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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

*** Help needed to test changes to the Ekos Focus Module ***

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Hi John, It might be a good idea to look at the code I originally developed to see what you might learn from it. Here's the link:

invent.kde.org/dmsummers/kstars/-/commit...898eaca8e0dc9891582f

Note that the main section of code (focusCompensator.cpp) is collapsed by default due to its larger size. Just uncollapse. Hopefully a look will answer multiple questions. If it's still not clear what was going on, I'm happy to discuss. You can send me a PM or email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cheers, Doug
Last edit: 10 months 3 weeks ago by Doug S.
10 months 3 weeks ago #92531

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Thanks for sharing this Doug, I'll take a look!
10 months 3 weeks ago #92536

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If you're going to take a look at the code, I guess it would be helpful to have the config file that was used. Here's what the controls config looked like:

10 months 3 weeks ago #92538
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Hi folks,

The code is now merged so is available in master.

There is an issue with Autofocus when no filter wheel is connected so please don't try that until my fix for it is merged (hopefully soon).
10 months 2 weeks ago #92715

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The "Autofocus with no filter wheel" issue is now fixed.
10 months 2 weeks ago #92722

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Sweet. If you ever need a Mac OSX tester, let me know.
I have a C11 with a Moonlight Litecrawler.
10 months 2 weeks ago #92799

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Peter,

If there are nightly compiles for the mac (you probably know that better than me) then you can test out John's changes to the Focus tab and Linear1Pass scheme. Those changes are all in the latest software and latest nightly compiles. I've been running them successfully by compiling my own (on Linux). I'm sure John would appreciate any/all feedback.

Hy
10 months 2 weeks ago #92802

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I believe the Mac nightlies can be installed from binary-factory.kde.org/job/KStars_Nightly_macos/. There are occasional hitches in finishing the compile run.
10 months 2 weeks ago #92806

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Great! I just saw that the latest nightly in the MacOSX Binary factory was may 11. I'll download it tonight.
10 months 2 weeks ago #92809

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Yes all feedback greatly appreciated!

Just to set the scene… this is beta testing and the changes are quite extensive so make sure you can revert to your “normal” config / version in case of issues.
10 months 2 weeks ago #92815

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Hi John,

first, thanks for that massive work!
I had prepared a version right after you released it, but only last night had the chance to look at it under starry skies.
Not too much to report yet, as I did not dig into the changes and new options and only used the 'classic' L1P.
One thing I noticed was on the first AF run (started manually). I got an outlier just at the proper focus position. After that, it had stopped updating the fit curve and interpolated focus position. Instead it continued further into the wing of the hyperbola (more than usual, 8 points after the min instead of typically 6), and only then plotted the fit and went to the (correct) focus position.
Cannot tell if that repeated like that in other (automatic) AF runs, in the manual run it was sort of an irritation.
All the other (automatic) runs succeeded, even one in really bad seeing conditions - likely due to the new outlier rejection. I'm sure with the old L1P it would have started another full run, here it completed with 16 points. Nice!

I got a bit irritated by the tooltips in the Assist tab, hovering over 'Help' it said it would reset stuff to defaults....

Also, a comment about the backlash compensation tooltip/help entry:
You say one should only use one of them, and set the other to zero. I disagree there, and the reason is BL accuracy and filter offsets: It is correct that for the AF run only one of them is needed, but ISTR that we agreed earlier that it does not harm to use both. The problem is that you do want to start close to focus for the AF run to succeed with high probability. The BL of my setup is 84 steps. That is about the same as the filter offset between the blue and the red channel, and almost as much as the focus range (5 times 20 steps) that I use. So IMO it is crucial that the filter offset is applied including (coarse) BL correction, and as I understand right now the only way of doing that is with the BL correction in the driver. My experience with that however is that it is not too reliable for short tunings. When I was measuring it, I did not get a mere parallelogram for the steps-vs-distance curve, it always was slowly creeping up until the linear regime started. So for AF I use the additional overdrive on top of the driver BL correction (...just like the guy wearing both belt and suspenders :S )

And a question about the final point of your list: Overdrive focusing for all focus movements. That isn't in ATM, correct? That would eventually remove the above constraint. I had wishlisted that some years ago, but got told that this would have to be in (all the) drivers, not in the general INDI code. So I'm curious how you (inted to) tackle this.

CFZ:
Very nice addition. It computes a CFZ of 13 steps for my system, and suggests to set the step width to that. I have mine set to 20 steps. Partly coming from the old 'Linear' that would do the refinement at half that step size. Do you think doing the full scan at that step size is necessary? I'd definitely have to increase the number of 'steps out', substantially increasing the time needed for an AF run. It was my feeling that about twice the CFZ is sufficient to interpolate the focus position to well within a CFZ (even more with the new weighting and outlier rejection)

Cheers,
Pit

PS: Will continue tests tonight, though only in twilight to save the moonless imaging time... :blush:
10 months 2 weeks ago #92835

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Hi Pit,

Thanks very much for the feedback!

If the graph stops redrawing the curve after each point that's usually because the curve fitter fails to find a solution. AF will move to the next point and try again. That usually fixes things. The intermediate graphs are just there to show progress to the user; only the last one is used to calculate the focus point.

FYI, if you want to review focus runs from a previous session you can use the Analyse tab and click on the focus event and it will display the datapoints on the focus graph. Useful for reviewing an unattended session in the morning.

Good spot on the tool tips on the Focus Advisor button - they are wrong. I'll fix those.

AF Overscan. With this release AF Overscan is applied to all focuser movements that Kstars Focus knows about. If you move the focuser outside of Kstars Focus then Overscan won't be applied.

So if you only use Kstars Focus to move the focuser all moves with have Overscan applied: AF runs (all algorithms), Goto Position button, Focus In/Out buttons, Adaptive Focus moves, filter offset moves. So you only need to set AF Overscan. Hopefully that's a win!

If for some reason you do need backlash as well as AF Overscan then its fine to use both as we discussed. But I'm hoping that it won't be necessary for most folks to do this now.

As far as issues with the focus starting position when changing filters, check out "Adapt Start" in the document at the top of this thread. Basically, if you change filters from Red to Blue, then if you have "Adapt Start Pos" checked then the start position for the AF run on Blue will be last successful run on Blue (rather than the last run on Red). It will also "adapt" that last successful focus run on Blue based on temperature / altitude differences between the last good run and now (if you configure parameters for this). The document has more information.

CFZ. There is a view that it makes sense to have at least 1 datapoint within the CFZ during a focus run which means Inital Step Size <= CFZ. This is why Focus Advisor suggests Initial Step Size = CFZ. Personally on my equipment I set a step size of about 1.5 to 2 * CFZ. With accurate curve fitting I don't feel its necessary to have a very small step size, but happy to hear what others think. I can easier change this recommendation depending on what feel.

I did include a focus walk called "CFZ Shuffle" (again see the document for more details) but this basically will take half step sizes around the CFZ during the focus run. So for those that could get benefit from having extra steps near the focus point but don't want many extra focus points (that slow the focus run down) this might be an option to try.

Of course, the Focus Advisor is just applying generic logic. More experienced users will get better results by playing around with parameters but the idea is to give some robust parameter suggestions for folks that are struggling to get a good focus.

Once again, thanks for the feedback and good luck exploring the new functionality!
10 months 1 week ago #92838

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