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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

ASI533MC Pro and UBlox 7 GPS module

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Hi cofford,

I am 99% certain it is an issue with USB3.0 connections causing em interference with the GPS Signal.
you can test this by operating the UBlox 7 Module on a completely seperate device (for example a windows laptop), but in very close proximity to the rest of the setup.
As soon as you turn your setup on (including the USB3 connection to the astrocamera), you will lose GPS Signal. It has nothing to do with drivers or software problems. It is sadly just electromagnetic interference.

I ended up ditching the Ublox 7 gps dongle, and streaming the GPS Data from my phones GPS instead
3 years 5 months ago #62057

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It’s not that, I use the same GPS in my rpi, and have no issues....
3 years 5 months ago #62059

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If you are using a dongle with no attached GPS antenna, then you are relying on the signal received by an teensy tiny little patch antenna built onto the chip inside the Ublox. These patch antennas are marginal under all circumstances, but when other devices start adding to the local noise, the snr can get so low that a lock isn't possible, and it sounds like that's you. If the Ublox has a connector for one, try a GPS antenna. Or separate the Ublox from the rest of the gear with an appropriate usb cable.
3 years 5 months ago #62060

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I experienced similar issues between a Ublox 7 GPS and the electronics of my installation (ODroid computer, Pegasus Astro PPBA...) lately as I had cut the GPS cable short, not to have a long cable dangling. The GPS would not get a signal, likely because of nearby interferences from the electronics. Putting the GPS at the end of a USB extension and away from the electronics made the GPS work correctly again. Lesson learned, do not cut your GPS cable short!
3 years 5 months ago #62078

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Cool - how do you do that?
3 years 4 months ago #62304

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Hi AirBourn,

In short: with the android app "Share GPS" and the INDI GPS NEMA driver.

With the app, you can share a NEMA stream via Network.

The INDI NEMA driver needs to know the IP address of the phone. I use the small TP-Link travel router (30€) on the telescope to manage the network and give fixed IPs to all devices.

In the app, I set up a connection with the following settings:
Data Type: NEMA
Connection Method: TCP/IP
Port: 50000
TCP/IP Server: act as server and listen for incoming connections

I first connect my phone to the network and start the app. I then start a gps application on the phone and make sure I have a position fix. Then I connect the indi driver. It usually gets the position immediately and also syncs the exact time for KSTARS.

For some reason, this method stops working after the intitial connection. The indi driver can't get a connection to update the position or time again without restarting everything. I don't know if this is a problem with the driver or the app. But I only need the position and time sync once at the beginning of a session anyway.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Joaquin
3 years 4 months ago #62312

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The NMEA output stream does not provide accurate time. It provides only "current second" which is usually off at least half a second, and sometimes more with Cell system delays etc. Repeatedly looking at the stream and resetting time to it will introduce a lot of erratic error into the timebase of your rig. In order to get accurate time from a GPS, you must use the PPS signal coming from the GPS sats. This requires significant effort on a Linux box, and a compatible GPS (Most U-Blox based dongles do not provide PPS.)

Given that a GEM mount is just a big clock, time matters.

Every device on your rig should be set to the exact same time. If that time is wrong, it creates an offset that your software can mostly deal with through alignment (which mainly corrects time error). But if the time changes more or less constantly, as it would using an NMEA source with continuous updating, your guiding will blow goats. If the GPSNMEA driver did update with every tz string from the GPS, it would be a constant large error source. So INDI using it once, is the correct method for NMEA-only sources.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Elias Erdnuess
3 years 4 months ago #62313

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I never could get the UBlox 7 dongle working, so I did the same thing and used the GPS in my iPhone with the GPS2IP app. Works great.
3 years 4 months ago #62316

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I have the DIYmalls VK-162 G-Mouse USB GPS Dongle and it works great by itself when the antenna is far away from the Stellarmate, but not at all when the puck is near the StellarMate. Anyone tried a shield or similar to help? I'm trying to avoid placing the antenna lower on the mount away from the kit to minimize any cabling hanging off the gear.
3 years 4 months ago #62320

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I haven't had much luck with the internal patch antennas on either dongles or hats. Pi's are noisy and unshielded, and hard to get a signal right next to them. They'll get a lock outdoors sometimes, but its erratic.
3 years 4 months ago #62348

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Hello Cofford, so sorry to ask but I am trying to get my asi120mm mini to work on rasbery pi 4 in PHD2. The camera is not detected at all.
I am not even sure that phd2 is properly linked to INDI. How did you get yours to work. I have read that the mini does not work on Linux, others
say you have to flash the mini; yet, i find not files to flash that camera with. No help from ZWO forum or support.
Thank You
Harry Nash
3 years 1 month ago #67613

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Funny I was looking into this yesterday.

The ASI120mm is the one with the issue, the bigger unit not the mini, and not the 120mm-s which is the USB3 version.

However I do see reports of issues with this camera ASI120mm mini, but not like the other one. I do have issues with this camera ASI120mm mini in Windows using APT and the native drivers. I had to connect my main camera first 294mc to APT and then connect the ASI120mm mini to PHD2 with the native driver, and always connect the usb cables/hub the exact same way. It's still iffy and that's one of the reasons I recently switched to Pi4.

I am using the 120mm mini mono AND a 294MC on the Raspberry Pi4 and Kstars/Ekos. I had some camera drop outs in PHD2 and couldn't work it out with this configuration. I selected INDI camera and INDI mount in PHD2. At that point you don't start your camera, you just always keep PHD2 running and Ekos will handle that as long as you select PHD2 as the guiding program when you create your Ekos profile. Here:




So I tried the internal guider and was getting good results with no drop outs. Some things to try too:

Here are some things to try regarding this camera (120mm mini mono):
plug it into the hub of your main camera (if that's an option)
plug it directly into a different USB port on your computer, preferably USB2
take it off of the usb3 hub.
3 years 1 month ago #67722

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