Hi,

In past month I have battled with INDI and Vixen Starbook to develop driver exploiting Starbook's HTTP API.
So if you know someone who has this quirky oversized gameboy , or Starbook S or Starbook TEN, then give them a shout out.
Packages are ready in ppa:mutlaqja/indinightly , now in version 0.1, and 0.2 ready to go.

More instructions in the repo github.com/indilib/indi/tree/master/3rdparty/indi-starbook

And don't trust this driver before it hits 1.0. Starbook can be easily hung up, so expect manual restarts sometimes. Why I develop this right now? In our observatory we are stuck with New Vixen, so I hope that with INDI support we will bypass Starbook awful interface.

Good luck.

Thanks for your contribution, I'm sure someone has this oversized looking gameboy...

I've just seen your driver when I was going to build my own. Thank you very much!

I will give this a try when I've got my new SXW up and running. The source code looks very promising so far.

This one? www.vixenoptics.co.uk/Pages/sxw_mount.htm
So we can clap our backs now when fighting with Starbook. Version 0.3 was just merged in github.com/indilib/indi/pull/801

I will be very glad if you are willing to help and especially test this driver.
Right now I'm aiming for safety when sending commands. While starbook can handle wrongly formated commands, it is better to check last read state before sending anything. It's very fragile.
I don't have much experience in C++. Right now I'm aiming for better testability, and internal state machine to catch potential errors before sending anything.

Ask If you have any problems installing since I haven't updated docs at indilib.org/devices/telescopes/vixen/vixen-starbook.html

Yes, that's the mount.

I've just got it yesterday and I'm building a completely new system around it. I'm also away from home a lot in the next weeks. So it may take a while before I can go full steam on testing but I'll setup an INDI build system as soon as possible.

Hi, just found out about your driver....what a find... I have 2 sxw mounts with the giant gameboys that I use for outreach. I've tried to install as per the instructions on the indi devices page, but I end up with the following error:

Package indi-starbook is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

Do you have any ideas? or is it me .....
Thanks again
Terry

Well, you are dealing with my lack of response for sudden interest around this driver.
This driver is only 1 month old, so source-code is still quite hot. Therefore all updates are available in nightly channel. I updated link in devices page. You can lookup nightly ppa in downloads.

As for better documentation. For now I will have trouble keeping it up to date with current build.
I will point to github.com/indilib/indi/tree/master/3rdparty/indi-starbook for better documentation. It's in README.
But with increasing interest I will try to make it better over next month.

Stay safe, have fun, and don't trust programmers (like me).

Hi, thanks for that..... just installed, and it connects to the starbook.. When I give it a command, I get an error message at the bottom of the screen
2019-01-10T19:23:03: [ERROR] Goto [ERROR_ILLEGAL_STATE]: http://192.168.0.9:80/GOTORADEC?RA=19+16.11&DEC=015+07 . Most likely me...
any ideas?
Thanks again for getting something started , I'm more than willing to be a 'beta' tester...
cheers

When you first power up Starbook you should navigate to SCOPE mode using keys, or go to http://192.168.0.9:80/START
Why? Starbook is a state machine. When it powers up, it's in INIT state. When you enter SCOPE state it will then react to GOTORADEC.

Then you should be able to send commands. I would greatly appreciate full logs. I'm still working on better logging. I would use this driver myself when it will hit 0.5. It looks like you are using 0.3, even though in ppa it's 0.1.

Ok, seem to be getting somewhere..... I'm getting a time error and the driver forgets the ip address of the starbook, and goes back to the default. this is the log...

2019-01-10T20:03:01: [INFO] Goto [OK]
2019-01-10T20:02:13: [INFO] Goto [OK]
2019-01-10T20:02:00: [INFO] Sync [OK]
2019-01-10T20:01:22: [INFO] Goto [OK]
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [ERROR] updateTime [ERROR_ILLEGAL_STATE]: http://192.168.0.9:80/SETTIME?TIME=2019+01+10+20+00+56
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Device configuration saved.
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Saving device configuration...
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Device configuration applied.
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Loading device configuration...
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Version [OK]: 2.7B50
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Starbook is online.
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [WARNING] Found old handle, recreating
2019-01-10T20:00:56: [INFO] Creating HTTP handle for 192.168.0.9@80
2019-01-10T20:00:39: [ERROR] Version [ERROR]: Can't get firmware version
2019-01-10T20:00:36: [INFO] Creating HTTP handle for 192.168.0.102@80

although it says goto is ok, nothing has happened.
thanks again,
Terry

Commands are now working...... just the issue with UTC and the driver/indi not keeping the ip address...
Yet again , thanks....thought I was going to have to stay with ms virus for the rest of my days....

Good to hear.
I hope to resolve github.com/indilib/indi/issues/810 in 0.4.
And UTC time. You can only set it in INIT mode. I know, Starbook is a moody device. Errors should become natural to you when using this driver. And "ms virus" is? I guess it's windows with ASCOM driver from Peter Enzerink? enzerink.net/peter/blog/2008/06/28/ascom-star-book-driver