also I think the set up is ok, but will attach a screenshot to assist.

Seems like indiserver and/or other indi drivers are not installed properly. Are you able to run indiserver command from command line?

Please go into the settings, in the INDI tab, and make sure to check the checkboxes that say you will be using the internal INDI server. I am assuming that you would like to use the internal INDI server and are not trying to run a separate one on the command line or anything like that. These checkboxes are a MacOS-only setting since Linux doesn't have an internal INDI server that it can use.



While you are at it, you might check for a similar issue for XPlanet in that tab, but it isn't as critical.

Thanks,

Rob

I am not sure why your settings didn't get set to the defaults or why they would have gotten changed, was this your first time running KStars on this Mac?

Hi Rob. yes the Indi Server and Indi drivers box you showed was not ticked.

I ticked them both and then KStars and Ekos is working again.

I wonder how they un-ticked themselves.

I certainly did not turn them off myself.

anyway its working good now. thanks For the assistance.

no I had run KStars at least 5 or 6 times previously.

for the drivers in the INDI library, are we supposed to download and install them ourselves, or are they included with KStars as a default?

also where would they be installed on my Mac?

thanks Spaceman

Yes it would really be good to know how the settings got changed. If you had done it before with no issues, that is weird.

The INDI drivers have many dependencies and many are shared with KStars. So they are bundled with KStars for Mac at the moment. You can build and install them separately on the Mac such as with macports, homebrew, or craft and you could then select to use those drivers, but you can’t just download and install them separately on a Mac at the moment.

thanks for that info Rob. appreciated.

can you advise what driver I should use for a Skywatcher AZ/EQ5 mount?

thanks Spaceman

I would highly recommend the Eqmod driver while using the eq direct cable you can get from a number of astronomy vendors. You take out the hand paddle and plug this in. The other end is usb

The syncscan driver can work with the computer interface in the hand paddle, but I don’t recommend that route. I found it to be unreliable. The connection drops too much and it has far less features than the eqmod driver.

thanks Rob.

I am on a Mac, and the driver (non INDI) that PHD2 uses to control the mount when I use PHD2 outside of EKOS is called EQ-Mac.

Is the EQ-Mod Indi Driver, the equivalent for the AZ/EQ5, and EKOS?

also so far I have been using a standard USB cable, directly from from my Mac to the Synscan Hand controller, and putting the mount in PC Direct Mode. then the control signal runs through the Hand Controller which becomes passive.

do you think I need a EQ Direct Cable? note my mount also has USB input as well as the Hand Controller input.

thanks Spaceman

So I don't personally know about this EQ-Mac driver, that could be similar or something different, I'm not sure, but he EQMod indi driver is the same driver that is used on Linux for EQ mounts.

If you are using a USB connection in PC Direct mode right now, that will still work, but I have found that to be unreliable since they didn't design it to be used that way. Sometimes the connection just drops and I found that when that happens, the telescope randomly slews sometimes. I just found the EQ direct cable to be much more reliable. I haven't seen one with a separate USB connection, just the hand controller serial connection. You can always try it to see if its performance is acceptable before spending more money on a new cable.

thanks Rob.

when using the EQ-Direct cable, do you physically plug it into the slot where the hand controller is usually plugged into?

so the hand controller is removed when using the EQ-Direct cable?

thanks Dave