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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

ZWO EAF firmware update step counter range - workaround

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The latest ZWO EAF firmware (3.3.7) has vastly increased the available step count from ~65,000 to 1,000,000 to accommodate the needs of SCTs, RASAs and Maksutovs. In the case of my Sky-Watcher SkyMax 150 Pro, the mirror focus control has a range of 38 turns, which with the EAF step count of 5760 per turn, equates to a step count range of around 220,000 steps. I seem to be able to access only 65,000 steps from within Ekos with the Indi driver (1.9.7) which is available with KStars 3.6.0 in the Astroberry 32-bit package. Could someone please suggest how I can update my software to make the full step range available? Thanks for your thoughts!
Last edit: 11 months 1 week ago by Avocette.
11 months 1 week ago #92046

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I have checked by using ASIStudio ASICap to drive the EAF that the focuser can be driven over the whole 38 turn range of my SkyMax focus requirement or about 220,000 steps. When I transfer drive from ASICap back to Ekos, the displayed value is truncated to the 16 lesser significant bits. So for instance if I set the focus position to step 26,240 in Ekos, ASICap displays 163,072 which is a displacement of 131,072 from the Ekos displayed value. 131,072 in binary is 0b10 0000 0000 0000 0000 as expected. Hence Ekos is reading only the last 16 bits of the 20 bit EAF step count register.
Swapping the drive from KStars to ASICap and back is an obvious workaround, but it would be great if Ekos could utilise the full 20 bits!
11 months 1 week ago #92063

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It seems that although there are 38 turns in total for the SkyMax 150 Pro focus knob from fully retracted to fully extended mirror positions, the range required to find focus between three typical installation scenarios (1) eyepiece and star-diagonal, (2) camera plus 2x Barlow directly connected to visual back, and (3) camera alone, is around 4 turns in total. Hence the ZWO EAF range required is around 22,000 steps, which is about one third of the range provided by the 16 bit coding. I set up the ZWO EAF using the ASIStudio and ASICap software and found focus at (1) 166,500 steps, (2) 148,800 and (3) 144,000. In Ekos these values are truncated to 16 bits and read as 35,428, 17,728 and 13,328. So I can work with this. Colleagues who use SCTs with and without Starizona Hyperstar configurations will have much wider range requirements, and it would ultimately be helpful to widen the Ekos/Indi step range to 20 bits.
11 months 1 week ago #92100

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This has been implemented in the current EAF driver version which queries the available step range from the EAF SDK and does support the extend the range in the new firmware. It should be included in INDI 2.0.1 release already, but requires update in Astroberry.
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11 months 1 week ago #92141

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Thanks for the update information! I have been trying KStars 3.6.3 and Indi 2.0.0, and subsequently KStars 3.6.4 and Indi 2.0.1 on the 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS, but unfortunately the EAF is not recognised in either. I have started a separate thread on this issue.
Last edit: 11 months 1 week ago by Avocette.
11 months 1 week ago #92165

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Hi Jarno, I have been able to get the ZWO EAF working over its full 20-bit step range under Indi 2.0.1 as you suggested. This was using the AstroArch image and updates as made available by @Mattia.
However there are a number of weird effects which I have found when using the full-range of steps which suggest there are some features of the new Indi driver which don’t join up in this mode. For instance the maximum range of the Indi tab 3 Presets is still limited, and when I changed the relative step number from 0, the absolute step number suddenly changed down to a very small value. For the moment I can live with workarounds, just a pity that part of the new interface hasn’t yet been implemented in a holistic way.
11 months 5 days ago #92328

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There are actually two values that define the maximum range that is available, one is in INDI, which is the one you see as "Max. Position" setting, and then the firmware limit, which is used to define the range for the control. It's possible that the "Max. Position" has been saved from earlier and doesn't automatically increase, but the range you can set it to should, at least it did for me after updating the firmware and going over 60000 worked, though my focuser doesn't allow for much more than that. As for the relative position behavior, have to check that it doesn't have some other issue, I usually don't use it for anything myself, just the absolute position.
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10 months 3 weeks ago #92488

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