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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Guiding failed after meridian flip

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Ah the Mac vs Windows battle. As old as time itself.

I find the Linux version slow even on a RPI4 and it's a poor user experience as I have to terminal in and have less real-estate. At the moment I have 2 screens I can spread out on. I'm having a good think about what I'll be using going forward. KStars/Ekos has a lot of potential to it but we need this thing to bullet proof. I'm not staying up all night to monitor the software. It should be stable enough that I can set and forget.
3 years 11 months ago #52628

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No Mac vs Windows fight. I use both.
I just don't use Windows on my own time in my house.
3 years 11 months ago #52629

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Yes, I recommed that you try SGP. It's a well supported, mature, product and I think you will find that the software and support will suit you. You will find plenty of kindred spirits in their forum.
3 years 11 months ago #52641

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I think I'm going to have to. I'm wasting so much time fighting with this software. Tonight is no better.

So far I'm having aligning issue where the alignment module won't plate solve. It get's close to my limit but then fails. Now I'm having issues with the guiding module where the calibration fails. Other people may be having better luck than me but I'm fed up wasting my time.
3 years 11 months ago #52648

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I just checked the logs and the solver just can't get a solution after the meridian flip it keep trying and trying over with multiple timeouts. Did you happen to see the images post the meridian? were they normal? no clouds or some motion knocked the camera to different area in the sky or something like that? At any rate, capture module was trying too many times, and I just adjusted it to also fail in case of solver time out (vs solver failure).
3 years 11 months ago #52652

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Hi Jasim,

Unfortunately I was asleep when it did the meridian flip so I don’t know what the images looked like.

Las night though when I was having similar issues with the solver timing out the images looked like the always did. Slightly grainy but clear enough to solve from. The behaviour last night was very weird. It would skew to a target but be way off. The solver would start and the mount would get closer to the target. It would keep solving until it go close to the limit (30 arcsec), then back off where it would solve, get close but never reach the limit I set.

The other issue was that guiding was constantly failing. Calibration start, R.A. would calibrate but Dec would fail.

The suddenness of these issues makes me think it’s my mount. I have had issues in the past where the Dec would fail on guiding calibration but if I tried again it would work. Then my Total RMS would never below 1.5 - 2.

Rene
3 years 11 months ago #52701

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I had a similar issue with the mount not moving to the target. The solution was to select nearest point instead of N-star in my mount's alignment tab.
3 years 11 months ago #52706

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I'm almost certain it is set to 'Nearest point' but I'll double check.

Cheers
3 years 11 months ago #52708

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Yesterday I had a close look on the guide module working, when slewing from one variable star to the next. I think the issue is that guiding is not searching for a guide star when it resumes its work.
When the first picture of the new area is coming in, the green square stays where it was, when guiding the variable star before. In most cases there is no star in the green square then. But in order to serach for a new guide star the module stays there and guides on whatever I don't know. After a while the guiding module reports: "Delta RMS threshold value exceeded. Searching for guide star." Within some millis the green square is locked on a suitable guide star and everything works fine ........ until the next variable. Would be nice if this could be fixed.
I hope my English is good enough to understand what I mean.
Greetings, Jörg!
3 years 11 months ago #52729

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Auto star checkbox was checked?
3 years 11 months ago #52732

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Good question, but it was.
My suspicion is that the function 'search a guide star' cannot be called correctly at the change from the old starfiel to a new one. Nothing like 'searching for guide star' is written to the log. Perhaps the old values (coordinates) are transferred or the guide module doesn't realize that there is a new starfield. Could even be a very simple cause that has been overlooked. Programming is a heavily mined terrain!

Greetings,Jörg!
3 years 11 months ago #52786

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Yes! This is what I have seen over and over. It seems to work well the first time auto-star is used, but then after that it usually fails after I move to a new field. This happens of course after a meridian flip, but also happens when I just slew to a new target field.

The guide star box seems locks on to the same area from the previous search, even when that area is now devoid of stars. It should have searched the whole field again, but it doesn't.
The meridian Flip video I made was one success after three previous fails. It's random if the guider will find a new guide star, even when there are tons of stars. That little green box just doesn't seem to select a new area after the first time.

Peter
Last edit: 3 years 10 months ago by Peter Kennett.
3 years 11 months ago #52806

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