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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Problems with ZWO EFW

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Problems with ZWO EFW was created by Piero

Hi all,
recently I started having problems with my 5-position ZWO EFW.
Everything used to work fine until the last time I went under the stars. On that occasion, the following morning I found out with surprise that, after a certain moment in the photo session, the EFW had stopped working silently.
The capture software (CCDciel) sent the commands to the wheel and showed as if the filter had changed, but actually it had not, so I ended up the whole photo session with all frames (more than 1000) only in the red channel :(
The problem is that it happens silently, the efw indi driver hangs and no error messages come from it, it just hangs and I have to kill it manually because also indiserver seems to lose control over it.
Has it happened to someone else? Is there a way I can send more information to investigate this issue deeper?
Thank you.
4 years 2 months ago #47845

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Replied by Piero on topic Problems with ZWO EFW

I forgot to mention that I made further testing at home and it continues to happen, randomly: it can hang at the first filter change, after 2 or 5 or 10 or 20 changes and so on.
Also, it happens on different PCs, with different cables.
Oh, and sometimes I get a "ASI EFW: [ERROR] SelectFilter(): EFWSetPosition() = 6" error, but if I try again to change filter it usually succeeds.
Thank you.
Last edit: 4 years 2 months ago by Piero.
4 years 2 months ago #47846

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Replied by Bart on topic Problems with ZWO EFW

This seems similar to something that happened with my ZWO EFW, also getting exactly that error message.
It happened after I remounted the carousel and probably tightened the center screw a bit too tight. After I loosened it up it rotated with no issues.

Maybe this is the case with yours as well. The screw only really needs to be very lightly. I'm inclined to lock it down with a bit of Loctite just in case.

Cheers!
4 years 2 months ago #47856

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Replied by Piero on topic Problems with ZWO EFW

Bart, thank you very much for your suggestion.
I'll make a thorough hardware check and let you know.

Ciao.
4 years 2 months ago #47885

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Replied by Piero on topic Problems with ZWO EFW

The hardware check doesn't show any possible problem.
Furthermore, I tested the wheel by attaching it to a RasPi running Indigo Sky and it works like a charm, no freezes or locks or hangs whatsoever.
On the other hand, it seems I'm the only one having this problem with the ZWO EFW and INDI (can't find much by googling) so I'm more and more puzzled...
4 years 2 months ago #47901

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No idea if it is related. But I noticed one issue of the indi driver, that is if the wheel reconnects, the driver will not see it anymore until the driver executable is restarted. This sometimes happens to me with bad cabling, when I accidentally touch the cable. Might even happen with a stronger wind gust. Though I do get errors then, that would stop the sequence...
4 years 2 months ago #47917

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Maybe the problem is because INDI do not use the last version of libEFWFilter.
indi-3rdparty/libasi/CMakeLists.txt show a version 0.3.1205 updated on 2017-12-05
But on ZWO web page there is a version 0.4.1022 from 2018.10.22

It is probably worth someone with a ZWO wheel try to update this library.
4 years 2 months ago #47924

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I made a PR to update the EFW library, should hit nightly in a few days hopefully.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Rick Wayne, Peter Sütterlin
4 years 2 months ago #47974

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Replied by Piero on topic Problems with ZWO EFW

Thanks everybody for your help and advice.
While waiting for the new library to show up in git, I manually updated it in my installation and all problems are gone.
The new library also seems to handle errors in a much better and robust way than before.
Thanks again!
Ciao
4 years 2 months ago #48145

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Replied by Axel on topic Problems with ZWO EFW

I also had this exact same error. After checking the situation, the used M54F/M54F Adapter from my Pegasus Falcon rotator which has thread of 6mm was too long and went into the EFW housing. This prevents the filter wheel mechanically to change the position. Especially the my baader filter and its M48-ring blocks the motion. This was the reason for the error.

A 2mm M54 distance ring solved the problem (3D printed). The EFW housing thread is 4mm deep.

I had no problems any more after that "fix" with error messages.

Cheers Axel
2 years 1 month ago #80164

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