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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Testers Needed on OS X: SBIG, MGEN, Fishcamp, ATIK, and Arduino

  • Posts: 7
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I will try it latter. 3q very much
5 years 9 months ago #26317

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Hi!

I just tried connecting my MGEN auto guider to ekos OS X. The device connects!

2018-06-03T11:08:15: [ERROR] Error loading user configuration. Unable to open config file. Error loading file /Users/stephan/.indi/Lacerta MGen Autoguider_config.xml: No such file or directory. To save user configuration, click Save under the Configuration property in the Op
2018-06-03T11:08:15: [INFO] Connect::14MGenAutoguider: considering device connected
2018-06-03T11:08:14: [INFO] Connect::10MGenDevice: FTDI device 0x0403:0x6001 connected successfully
2018-06-03T11:08:14: [INFO] Connect::10MGenDevice: Connecting device 0403:6001 using FTDI 1.4 v1.4.0 snapshot unknown
2018-06-03T11:08:09: [INFO] TurnPowerOn::10MGenDevice: trying to turn device on
2018-06-03T11:08:09: [ERROR] ask::10MGCMD_NOP1: no ack (0 bytes read)
2018-06-03T11:08:09: [INFO] Connect::10MGenDevice: FTDI device 0x0403:0x6001 connected successfully
2018-06-03T11:08:09: [INFO] Connect::10MGenDevice: Connecting device 0403:6001 using FTDI 1.4 v1.4.0 snapshot unknown

The configuration error does seem to be an issue.

The MGEN menus are displayed in the remote GUI window.

However, I am not yet able to capture an image. In the CCD control panel I chose Lacerta MGEN but I get the following messages:

2018-06-03T13:18:34 Capture failed. Check INDI Control Panel for details.
2018-06-03T13:18:34 Capturing image...
2018-06-03T13:18:34 Restarting capture attempt #2
2018-06-03T13:18:34 Capture failed. Check INDI Control Panel for details.
2018-06-03T13:18:34 Capturing image...
2018-06-03T13:18:34 Restarting capture attempt #1

I am a newbie using ekos so I guess it's me misunderstanding rather than an issue with the driver.

Could you please give me some pointers on what to test next?

Cheers
Stephan
5 years 9 months ago #26385

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Thank you for trying it out!

So the configuration error is actually no big deal, it just means you havent saved your configuration yet. Just hit save in the indi control panel options for the mgen autoguider and that warning will go away.

The info you pasted is very helpful, but it might be even better to get the log file. In the ekos summary page, you will see the logs button. Before you connect, it would be good to go in there, turn on verbose logging, log to file, and click all the related checkboxes to what you are currently testing. Then after you try to connect and take an image, go back there and click open logs directory. Then attach the relevant file here in the forum.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 9 months ago #26388

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By the way,

This weekend i have been working with the indiduino (arduino) and fishcamp drivers. As i mentioned I bought an arduino and i was leant a fishcamp for testing. The indiduino driver testing has gone very well. I have successfully built several of the example circuits and then connected and used them in KStars. There were a couple of issues though and I have made some corrections to the code. The corrections will be included in the next dmg. The fishcamp testing has not gone as well as that, but its promising. If i initialize the camera in phd or nebulosity, it then works perfectly in kstars and indi. But the indi firmware loading routine does not currently get the camera set up correctly.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 9 months ago #26389

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Hello,

About MGen, in the current state of the driver code, the only feature is the remote controller.

First thing is that you need the kernel to release the port for libftdi1 to be able to control it. This part is probably OK if your MGen starts turned off, and turns on when the driver requests it to.

Second thing is that you can't - yet - use it as a CCD proper. Go to the remote UI tab, and turn remote interface on. The driver will then periodically send the remote frame as a CCD frame. You can use the buttons in the same tab to navigate, and if you have a good network bandwidth, you can increase the frame rate. All features of MGen are accessible this way. Once the guider is configured, turn the remote UI off to avoid Ekos getting confused on what is your camera picture and what is the MGen UI (you'll see it appear in the first tab of Ekos).

I suggest that once the driver is connected properly, you set the port name to use and the image settings to be compressed, and save the configuration. With this the driver won't return to default settings every time is starts.

I know this should have proper documentation, Jasem already requested that. I plan to do that once the PHD2-compatible interface is implemented.

-Eric
5 years 9 months ago #26391

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Thanks Eric!

Based on the messages Stephan reported, do you think it connected properly, was the firmware loaded, and was the camera released from the kernel? It did say connected successfully. Do you think if Stephan followed your special procedure, it would work on Os X the same as it does on Linux? I just want to make sure there isnt some other os x issue I should address such as ftdi connection issues, firmware loading issues, or commands that are not os x compatible.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 9 months ago #26404

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Rob, I'd say everything is working as it should if the remote UI appears in the FITS viewer when enabling it in the INDI driver tab. From the log, I can see connect called twice, and second attempt, plus the report that the MGen actually turned on, seems OK.

The counter-intuitive situation is that there is no existing INDI interface for an autoguider. An autoguider manages everything on its side, be it correcting or subframing, thus should not even bother sending any frame to Ekos. I actually used the CCD interface to provide a remote controller to the end-user. A picture of the guide star would be purely cosmetic I think.

-Eric
5 years 9 months ago #26405

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Hi!

I can confirm that remote GUI works on my system.

Here is what I did: I started with MGEN turned off. After starting indi server the autoguider switched on and connected. The control panel showed that firm ware 2.42 is loaded (there is a newer one but I hvae not yet installed it).

Furthermore, I was able to execute the remote GUI and control the MGEN guider.

Cheers
Stephan
The following user(s) said Thank You: Eric
5 years 9 months ago #26406

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Thank you very much Stephan for testing the driver on OS X and than you Eric for the assistance in the diagnosis! That is good news. I will focus on trying to get fishcamp working reliably and continuing to improve the Arduino drivers.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 9 months ago #26408

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Also Eric, I will bring up your point about INDI/KStars support for an autoguider like MGEN with Jasem. In a sense the MGEN could act like PHD2 in KStars. KStars receives the information about guiding from PHD2 and just an image of the guide star to display, but doesn't connect to the camera in the same way it would if it was really guding with the camera. From KStars you can make several changes to PHD2's settings (within the scope of what PHD2 allows changing over its remote interface) but it doesn't tell the camera what to do. I think MGEN should probably work similarly.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 9 months ago #26410

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That was exactly my position. I'd like to introduce a generic PHD2 interface for indi drivers to implement. PHD2 has good documentation for clients of its protocol, but it's another story to implement something that behaves like PHD2. I pushed code with a preliminary PHD2 server to github, very rough for now.

On the other side of the interface, in the current state of that code, the MGen autosearches a guide star, calibrates and starts guiding. But that's very proof of concept too, and far from robust for now.

-Eric
5 years 9 months ago #26412

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Eric,

Did you take a look at the work I did back in December in KStars to support PHD2, that might be helpful.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 9 months ago #26413

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