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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Help Required! Polar Alignment Experiment

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I fixed an issue this week that was accepted that will fix the problem with the lx200ap_experimental driver not properly showing tracking enabled after the mount is unparked from a POWER OFF state.

What seems to be still not quite right is if you PARK the mount and do not power it off and then UNPARK the mount. In this case the INDI driver has requested tracking to restart but the mount firmware seems to not actually do this. Instead it seems to wait until the first move is requested of the mount and then it starts tracking.

I couldn't find anything in the protocol documentation from AP. When I have a chance I will have to get in touch with them and see if there is a clarification of what is going on here.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Greg
5 years 2 months ago #33933

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Continuing all,

I recently wrote:

> I suppose I could test this by doing a *very* slight jog with the mount
> control before engaging the Polar Alignment routine -- is that even
> worth trying? (I'm obviously desperate for a solution :-) )

Well, I tried it last night, and -- it worked! I actually got quite a good
polar alignment (less than one arcminute from the pole) using the
westerly rotation and the non-diagonal (i.e., non-ONAG) parity of
the downloaded image. Testing the "flipped" parity case will have to
wait for another night.

Now, there was a nightly-build update in-between the time I wrote
the original problem statement and the test, so I can't say if something
changed in the driver, or if it was my tiny jog that did it. I ran out of
time for testing, otherwise I would have verified that.

Thanks to all who put some thought into this feature. I will post
further test results when I can (now that I *can* test it!).

Greg
5 years 2 months ago #34057

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Hey,

after experiencing problems while testing the polar assistant with the new manual slew feature I experimented quite a while yesterday.
Finally after reading this thread it occurred to me to check the orientation of the image on my sensor. Indeed (presumably due to the flattener I use) the image is upright.
When I switched on parity detection in the astrometry options it started to work and I got below one ' polar alignment accuracy with the star adventurer (the polar scope gives me typically 3.5' accuracy).

It might be a good idea to highlight the parity switch. Maybe a new tutorial would be worth it.

Cheers, Sebastian
The following user(s) said Thank You: Alfred
5 years 1 month ago #35443

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A few nights ago I got to test my ASI120MM 'polemaster' with a 50mm lens mounted in the center of my HEQ5 Pro. It worked flawlessly, easily achieving a 1 minute error within minutes on the first iteration. Undoubtedly I could have gotten sub 1 minute with a second adjustment, not that it would be much benefit to be that precise on a temporary setup with autoguiding.

Edit: I believe I posted this to the wrong thread. Oops :whistle:
Last edit: 5 years 1 month ago by Andrew.
5 years 1 month ago #35477

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Sebastian,

The flattener will not alter the image orientation in any way.

Paul
5 years 1 month ago #35499

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