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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

guide module (internal)

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Replied by wotalota on topic guide module (internal)

I'll try Ron's settings next time out, but the forecast looks like that will be over a week away.
4 years 11 months ago #38071

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Replied by Ron Kramer on topic guide module (internal)

It's supposed to be clear here tonight.

My mount is over weighted 40+ lb RASA, cameras, EFW, 80mm guide scoope, and a slew of heaters/wires n USB hubs.... and still I had 2+ hours of under .35 (consistent no weird spikes).

I learn by doing - so I may be in error - but this is what I feel I've found.

Let me explain something else (not sure if it will matter). I first tried ST4. This means I calibrated with ST4. Wasn't working well at all, so before giving up I went to direct to mount guiding. (STILL BAD) but it didn't seem to calibrate? (does previous calibration get used?) so there was no huge steps across the sky.
I just switched and seemed ok... then I started tweaking the settings.

Proportional gain appears to be the amount of correction you ALLOW the mount to do. 66.6 is recommended but I was having a DEVIL OF A TIME (get it 666)
It was guiding (ok) but was way off center line. It could not correct enough to get the graph to 0. I increased proportional gain... 99, 133, 166, as it moved closer to the 0 line. I ended up at 266. Higher than that seemed to be worse (in quick test) so I went back. 266.

To me this is AGGRESSIVENESS.

MIN PULSE - I thought was the smallest pulse it would give. Instead, it's more like PHD's MIN MOVE. It is the smallest error that will be corrected.
So if you have it set to 100 (default). It will not correct the mount until it is 1.0 IN ERROR! That's to much error for me. By reducing this setting it seemed that I was correcting sooner. .50 correcting any error over .49 Going to 25 corrected errors over .24

There is a limit. If you go too low (lower than seeing conditions) you will correct for poor seeing and you will get oscillation where your corrections go UP AND DOWN AND UP AND DOWN - because the corrections are correcting for seeing that is changing and over corrects.

I tried longer exposures and again it didn't seem to correct quickly enough so I reduced exposure to around 2.5 - 2 seconds.
It took a good 1 - 1.5 hours of tweaking and watching the effects of the correction bars. I turned off DEC and did RA only and then visa versa to help clarify what I was seeing. (I have the entire process captured into - most likely a BORING video, but watching it would probably be enlightening as it shows my tweaks and the results. Though it will be MUDDIED with a lot of "reentering all my settings" as I have a problem of them NOT BEING RETAINED. = (

I had a ah-ha moment as well. I have LUM RGB and SHO in my APO filter wheel. Of course, I focus with the lum. Someone asked on here a short while ago, how do I focus in HA. I said you don't.

here it comes... the RASA has a EFW with only S H O in it. (DOH) LUCKILY - it's a F2.2 scope with highspeed NB filters for this aperture. If I kick the gain a little I can get focus and place solve exposures in 3-4 seconds with Ha.

so - correction - to focus in HA boost the gain and aperture to allow a decently quick exposure. = )
AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate

4 years 11 months ago #38074

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Replied by Ron Kramer on topic guide module (internal)

Another from last night with target - notice the guider cam VIA I changed to pulse from ST4 after I had calibrated with ST4 ???
in case it matters.

P.S. I'm quite sure my polar alignment is off too. I've bumped the mount around the last couple months and then swapped scopes and balanced and bumped the mount (I have a tripod) and by watching the dec I know I'm way off. So this awesome .32 RMS result is with poor alignment after wrestling off the 6" and bouncing a 11" RASA up on the mount. I won't check alignment until things warm up a bit out there at night.

hmmm just occured to me. POLEMASTER won't work on the PI. I may have to try the Ekos alignment tool.
I'll try and check my spacing today - I totally could not get any subs that appeared to be in focus. (let me see if I have one to share). It has to be camera spacing.

yeah zoomed in on one. Focus routine said I was HFR of 1.5 !!!! but was grossly out. I'll bet it's spacing.
attached...



AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate

Last edit: 4 years 11 months ago by Ron Kramer.
4 years 11 months ago #38075
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I shall try your settings this evening as I have a 100% clear night, minus full(~ish) moon.
4 years 11 months ago #38077

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Replied by Ron Kramer on topic guide module (internal)

TONIGHT - no luck.

Every time I switched from ST4 to direct pulse guiding - IT would try and calibrate. It would do more than 3 itterations even though I had 3 set.
I went back to watch the video of my good guiding and... I calibrated in ST4. I then switched to direct/pulse and it didn't recalibrate!?!!?!?

That is when it worked great. Jasem, is it possible for you to edit the code to by pass calibration? so I could calibrate with ST4.
STOP then change to pulse guiding and (by pass) and keep the last calibration?

I think that would do it. I'd love to test that. Everytime I tried pulse guiding it would calibrate and though it started just fine for about 8-10 kicks... it would then take off and start jumping around huge amounts. "that is the problem with the guiding module".

