Greetings, all set up here and ready for some darkish skies.

The first is kstars always crashes the first time I connect with Ekos. Need to turn more logging on, but have not yet as it is easy enough to restart and keep moving.

The next problem is the Ekos window wants to be on the top of everything. Clicking into anything that would pop up a dialog window makes the window pop below the Ekos window. I am running kstars bleeding on Fedora, but it has been this way for a few releases now. I have two monitors, so I just juggle things around, and know how to work around it, but it would be nice to have Ekos not locked to always on top.

The second problem is a little more painful. I am using a ZWO 1600 mono, and flipflat. Everything works fine, auto-focus, alignment, focus, etc, until I go to the CCD tab. Every time I want to do a preview after starting fresh, I get the message:

I do not have Auto Dark checked on the CCD tab, so do not know why it says it needs a flat or dark cap device. Even so, the controls for the flipflat work just fine when I go run it manually. Usually, am able to do a combination of setting up a sequence job, starting, stopping it, removing it, or some iteration of to get past the flat or dark cap error, and it will work fine the rest of the evening.

I really think I need to record a video of this, but here are my steps to reproduce:

focus, 2-star align, go to object, sync on it for a 3rd point, go to CCD tab, hit preview. This is when I get the error the first time. After this, Ekos behaves very strangely until it gets away from this error. By strange, it does this:

Create a sequence.
Start the sequence, the same error appears. The CCD tab has the spinner that just sits there until you hit the square stop button.

Tonight I cannot figure out how to get beyond this and am stopped.

Logs coming.

I got past it by setting the capture type to flat, then going to the calibration button and setting the flat capture device to manual. It was set to "Dust Cover with Built In Flat Light", which is exactly what my flip flat is. I get the error again when I got back to Light type.

... and now I just found a window under the Ekos window that says "Does ZWO CCD ASI1600MM Pro have a shutter?" I clicked no as it is an electronic shutter (I do not recall seeing that before), and kstars crashed to the desktop.

After restarting, it is working so I am left wondering if I have had a dialog box under the Ekos window for some time and the is the crux of my problem.

Here is a cap of my sequence settings:

Can we see a screenshot of your sequence window with all the settings and sequence that you normally use?

I was in the process of editing the previous post when you posted your reply. It might just be the windows popping under the Ekos window and they are getting lost. Having those small dialog windows not being responded to seems to cause the main Ekos window behave strangely. Perhaps it should be disabled until they are cleared?

That could be... especially if a window is waiting on you to respond about the flip flat being in the way or something.

What does a typical sequence look like for you? Do you combine lights and flats into a single sequence? Or do you do separate sequences for those?

There are a few preferences to make the windows independent. Not 100% sure what all they do, but it might be worth exploring if that fixes the issue.

I generally set up a object with Lights, and then spin through the filter wheel capturing 20 or so of each for a nightly session. I do the flats and darks on their own, not as part of the sequence.

I think I have all the setting set to have everything open in its own window now, so maybe I will go through those and toggle them a bit.

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, I thought maybe if they were in the same sequence it might be warning about something. I don't have a flip flat, so I have no idea how it works in EKOS, but if it works similar to darks or manual flats, there's generally a warning that pops up somewhere that you have to hit OK on.

I played around with the "Independent window" check boxes for both Ekos and Indi Drivers... Indi seems to work how you would expect, but no setting changes how Ekos behaves. It wants to be on top, and that is where it stays.

Here is a log of the start-up crash. Nothing interesting though.



and from a command line start:

But if I load the profile and before hitting the start button, simply save the profile again, it goes on and works.

Here is a fresh screen capture. If I click preview, I get the Cap error. If I start the sequence, I get the cap error. If I change to Flat or Dark, the calibration button is enabled, and I can set it to "Manual", and then things work. It is almost as if "Light" is expecting to be able to use the FlipFlat, but cannot. Perhaps it is just checking to see if it is there in the code even though it won't use it, but because it is "Light", it won't and errs. Not sure.

I'm not sure, maybe someone who does dev work on the system can comment on where the issue is.

But in the mean time, maybe make two profiles, one with the driver for the flip flat and one without. Since you shoot sequences separately for flats vs lights. Just switch profiles for capturing lights vs flats.

It's not optimal, but will get you over the hurdle and on to imaging.

Thanks, that is pretty much how I am operating.