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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Using GPS with Astroberry 2.0.0

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I am experimenting with my smartphone with netGPS which works as a gps server. It works well, but now I can't understand how I can implement it in the system as the rtc provided by the gps. The application requires the configured indi gps_nmea driver
4 years 1 month ago #48851

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On my system it is /dev/ttyS0, and the GPS is connected to the RaspberryPi UART on the header. Actually, I am not sure the time is really updated from the GPSD at all, how can I tell? I see that it gets updated from the custom RTC on start, since the time is up-to-date even without internet connection. How should I make crony synchronize system time, RTC (possibly also NTP if connection ever available?) and GPSD (if signal available) by their logical priority?
4 years 1 month ago #48855

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I have now tried out a fresh image of Astroberry 2.0.1 and the updated version with chrony configured definitely gets its system clock from my gps dongle (ublox-7). However in my Kstars/Ekos/Indi profile, with gps set as the source of timing and location for Kstars, the time is never updated.
So my approach now at switch on is to leave a period of time for the gps to capture satellites and to update the system time, and only then start up Kstars with the option set for updating Kstars from system time and no longer the gps. However the gps location is no longer providing useful information. Is there some other switch to set?
4 years 1 month ago #48938

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... just to make sure we're on the safe side - is indi-gpsd driver up and running in your profile?
4 years 1 month ago #48977

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Hello,

Thank Radek for giving us a glimpse under the covers. I looked up timedatectl. The last example in this link shows GPS as the time source.

Timedatectl usage

Under AB2.0.0, I never noticed GPSD not providing time. I will look at the time/date and GPS soon. Maybe, timedatectl does work with GPSD. However, I think it is going to be GPS or Network.
4 years 1 month ago #49013

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I have located an issue with the operation of GPS which seems to very much in Indi area. I can now make the fault appear in all my micro SD card implementations! However I can also make the issue disappear in all three! My workaround is to enter the Options tab in INDI Control Panel - GPSD - and choose Time Source <strong>System</strong> and not <strong>GPS</strong>. The actions window still shows that there are two GPS fixes per 60 seconds, but the system time and KStars time match well enough <1 sec differential.
and if I set the Time Source choice to GPS this is the result where the updated UTC time each minute only increments one second.
Last edit: 4 years 1 month ago by Avocette. Reason: Adding images
4 years 1 month ago #49018
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Hello,

Yesterday, I spent some time looking at AB 2.0.1 and GPS Time. In my instance of AB 2.0.1, I found a real conflict between CHRONY and TIMEDATECTL. If I started one, the other would stop. Ok.

I looked at the configuration of TIMEDATECTL and the default CONF file is GPS ready. So, I can see why CHRONY is redundant. My plan is to remove CHRONY and seek a solution between TIMEDATECTL and GPSD. As it stands, my system is working as ttyACM. Raspbian picked ttyACM as the resultant solution to the u-blox-7 DYI GPS USB and AstroEQ.

I came to this solution as Raspbian took me there. I could not run two ACM devices at the same time. The AstroEQ and u-blox fought over ttyACM0. I originally looked at INDI-GPUSB thinking that these devices are USB. Nope. Raspbian is very persistent, ttyACM or nothing. I then used udevadm as the path to managing two ttyACM devices. Understanding udevadm first, was the good step. Using udevadm resolved the conflict.

The u-blox 7 was faster to the draw than the AstroEQ. I tried loading things sequentially. The u-blox was insistent. INDI server was the battleground. Using udevadm made INDI server happy and EKOS knowing location, time zone, and time.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Avocette
4 years 1 month ago #49061

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Hello,

CHRONY is completely integrated in to AstroBerry Server. Removing CHRONY would destroy AstroBerry. This leaves the OS in a quandary. Right now, everything is working. Nothing needs to be done.
4 years 1 month ago #49070

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If I recall correctly, chrony was added by Radek only on the latest update from 2.0.0 to 2.0.1.


Sorry I don’t understand - my GPS dongle works only in certain circumstances. After good luck and a helpful pattern of experiences last night, this morning KStars says Nofix. It is as if the GPS unit is not plugged in, yet gpsd and Indi-gpsd are running and gpsmon shows an excellent fix has been found. For me, there are a number of bugs to isolate and cure to make this work reliably.
Last edit: 4 years 1 month ago by Avocette. Reason: Clarity
4 years 1 month ago #49071

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I'm not aware that timesync can get time from GPS. That's why I made Astroberry dependent on chrony in Astroberry 2.0.1.
What is proper configuration of timesync that supports GPS? If anybody got it working please share. I can easily come back to pure timesync and forget chrony.
4 years 1 month ago #49072

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Hello,

I am looking into the GPS issues. I am seeing a n issue now. I have my GPS installed. I ran XGPS. I see two GPS devices, /dev/ttyACM0 and /tmp/vgps. A conflict exists between the two. Looks like VirtualGPS is running. It gives the default site for Warsaw, Poland. This is interfering with the device and INDI driver. I am disabling VirtualGPS.
4 years 1 month ago #49092

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Hello,

I disabled VirtualGPS and that cleared up GPSD. INDI and GPSD are happy now.
4 years 1 month ago #49094

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