I think by pass would allow me to skip that jumping around part.
AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate

4 years 11 months ago #38108

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Replied by wotalota on topic guide module (internal)

Ron,
There are a couple of things. When you do not have to calibrate when making the switch from ST4 to pulse guiding, perhaps it is because it is using a calibration from some previous time. There is a clear calibration button near the top (trash can?). Perhaps if you cleared that it would then need to recalibrate.

Rather than being able to switch modes between calibration and guiding it would be preferable to fix calibration using pulse guiding. Can you enable logging for the guiding and the AstroPhysics driver the next time you use pulse guiding to calibrate? And/or check the mount's indi panel for errors during calibration. For me it doesn't work and generates mount errors, it would be of interest to know if it is just me or you also encounter an error problem.
Tom
4 years 11 months ago #38131

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Replied by Ron Kramer on topic guide module (internal)

I was gonna shelve it until something is done... and move to my portable setup. However I can try again tonight to do as you requested.
YES I think if we could calibrate in pulse mode we'd probably be fine.
I'll give it a shot in a couple hours.

I'm wondering if this is a AP mount only issue with the experimental driver? or is it something in the calibration code? It would help if more people spoke up... because if I knew that other types of mounts were calibrating fine every time... then it would narrow it down to the experimental driver.
AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate

Last edit: 4 years 11 months ago by Ron Kramer.
4 years 11 months ago #38183

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Replied by Andrew on topic guide module (internal)

I don't think enough people own an Astrophysics mount to make comment. But a buddy of mine just got an 1100 that apparently the manufacturer recommends 100% correction 'aggressiveness' on guiding.
4 years 11 months ago #38194

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Ron Kramer (et al),
The Astrophysics Experimental driver is intended to be used with the newer GTOCP(X) mount controllers, specifically the GTOCP3 & GTOCP4 with version V or later firmware. If you have one of these controllers with the proper level of firmware then you should be using this driver to take advantage of some of the features in these newer controllers. That being said, it is still labeled experimental as it is felt that more testing is needed. I have used this driver on my AP900 with GTOCP3 controller quite successfully for many months. Michael Fulbright did a great deal of work implementing this driver. I worked with him and Jasem testing the driver over a period of weeks during the main development phase. There is a good deal of documentation for the AP mounts here:

www.indilib.org/devices/telescopes/astrophysics.html

I highly recommend you spend some time reading this information which will help in setting up and using your Astrophysics mount with INDI.

About guiding the mount please consider the following:
1. Astrophysics recommends using a guide rate of 1 for these mounts. This applies to using pulse guiding or the ST4 connection. This rate is set in the INDI control panel (see the documents linked above).
2. If using Pulse Guiding then make sure to turn on the "Use Pulse Cmd" in the Main Control tab of the AstroPhysics Experimental driver from the INDI Control Panel. Then you need to choose "AstroPhysics Experimental" in the via selection of the Guide Module in EKOS.
3. If using ST4 Guiding then make sure to turn off the "Use Pulse Cmd" in the Main Control tab of the AstroPhysics Experimental driver from the INDI Control Panel. Then you need to choose the CCD or CMOS camera in the via selection of the Guide Module in EKOS (For example - ZWO ASI178 or whatever camera you use for guiding) so the guiding will then be done from the ST4 port of the guide camera.
4. While using the Pulse Guide option further consideration need be given the pulse length as set up in the options (click the "Options ..." button on the lower right corner) in the Guide Module of EKOS. (Following is a simplified explanation) Any pulse length of 1000 (ms) or longer is handled with a different move command in the driver rather than the standard pulse command due to a limitation on the GTOCP3 controller. Michael had this working well and then had to fix this again in recent weeks due to a regression in the code. I have tested his recent fix and it seems to be working properly again.

I use a pulse length of 900 (the default unit is ms) and I usually only do 4 or 5 iterations and have found that this works well for the calibration of the mount while using either the ST4 connection or the Pulse Guide function. I have been using KStars/Ekos/INDI with my kit for 2+ years and in recent months run several all night "automated" imaging runs with good success. I understand the frustration of software bugs or user error in learning a new set of tools and encourage you to keep at it as I am sure it will come together for you.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Ron Kramer
4 years 11 months ago #38201

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Replied by Andrew on topic guide module (internal)

That's quite a lot of useful information by 'LinuxUser' specifically that the driver is only suited for certain controllers, or firmware and specific toggles for st4/pulse guiding...

Anybody else feel that indi drivers should have an Info tab with developer notes for such key information?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Alfred
4 years 11 months ago #38251

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Replied by wotalota on topic guide module (internal)

Ron,
Comparing your good night to the bad ones, was the quality of "seeing" and the target/elevation similar.
The guide star you presented on the good night looks decent compared to the bloated one on the bad night.
Just wondering why the results with same balance/focus settings etc. are so different.

I'm out of it for a bit, just changing over to a heavy long focal length payload and waiting for some extra weights to arrive
to be able to balance.
4 years 11 months ago #38263

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Replied by Ron Kramer on topic guide module (internal)


Thanks - I had all correct, but I have over 1000 in this field. I'll set it to 900. Thank you - when it starts jumping across the sky - might be when it uses the other move motion. Can't wait to try it again.
AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate

4 years 11 months ago #38275

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