1) I saw that the RA pulses are on the same side as the RA error on the guide graph (though they are on opposite sides on the Analyze graph). Dec looked fine on both. This is true for the internal guider. When I tried PHD2 with the simulator, I saw the same thing. Do you know for sure which are on the wrong side? (whether its the correction pulses or the guide error)

I don't know if it's the error or the corrections that are incorrect, sorry. I just know that the error and the corrections are shown on the same side of the line, and that is clearly not right.

2) I tried to set binning to 2x2 and then switch to another tab, and then switch back to the guide tab. When I did that, I saw no issue--if I set it to 2x2 in guide, then moved e.g. to the capture tab, then moved back to the guide tab, it still displayed 2x2. What exactly do you do to expose the issue? Can you re-create it with the simulator and describe specifically what you did? Are you setting binning before you start guiding, or during guiding when you see the issue?

Jasem says he made a fix for this, I'm building KStars now and will test it out later.

3) Unchecking those boxes hasn't been in my workflow.
I assume you're talking about the RA and DEC checkboxes in the section labelled "Directions" a few rows below the big button that starts guiding (i.e. not the RA and DEC checkboxes below the guide graph). When.I disable them, it seems to remember the last error and pulse and contiinues to plot those values (though I'm not 100% sure but I assume it stops actually issuing those pulses). Clearly that behavior is bad. What do you think it should do--e.g. I assume you're saying it should continue to compute and plot the errors, but not plot nor issue correction pulses for the axis or axes that are disabled. Is that right?

Yes, the checkboxes under the section labeled Directions. When the checkboxes are unchecked, it should continue to compute and plot the error, but not issue (or plot) any corrections.

pushed a fix for #1 in Git. Perhaps Hy can check the rest hopefully soon. Thank you for the great feedback!

I just finished building KStars. That seems to have done the trick, thanks Jasem!

-- Kevin

One of the issues I had with calibration was that somehow the DEC Backlash setting was turned on after the new upgrade.  That's a huge no-no for EC2 mounts, as is the GPG RA guider.  Both of those options cause havoc with CEM120 EC2 encoders.  

Interesting.  I only have an CEM60EC, so no encoder for DEC.  But while I have similar issues in RA with guiding cadence (I run at around 6.5s, faster it will start to oscillate wildly), I don't have any issues with GPG.  My (total) guide RMS is between 0.25 and 0.35 arcsec, worse only when (too much) wind comes up...

Unfortunately I can't test things at the moment - having 40-50km/h wind here.  Guess it must be New Moon!? 

@Kevin: I found the 2 other issues and sent a fix to Jasem. If you are good at getting code off of git repos, and want to test this before it hits the main repo, then "git clone   invent.kde.org/murveit/kstars.git " and go to the guider-fix10 branch (git checkout guider-fix10), and compile that. It is currently at HEAD with this mod. I've done simulator testing, and it seemed to fix up the two remaining issues.

Hy
 

Hy,

Thanks, it's building now. It takes a while on my Rock Pi. I'll test it out tonight, it's supposed to be at least partially clear tonight.

-- Kevin

Well, the guide pulses are still showing on the same side of the line as the guide error. So that hasn't changed.

The Direction checkboxes now work like they used to. Turning off the guiding output still allows the graph to show the error. Great.

Now the really bad news. The guiding algorithm doesn't seem to take binning into account. I verified this by turning off the guiding output, and measuring the periodic error of my mount, with both 1x1 and 2x2 binning. The periodic error goes from about 36" pk-pk when binned at 1x1, to 18" pk-pk when binned 2x2. So that isn't right.

Periodic error when binning 1x1:

 

Periodic error graph when binning 2x2:

 

Sorry, Kevin, made a mistake in the RA plotting thing. Jasem has already merged my MR from guider-fix10, but just sent him another (it's now branch guider-fix11).

As far as the binning, it would help if you had a log with guide debug where you sent me the bin 1x1 vs bin 2x2. I'm talking about an Ekos log, not a guide log.
Do you have that handy?

Hy

Kevin,

I'm pretty sure I've identified what the issue is, but it's a little tricky to fix so I want to make sure I get it right.
I can give you a work-around right away, though (and a way to verify that my theory is right).

The issue is that the calibration object doesn't get updated when the binning is changed. So, it returns the same arcseconds-per-pixel value with the new binning as the old, which is wrong after the binning is changed. I'll bet that if you recalibrate after you change binning, then you would get a similar peak-to-peak periodic error with 2x2 as you get with 1x1 (there may be some slight differences in the two calibrations, but roughly the same).

Of course, this should be fixed for realz, hopefully without the need for a recalibration after changing binning. Thanks for finding the issue.
Hy

Kevin,

Here is a fix for the "change binning while re-using a calibration" bug.
invent.kde.org/education/kstars/-/merge_requests/420

If you have the time, can you please test both with your periodic error test, as well as standard guiding (and perhaps also try changing binning after calibrating).
It is available on my kstars fork, in a branch named guider-fix12
So "git clone     invent.kde.org/murveit/kstars.git  " and go to the guider-fix12 branch, git checkout guider-fix12, and compile that. It is currently at HEAD with this mod. 

Thanks for your help,
Hy
 

Thanks Hy!

Unfortunately, last night was the last clear night in the forecast for about a week, so it might be a while before I can test it.

-- Kevin

Kevin,

No problem. I ran your "change binning and test periodic error" test on my rig last night with the new code.  [Interesting thing--never did that periodic error measurement before. Makes you wonder if PEC improvements can be added to the guider on top of GPG for mounts that output their encoder positions.] In any case, it worked well, as expected: roughly same peak-to-peak error binning 1x1 or 2x2 while both used the same stored calibration. Standard guiding worked well too. It's now merged into the latest code, and I believe all the issues you brought up are fixed. 

There is one "comical" thing I noticed. The "target" drift plot and the drift graph are inverted with respect to RA. That is, if one of those says the latest RA drift is 1 arc-second West, the other will show -1 arc-seconds (or 1 arc-second East). The guiding itself works fine, this is a display issue, not a guiding issue. I would fix it, but I don't actually know which one is right. I suppose I could trace through the code and see which makes more sense, but if you know for sure, please let me know.

Hy