by switching on the debug on the INDI driver for the AstroTechTracker I have confirmed that this is not an issue!

basically my phd2 configuration set an option "Use Pulse Cmd" off and that suits the rather old version of the firmware I have for the AstroTechTracker. However when I start my rig with a different application for example the Cartes du Ciel ccdciel software that switched this option on. By looking at the driver debug I worked out that the two applications (phd2 and ccdciel) were attempting to use different guide mechanisms so I can now reconfigure both application to use the same mechanism and the original problem is solved.

phd2 saves the INDI properties with single quote and the other applications save the INDI properties with double quotes but both styles of configuration file work.

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I have observed some strange behaviour with phd2 and indi server when properties are saved via the indi gui using Linux.

To be specific. If start from everything off and connect the server and then phd2 I can drive my scope mount (AstroTechTracker) DEC and RA.
If I start from everything off and connect first my Planetarium app and my camera app (ccdciel) then connect phd2 I can view my guide scope images but I can't control my scope mount.

I notice that from phd2 if I save the INDI properties I get strings and numbers surrounded by a single quote for example:

<newSwitchVector device='LX200 OpenAstroTech' name='DEVICE_BAUD_RATE'>
  <oneSwitch name='9600'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='19200'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>

<newSwitchVector device="LX200 OpenAstroTech" name="DEVICE_BAUD_RATE">
        <oneSwitch name="9600">
Off
        </oneSwitch>
        <oneSwitch name="19200">
On
        </oneSwitch>

I think I have found my solution.. for me the INDI-Webcam does not provide all the matching configuration settings for the IMX290 chip.. The "V4L2 CCD" driver is much better and provides all the configuration items needed. By comparing the output from

v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext -d /dev/video0

and

v4l2-ctl -L

that show all the supported combinations of the various parameters I think (touch wood) that I can get a reliable capture at whatever pixel dimensions I wish for.

I have noticed that after running the output of v4l2-ctl suggests only 30fps is supported for all the pixel sizes.. but reboot the PC and the 15, 20, 25, 30 fps speeds get restored. Other than that wiki.openastrotech.com/Knowledge/Guiding seems to show how PHP2 is configured for guiding so waiting now for good conditions!

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I am also attempting to use OpenAstroGuider - have you found a way to reliably get 1280x720p @V4L working? So far most of my attempts end up with 640x480px.

Peter

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If anyone stumbles upon this thread and is interested.. PHD2 is easy to compile...
My initial guess was that the "Unsupported type or read error loading FITS file" message I got came from the cfitsio library.. so I build the latest cfitsio library and PHD2 code and found the same problems.
Next step was to look at phd2/cam_indi.cpp where the error occurs and I find that the HDU number of axis is expected to be 2.. with INDI Webcam and the IMX290 USB camera I am using OpenAstroGuider with 2.9u pixel size the fits file has NAXIS = 3 / number of data axes .. so the phd2 code can't handle this type of image.
Now I am using Linux so I can look at what the sensor supports:
/dev/video0 Index : 0 Pixel Format: 'MJPG' Discrete 1920x1080 .. 1280x720 .. 640x480 .. 320x240 : 15, 20, 25, 30 fps
/dev/video0 Index : 1 Pixel Format: YUYV 4:2:2 Discrete 640x480 .. 320x240 : 30.000 fps
/dev/video2 Index : 0 Pixel Format: 'H264' Discrete 1920x1080 .. 1280x720 .. 640x480 .. 320x240 : 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 fps

INDI Webcam seems to find it difficult to select /dev/video0 Index : 0 so by default it give me Pixel Format: YUYV 4:2:2.. - unfortunate because I only get 640x480 images.... working on that at the moment.

Anyway back to phd2.. simply by changing the code to accept NAXIS = 3 allows me to at least see an image in phd2 and allows the loop exposures to work so it will be interesting to see how I get on with the guiding part!!

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as a novice user on Linux.. self install can usually teach you a lot!

This has a high chance of success for you:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indi-full gsc

I found a very good description of the various drift alignment procedures see for example - sites.google.com/site/openphdguiding/phd2-drift-alignment

I can see kstars has the guiding part and a limited set of drift alignment procedures however I was just looking at phd2 because it seemed to have more comprehensive instructions. - I don't intend to use Astrometry.net and plate solving as part of the alignment process just yet... trying to learn about one thing at a time!. I can also run phd2 on its own without any other distractions.

I will continue investigating / building phd2.. perhaps my version 2.6.11.rev20230530-0ppa1~ubuntu20.04 is too far out of date and has bugs that are now fixed.

Peter.

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Here is a newbie question...
I have been exploring indi kstars ekos and phd2. I have a Canon EOS 1100D camera and find that ekos supports both streaming and picture taking. However when trying out PHD2 I find that PHD2 does not recognise the .stream image output so streaming does not work but individual pictures seem to work. I also have an Alba 10M pixel webcam that I have stripped down to attach to my various lenses to take image. Now Alba seems totally unsupported by PHD2 (INDI Webcam) but again is fully supported in ekos. I am purchasing an OpenAstroGuider V3 with the IMX290 sensor with the hope that this is fully supported in PHD2 (INDI Webcam).

Here is my question... given that INDI Webcam seems to work well with ekos and Canon DSLR seems to also work with ekos... how much software effort is needed to support my camera's in PHD2? I have seen the git repos at github.com/knro and that seems to be the best place to start with development of my camera interfaces. I would just be focusing on PHD2 code and work in a Linux Ubuntu environment. I have used QT so wxWidgets dont scare me too much, I have used OpenCV.... so.... where to start!?

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