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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Horizon Manager

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager


cool beans, off to try this now. starting from the horizon this time ;)


edit:
I've tried the above, and that works well. Thanks.
Last edit: 8 years 5 months ago by Gonzothegreat.
8 years 5 months ago #5338

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager

The following one is definitely a bug/issue.
33b7583a5f908e61a232-6b8a975948e4f6a1f52.../artificial-horizon2

I have set a region, it represent an obstacle of some sort (never mind what it is). That's all good until you move the time forward.
As seen in the above video, the region moves, well that should not be the case at all....
If I block off a house opposite my observatory, the house is still there at the same place despite the sky moving ;)
Last edit: 8 years 5 months ago by Gonzothegreat.
8 years 5 months ago #5339

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Horizon Manager

Yup, fixed. It was receiving coordinates updates when it's not suppose to! Thanks for all the testing!
8 years 5 months ago #5340

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager

no problemo, I like testing the new features B)
8 years 5 months ago #5341

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager

I know you said it's not yet linked to the EqMod mount limits, but (haven't tested it yet) if I try to point my telescope in the defined region, what would/should happen?
8 years 5 months ago #5342

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Horizon Manager

Nothing happens it's just another area on the sky map.
8 years 5 months ago #5345

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager


tested, it works correctly now. Thanks for fixing.
8 years 5 months ago #5347

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager


I think the next move for the Horizon Manager is to link it to the EQmod driver, as in: you cannot slew to the masked region.
Or also, why not have an export of the region's coordinates to a file which you can then import to the Mount limits?
8 years 5 months ago #5348

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Replied by Hellriegel on topic Horizon Manager

Its great to have the horizon manager!

Since Gonzothegreat (i always wonder about his real name ;-) ) did most of the testing and Jasem responded immediately with software corrections I just waited till this thread calmed down a little . ;-)

Here are results and suggestions from my testing (having applied the latest update/upgrade 1 hour ago):

1. Kstar crashes when a long list of coordinates is entered and then applied.
After figuring out that the polygon definitely has to be closed ;-) I scanned part of my actual horizon line from Az/Alt=85/0 to Az=210/0 using about 35 coordinate points and closed the polygon with coordinate point 85/0. The "check/OK" icon appeared but after pressing the <Apply> button Kstar crashed. I didn't try another long list of coordinates since the following procedure lets Kstars crash as well:

2. Kstars crashes after changing entries in a list of points (i.e. changing a Alt value)
Manual input of some basic point in the format 90 0, 90 25, 100 30, onto 140 15 and closing with 90 0 renders a correct polygon and can be applied without problem. Reopening the Horizon manager and changing a point (i.e. 100/30 to 100/25) gets Kstars to draw an incomplete part of the polygon obviously including a new line from the origin (first point of the list) to the changed point. Then pressing the <Apply> button lets Kstars crash.

3. Allow to insert additional points to list of points
Since a long list could crash Kstars I started out with about 8 points, applied the region and then reopend the list to add more points. However, points can't be inserted between existing points. Adding an intermediate point to the end of the list lets the "check/OK" Icon still be present but after "applying" the changes the error window "xxx polygon is invalid" appears.

4. Allow to activate/deactivate single horizon regions
Since I have different observable sky areas depending on the telescopes mounted to the instrument platform and depending on the position east or west of the pier I added several horizon polygons to the horizons list. It would be nice to be able to activate or deactivate the display of of regions (or even group of regions) ;-)

5. Format of coordinates entered
I enter a list of points using the above mentioned "short" format 140 25 (instead of 140° 00' 00" 25° 00' 00"). This works perfectly but I observed that sometimes the short format of the Az value is "completed" automatically to the long format when using the tab key to move to the Alt column and sometime it isn't ( must be some kind of a non-deterministic function ;-) ). After restarting the horizon manager all values are in the long format (OK.) But in an older list manually entered 2 days ago the values were changed to 140° 00' 01" (ending with 01" ! ) which I never entered.

6. Using the tab key
After entering a value into the Alt field and again using the tab key to leave the field the entered value is replaced by 0.
It would be nice if using the tab key in the Alt field would keep the value ( ;-) ), immediately add the next line and open the Az field for data entry.

7. Missing <-> icon
The minus sign does not appear in the equivalent buttons above the regions and points list.

Keep up the great work!

CS
Michael
Last edit: 8 years 5 months ago by Hellriegel.
8 years 5 months ago #5351

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Replied by Gonzothegreat on topic Horizon Manager

Good testing you've done there.

1. tried with 100+ points, no crash for me.
2. edited a few points in my 100+ point region, it does take a few seconds to save but no crash.
3. agreed, but I would say what would be better is to be able to 'grab' a point with the mouse cursor and move it freely.
4. that would be cool, maybe have some sort of profile in Kstars, one per telescope used.
6. unable to reproduce.
7. confirmed.


Another find from me:
if you get the error message "region X polygon is invalid" it would be nice that the wrong set of coordinates gets highlighted.
8 years 5 months ago #5354

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Replied by Hellriegel on topic Horizon Manager

Thanks, Gonzo, for checking on my test results.

I repeated my tests with the following results
1. no crash when creating a region with many points; must have been caused by something else during (trying to insert points?!) my first tries
2. no crash when merely editing point values
However after editing a first value the region disappears from the Kstars map and from then on lines are being drawn to the next point edited. These lines not necessarily have anything to do with the actual horizon line when they are edited in an arbitrary order. But after "Applying" no harm is done to the region. ;-) So this might just be a bit confusing to a new user.
3. Still crashing when "inserting" an Az/Alt coordinate. That means adding a values pair at the end of the list with an Az value between existing points.
Gonzo, I agree moving a point would help as well in correcting a horizon polygon. But I still think some means of inserting additional points for refinement should also be added. BTW: how and where are theses regions stored?
4. Still hope activation/deactivation of regions can be implemented. Especially when there will be some aspect added as to control mounts by regions "allowed/forbidden". ;-)
6. can't reproduce the effect of the the Alt value set to zero myself ?!
7. Icon with the <minus> sign is still missing.

BTW: trying to remote control Kstars on the Kubuntu PC at the telescope from a SUSE PC in my home office (using ssh -X ... ) no Icons at all can be seen in the horizon manager window. Does anyone have an idea what might be the problem? (Some icon set missing with the SUSE distribution?)

CS
Michael
8 years 5 months ago #5375

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Horizon Manager

Ok I added a checkbox to enable display/hide. The data are stored in an SQLite file ~/.local/share/kstars/userdb.sqlite

Since this is pretty much a one-time setup for most people, I don't want to spend more time on this. Maybe it will incorporated into mount limits later on but that's pretty much it, no more features!

Not sure about the icon problem, make sure you're running Suse with Plasma 5.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gonzothegreat
8 years 5 months ago #5381

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