IT has taught me is that 3 years is plenty of time to fix a problem, forget you had it, undo the fix and wonder why things dont work

Anybody any recommendations on brands/chipsets for expansion cards?

I forgot, that was the specific problem! My card reader had to be pulled out any time I had to reboot the system. Try turning off legacy mode if it is on. (via BIOS) I believe that was the solution.
(Wow, those gray cells are still alive?!?!? They fail me when I try to remember what I did this morning, and now they kick in for something four years ago! Argh!!)


If that doesn't help, I would hazard a guess that most expansion cards are going to be just fine. It was something pretty specific to the ASUS BIOS.
I would not spend a lot of money, but I'd probably go with a name brand like Belkin.

Thanks amoringello good memory, that seems to have fixed the booting with a card reader plugged in problem.

Unfortunately it does not appear to have helped the camera problem so gonna try and get hold of a new usb card tommorrow.

have you tried uninstalling the driver and remote assistant software, rebooting and re-installing?

I have found USB drivers to be a bit finikity.

I think my post on undocumented k10 feature may address your question.
I'm pretty sure that the idea will work on a windows machine.
Does windows have a networking equivalent to mac's bonjour?
my mac will recognize a windows machine, on my network....
if being able to view thumbnails, delete, download or view (2/3 screen on my laptop) through the web browser helps...

I believe when in tethered mode and taking photos via Remote Assistant, the images do not stay on the camera. So accessing the camera as a drive or network connection probably won't help.