Hi,

this is my first post here, thank you for the indi project, the tools are a pleasure to use!

But now for my question:

I have upgraded my Astroberry to latest software with apt-get dist-upgrade and I have also upgraded my kernel to latest/greatest with rpi-update.

This now gives me two new things:
an alias for the Star Adventurer in Ekos and because of the kernel update I am able to communicate with the USB-to-Serial converter on the Star Adventurer.

I set communication to the Star Adventurer to 115200 bps, this setting works fine for me to connect to the Star Adventurer with the screen command:
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
I can then manuall enter
:e1
and get back the firmware version of my Star Adventurer (=030B0A)
so communication over serial works.

However, when I try to connect via Ekos I get an error and this log:

astroberry@astroberry:~/.indi/logs/2021-08-01/indi_skywatcherAltAzMount $ cat *
INFO    77.542968 sec    : Session log file /home/astroberry/.indi/logs/2021-08-01/indi_skywatcherAltAzMount/indi_skywatcherAltAzMount_13:29:47.log
DEBUG    90.162609 sec    : Configuration successfully saved.
DEBUG    94.399163 sec    : Connecting to /dev/serial/by-id/usb-Prolific_Technology_Inc._USB-Serial_Controller_DZBCb19B616-if00-port0 @ 115200
DEBUG    94.403656 sec    : Port FD 4
DEBUG    94.403884 sec    : Connection successful, attempting handshake...
DEBUG    96.411632 sec    : Handshake failed.

I could find very little comments in this forum on using Star Adventurer, what is the status of the driver, anything I can help with?

I have already grabbed most of the communication of the app with the device via WiFi, as most of the protocol seems to be documented I am not sure if those captures are of any use or if the AltAzMount already has everything necessary implemented....

Thank you,

Michael

 

Isn't this an equatorial mount? Perhaps use EQMod driver with it?

The StarAdventurer doesn't support goto so Ekos cannot command it. You need to use the telescope simulator and perform all movements manually. Guiding can be achieved via the ST4 port.

I've sucessfully used EQMOD with a Star Adventurer Mini, the commandset is identical to the bigger EQ mounts but it just ignores/doesn't have a lot of the commands so things like goto don't work. You can turn tracking on/off, send guide pulses and rotate the RA axis with it if you really want to. The maximum rotation speed of the RA axis is so slow, however, that it was easier to rotate it manually for PA and I literally only used that driver as a method to turn on and off tracking without having to use the app and EKOS to control the camera/provide PA routines.

90% of the time we use the SAM with a widefield lens so it's easier to use the polar scope and it's own app to control it b I realise the older Star Adventurers don't have the app.

Jacqui

It is mostly the guiding pulses I am interested in, when it is possible to send them via the mount and not via ST4 then I could use a simple camera that I have here for guiding instead of building an USB-based Arduino ST4 interface.

I will try if eqmod also works for me and will report back here.

The only thing I do not understand is that when eqmod actually works a little better why Star adventurer was aliased to the Alt-Az Driver. But perhaps that has to do with the possibility to use WiFi to connect and not Serial via USB.

Many thanks for the answers so far!!!!!

Michael

FYI, I have been using EQMOD with the Star Adventurer 2i and am able to guide via this instead of the ST4 cable.

There was an issue related to dithering however with EKOS, but that would happen regardless of EQMOD or the ST4 cable.

I've never been able to communicate with my first generation star adventurer. Has anybody else had success with it, or is it only compatible with the WiFi version?
Perhaps I am missing something on my setup to use the USB serial interface.

Forgot to say I was using the 2i wifi version. I can't be sure but it could be something was added to the firmware of the 2i to allow the app to control it and therefor allow EQMOD to actually communicate.

Thank you for your information. I think I have the similar setup with you.
May I ask for your suggestion to solve my problem?

I configured my devices as below.
- Controller: StellarMate OS on RPi4B
- Device: SA 2i mount + SV305 guide CCD
- Connection: 
(1) SA 2i - StellarMate: USB-to-RJ12 cable
(2) SV305 - StellarMate: USB cable (SV305 doesn't have ST-4 interface)

At the point, I tried to start tracking on my SA 2i (STAR sign mode), but it didn't move.
INDI drivers for SA 2i and SV305 seems fine and there's no error message on connections.
What should I need to check?

I may be totally wrong here (because I am not using Stellarmate anymore) but at some point I had the impression that the support for the 2i was dropped as I also was not able to move it anymore.

If you have access to a windows PC you can try to install Green Swamp Server to check if Hardware and Connectivity is OK, the GSS supports the 2i just fine but unfortunately it is windows only.

There was some recent commits to the INDI 3rd party github that appear to allow for both usb and wifi connections to the 2i, not sure if that has made it into StellarMate yet.

Here is what I have :

Raspberry Pi4 with StellarMate OS
SA 2i connected via USB-A to mini USB-B ( not into the ST4 jack )
ASI120mm mini connected via USB-A to USB-C

I then use the EQMOD driver with a baud rate of 115200 . Guide commands are sent via the EQMOD driver. I can guide, dither, do RA GoTos, manually move the mount in RA, and also Park and unpark the mount ( return to vertical position ). I did have some issues with plate solving because the mount returns a DEC of 0.0 always, and this confuses some aspects of EKOS.

You cannot use the SA specific profile that derives from the AltAz base profile, this does not work.

There, however, should now ( or soon ) be two new StarAdventurer specific profiles included with the EQMOD driver that are called USB and WIFI that preset the baud rate and set up the wifi connection, and those are probably preferred going forward.

This worked fine for me as of a week or so ago.

So informative. Thank you for your detailed explanation.