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How to set up Ekos for 2 scopes and 2 cameras on the same mount

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Hi!

Well, I was not thinking straight here....

The two focuser controllers: they have the same vendor ID and serial header, to the best of my knowledge. I can this far find nothing to persistently differentiate them.

However, this is only an issue if they are connected to the SAME R-Pi. When I connect them each to a different R-Pi, that is no longer an issue.

So now I have a functional setup (I think) for two scopes, two cameras and two focusers. Camera 2 + Focuser 2 connected to a separate R-Pi (R-Pi 2), drivers connect as remote device to Ekos running on R-Pi 1. I've created aliases so as to clearly differentiate the two Moonlites (now called SW_Moonlite and C8_Moonlite). I've created two profiles in Ekos on R-Pi 1, one for camera 1, focuser 1, guider and mount, and one for camera 2, focuser 2, guider and mount. Now I can choose which profile to use for a particular job in the Scheduler. This means that I now can set the scheduler to shift camera/scope in the middle of night, without me waking up. YES!

However, the only real reason I now have R-Pi, is to differentiate the two Moonlites (MyFocuserPro with Moonlite driver). It seems this far to work OK, but a bit "heavy" solution for differntiating them. So any idea on how to do it with only ONE R-Pi is still very welcome.

Final small issue: It was years since I started the indiserver manually. I guess I could insert a small command somewhere on R-Pi2 to just start the indiserver with the "C8 Moonlite", with indi_moonlite_driver, automatically on Boot and avoid the need to run Ekos and start it "manually". If anyone can advice me on that, I'd be even more happy than I am right now :)

Thanks for all assistance with this!

Magnus
3 years 6 months ago #60539

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With some focusers, when you purchase them you can sometimes choose a model which has a different USB id.

Like here for instance: www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cable...ocus-controller.html

Note that there is the option at purchase to either buy "HitecAstro DC Focuser" or "Additional HitecAstro DC Focuser".

Quoting:
Existing Owners - Multiple Controllers
For existing Hitec DC Focus owners who wish to add a second controller to use alongside their existing one please select the 'Additional' option above.

This allows you to run a second controller in parallel with the existing controller on the same PC. In every other respect HitecDCFocus2 is exactly the same as the original.

Running two of exactly the same device from the same PC is not normally possible as the USB identifier would conflict and the PC would not know which one to talk to. HitecDCFocus2 contains a separate USB identifier so that they can be run side by side.
3 years 6 months ago #60541

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OK, maybe a stupid idea, but: If they are really absolutely identical in their USB identities, can you run a script that connects to them, and checks the current focus position? If you calibrate them to (very) different values, you can discriminate them by that, and then create a matching link moonlite_[12] -> ttyUSB[xy], and use that in the config?
3 years 6 months ago #60551

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Hi!

That is a creative idea. THat is actually how I differentiate them manually now. They are at very different number of ticks.

Unfortunately, such a script is a bit beyond my programming skills, though. Maybe I can persuade my daughter, who is an engineer, to look at it....;)

Magnus
3 years 6 months ago #60560

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The udev rule should be something like
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="xxxx", ATTRS{idProduct}=="xxxx", KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", RUN+="/your/script.sh '%E{DEVNAME}'"
Just add the proper values for vendor and product. Then the script gets the device name, can check it for the focus setting, and create a proper symlink.
The script itself is somewhat more involved, indeed, and would need the command reference of the focuser... but nothing an engineer can't solve. ;)
Last edit: 3 years 6 months ago by Peter Sütterlin.
3 years 6 months ago #60567

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I'm glad you came up with a workaround. My next suggestion was going to be a headless raspberry pi zero for a a remote indi server just for the focuser.
3 years 6 months ago #60570

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Hi again!

Bad news (at least news to me): this does not work. It seems that the "Profile" choice in the Scheduler is not per job.

I now have a list of jobs. I wanted the first one to use Profile 1 (camera 1 + focuser 1 + guidecam)
Second job should then use Profile 2 (camera 2 + focuser 2 + filter wheel + guidecam).

But the profile choice does not follow the job. Meaning that the camera/focuser combination does not shift.

I can set the camera in the Capture module sequence. But how on earth do I make sure the correct Focuser is chosen, if not through the Profile chooser in Scheduler?

(Feels counter intuitive that this feature does not follow the job but is global, when all the other settings there follow the job)

In the Scheduler sequence list, the Profile line is also before the Job section.

Does this make sense? Anyone recognize it?

Magnus
3 years 6 months ago #60582

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Oh that's unfortunate, I thought it worked like that, but as I said, I'm not an expert with the scheduler. But it makes sense, as the indi server is started by the scheduler, and you wouldn't want to restart the indi server between jobs.
This is a conundrum. It may require a feature request in the wish-list.
3 years 6 months ago #60592

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Well, it would not need to interfere with the indiserver. All devices are started at the start of the session, with one inclusive profile. Then I have two separate profiles, for the two combinations of camera and focuser. It does only need to so to speak choose them, not start them. That was my idea. I mean, the profiles that I have created seem to work as expected - only not per job.....

Whish list indeed! :)

Magnus
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gustav Olav Lundby
3 years 6 months ago #60594

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Have been thinking about two capture devices and two scopes too, Main scope and camera with lens, Sony a7 and a5000. I can easily define the piggyback camera as AUX and alternate between them in capture. But when trying to schedule it breaks apart. I really want to shoot in parallel on same target with different FOV, but from this tread I see it will be to complicated. I therefore has decided to use a stand alone android APP called CAMOODOO for Sony. Probably equivalent for other cameras? It gives full control with preview and let you define shooting sequences. Only problem will be to weed out bad subs due to slewing since it have no knowledge about the rest of the system. This is not a solution but an easy work around while the wise guys figure out a solution, perhaps a variant bult-ín along same principles but with cooperation during slewing.
Last edit: 3 years 3 months ago by Gustav Olav Lundby. Reason: spelling
3 years 3 months ago #64812

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Hi!

What I do right now, is to have 2 Raspberry Pis, connecting to each one camera. And run two independent instances of Ekos. I can not automate this (I think) but I can capture with both cameras simultaenously. Obviously, dithering is problematic, but otherwise seems to work.

Magnus
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gustav Olav Lundby
3 years 1 month ago #66726

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So you run kstars on the two Pis? Or two instances in parallel on one remote control computer?
(I just checked that I can start two kstars on one computer, but I'd be worried about the configuration files, cache etc....)
3 years 1 month ago #66737

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