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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Location and mount slewing wrong way.

  • Posts: 66
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A few weeks ago I decided I would go down the route of controlling my mount etc using a raspberry Pi with Stellarmate OS. Clear nights have been rare and when one did occur on Thursday, I went out with the simple ambition of photographing M42. It was nothing but frustrating. One I finally got polar aligned I thought I would slew to roughly align the scope and use plate solving to properly align. The mount slewed to somewhere located beneath the ground i.e. completely the wrong way.

I have spent most of this afternoon trying fault find. The mount consistently slews the wrong way. It also throws other problems up like showing the scope position as below the horizon at times, or tells me that when when slewing to an object that is obviously above the horizon, that it cannot slew there because it is above the horizon. The scope is parked and I have also updated the parked position to current when in a parked state.

To sanity check, I connected the mount to my Windows Tablet which I used previously. The cope slews correctly when using CdC under Ascom.

I have fitted a RTC module from the Pi Store and it is showing the correct time.

Looking at the INDI control panel, the latitude is correct but the longitude sometimes shows 357:21:01:0 - I am in Bristol UK so clearly nonsense. This is despite setting my location in Kstars as my home town. Sometimes it shows location as 0 for both lat and long. Also when the mount is pointing at north (which it sometimes shows it is in kstars) alignment in the INDI control panel shows a RA and DEC that does not correspond with the RA and DEC of where it says it is pointing.

When slewing to a target I have clicked on in Kstars and issued a go to command for it does not even slew in the direction of the target that I have marked.

All of this is incredibly frustrating, and I am wondering if there is any actual solution to it or whether I am better just going back to a Windows machine. Any advice would be gratefully receieved....
3 years 1 month ago #67372

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DrWho,

You have not provided any information about the mount - which would be useful.

This is more than likely a configuration issue, but I would be concerned that the longitude is not showing correctly.

Ekos can be set to update the mount or have the mount update Ekos, I use the first option.

Paul
3 years 1 month ago #67378

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Your location in Bristol apparently is at longitude 2º39' west which equals to 357º21' east. It is just 360 - your longitude so that's correct. What really is important to know: what mount do you have. Also, please follow these guidelines to record and submit logs, without which it is impossible for us to help you:

www.indilib.org/individuals/logs-howto.html
3 years 1 month ago #67379

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Hi Paul,

Thank you for the reply and apologies for not providing more information. The mount is an EQ5 and is driven by the Astrogadget EQstar pro astro-gadget.net/gadgets/control-of-tele...ser-eq-4-eq-5-mounts.

I have tried all 3 options for time and date but these problems seems to persist. I have also followed the Stellarmate instructions for clearing data (i.e. purge all data, disconnect, switch off mount drive etc).
3 years 1 month ago #67388

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Wouter, thank you for replying. The longitude makes sense. See reply above with regard to mount.
I am working today but will record and submit logs later.
3 years 1 month ago #67389

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Which INDI driver are you using to control the mount?

Have you tried to purge the mount model? That often works wonders when my mount (EQ6/EQMOD) goes crazy...
3 years 1 month ago #67397

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As above I have done the purge all configuration several times. Drive is EQMod mount.
3 years 1 month ago #67405

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Logs from this evening attached.

One thing that immediatley springs to mind is that in the INDI control panel, the EQ coordinates do not seem to coincide with where the scope is pointing. If the mount is in parked position and I sync to polaris. I can look up xcoordinates of polaris but the do not match with this. If I then press 'set' the mount slews somewhere completely different - presumably to where it thinks those coordinates are.
3 years 1 month ago #67406
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Update, I have purged both park options data and configuration. It appears to park with the cursor pointing at polaris now but when I click on a target and issue a go to it always slews east - no matter whether the target object is in the east of west. You can see the cursor moving and it always heads in the same direction no matter what the target. I have also noticed that if I look at an objects coordinates in kstars and then look at the object position in the eqmod mount control, the coordinates do not match.

A log files from earlier today is attached.

Also to note, when attached to a windows laptop running ascom, this issue does not occur and the mount slews correctly.
3 years 1 month ago #67453
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I am guessing nobody has any thoughts suggestions based on the logs?
3 years 1 month ago #67581

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Hello!
I’m having the exact same issues, with the exact same equipment, the only difference is that I’m using Astroberry on my RPi4.
I’ll try to gather logs of the system to post them here.
Thank you!
3 years 1 month ago #67606

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I fixed my system by simulating the GPS on INDI, and this time I used the correct coordinates. My GPS Dongle doesn't really pick up signal from my balcony... (great location for testing and learning how to use my system, horrible for GPS signal)
I was incorrectly putting positive degrees when my location is Eastwards. To avoid negative numbers, I did 360-East coordinates.
Also, avoid mixing Longitude with Latitude.
Once that was fixed, it worked fine.

I hope this helps!
3 years 1 month ago #67629

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