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git remote add sterne-jaeger https://github.com/sterne-jaeger/kstars.git
git pull --all
git checkout scheduler_restart_guiding_dithering_errors
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Hi Steve,
PHD2 is sending EKOS a failure status when settling fails. Settling happens after a request to start guiding or after a request to dither. Here are the relevant entries from your log:
19:36:00.144 00.628 139929404830144 evsrv: cli 0x56227b192f00 request: {"id":449,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"dither","params":[5.3,false,{"pixels":3,"time":14,"timeout":90}]}
19:37:30.366 00.000 139929404830144 evsrv: {"Event":"SettleDone","Timestamp":1576694250.366,"Host":"E5430","Inst":1,"Status":1,"Error":"timed-out waiting for guider to settle","TotalFrames":45,"DroppedFrames":45}
and later
21:30:48.251 02.292 139929404830144 evsrv: cli 0x56227b192f00 request: {"id":3580,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"dither","params":[5.3,false,{"pixels":3,"time":14,"timeout":90}]}
21:32:19.175 00.000 139929404830144 evsrv: {"Event":"SettleDone","Timestamp":1576701139.175,"Host":"E5430","Inst":1,"Status":1,"Error":"timed-out waiting for guider to settle","TotalFrames":26,"DroppedFrames":13}
Failure of settling would be a good trigger for EKOS to act on to start some recovery process.
In addition to triggering on settling failure, it makes sense for an imaging app to abort a frame and trigger recovery when the PHD2's reported guide star offset value exceeds some threshold. PHD2 sends EKOS the guide star offset for each guide camera frame in the GuideStep and StarLost notification events. The distance value is a smoothed moving average so it is not susceptible to transient spikes or intermittent dropped camera frames. This allows imaging apps to use the offset value as a reliable indication of guide failure or loss of the guide star due to clouds over an extended time. The imaging app should trigger recovery when the distance value exceeds a user-defined threshold. You can choose a threshold value that is a bit larger than your typical guide error. When PHD2 reports a distance value larger than the threshold something really has gone wrong with guiding and the current camera frame should be aborted.
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[2019-12-18T19:37:30.367 CET INFO ][ org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - "PHD2: There was a dithering error, but continue guiding."
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