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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Autofocus not working with Hitech Astro Focuser

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Hi all,

There have been some discussions previously about using this focuser with Ekos (via Stellarmate on RPi), and I've followed the guides on setting the polling to 5000ms, etc. I tried this, and it works just fine with manual focus, I can get this pretty good. However, I want to autofocus when switching filters. What I do is manually focus reasonably close, then start the Ekos autofocus process. I set the step size to 50, then watch it move in and out by 50 steps. I can see that it goes in and out a few times, starting with 50 steps, then smaller steps, but after a few iterations, it will make some huge changes 300+ steps which will go completely out of focus and then fail.

Does anyone have any experience with this focuser, and have any hints on where to look?

Many thanks,

Craig
5 years 2 weeks ago #36444

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  • Posts: 48
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Hi Craig,

Yes, I have experienced this exactly the same.
Although it is much better than a month or so ago.
I also find it very strange that although ekos should know it was almost there and than it makes a huge step and then stops because it does not recognize a star anymore. You would think that if this happens ekos could just return to where it knew where recognizable stars were visible.

There is something I posted earlier and it might cause problems and that is that I noticed some backlash when zooming is reversed. So the first 10 or so steps do not actually move focus (speed is set to 100 in my case). This would mean that focus shifts a a few steps when reversing. Ekos would make calculations based on a position that is off by 10 steps.

I think we should post some logs from this behavior, so it can be sorted out.
5 years 2 weeks ago #36539

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