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Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

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  • Thank you received: 41

Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver was created by Spartacus

Hi ,
The weather in Queensland, Australia has been terrible this weekend so I have been having another go at an abandoned KStars project.
I am currently using KStars/EKOS with an NEQ6 running EQMod for astrophotography with everything working fine. My son has an AP1100 and has recently left home and lucky for me has left me in charge of the AP1100 mount.
We tried to use KStars with the AP1100 about 12 months ago but gave up after a few months of frustration. This time I have a lot more knowledge and have managed to get it working pretty much perfectly apart from it insists on using DEC co-ordinate as 00:00:00 for Park 3 instead of -90:00:00. This puts the scope at 90 degrees to the mount axis. Generally Astrophysics Park 3 should point directly at the South Celestial Pole e.g. in line with the mount axis. Az co-ord is 180:00:00 for both of these positions so the co-ordinates showing in the park position in INDI is the same as this does not show DEC.
This is not necessarily an issue just a curiosity. Anyone know what I may be doing wrong? Otherwise in use the mount knows where it is and slews correctly and everything else works as expected which is great. I have tried doing a custom park but it always reverts to the DEC 00:00:00 setting.
Cheers
Mike
5 years 1 month ago #36607

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Replied by Markus Wildi on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hello Mike

is this still an issue? I think so. Please let me know.

Kind regards, wildi
4 years 1 month ago #50570

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Replied by Spartacus on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hi Wildi

Wow long time since I posted this. I was unable to resolve the issue at that time and have not had another opportunity to attempt a solution.
I still am the custodian of the AP1100 so I can try a set up but I am really time poor at the moment ( I work in health planning and coronavirus has basically taken out any spare time).
I almost certainly will get a chance to set it up again in the next week. I don't use the AP1100 myself so the urgency is much less and as I said this really does not affect any other aspects of the mount just a nuisance really.

Let me know if you have any ideas as happy to work through the problem time permitting.

All the best,

Mike
4 years 1 month ago #50580

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Replied by Markus Wildi on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hello Mike

I originally considered this driver as my "private party" and I'm sure that Jasem had to modify it heavily. I always parked the mount at HA = 18 hours and Dec = +5 degrees in order to avoid something falls on the lens.

We have no time constraints, hence whenever you can have a look at it, let me know your findings.

I'll have a look where it parks nowadays. Please let me know which controller and revision you are using and last but not least isn't it an AP 1200 GTO mount?

Kind regards, wildi
P.S. May be you recognize this type of "uniform" :-)
azug.minpet.unibas.ch//~wildi/2015-08-01...332_DSCF0333_enh.JPG
4 years 1 month ago #50604

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Replied by Spartacus on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hi Wildi,

I appreciate the work that has gone into the driver. I will get back to you once I have put it on the test bed and I will get you all the info that you need.
The weather is so bad that I will test indoors.
The mount is definitely an AP 1100GTO. Unfortunately not mine! :)

Best regards,
Mike
4 years 1 month ago #50618

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Replied by Spartacus on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hi Wildi,

Finally managed to get the mount set up indoors as the weather is still awful. So I am in Australia in Brisbane. The setup is AP1100 with GTPO CP4 controller. I am using a standard RPi 3b with latest version of KStars and Ubuntu Mate 18.04. I am using astrometry.net offline as solver. I test using a load and slew protocol usually pointing to somewhere not too far from the pole like miaplacidus or acrux.
The mount is parked at the standard AP Park 3 (Dec is at 90.00). The driver is set to unpark from last parked position and to park to Park 3.
The good news is that when the scope is started it knows where it is and will slew to the correct position. However when set to park it goes to the correct position on Azimuth but still goes to 00.00 Dec which means that the scope is at 90degrees in dec to the proper AP Park 3.
When parked in this position and asked to slew again it knows where it is but always parks to 00.00 in Dec.
As I said before this is not a problem in practice. I set up in this Dec 00.00 position and everything works fine.
So I don't have any complaints, it is just that I suppose for completeness, when set to park at park three it should be the AP Park 3.
Let me know if you want me to do anything else or send in logs. I will leave the scope set up and see if we can sort it out if you have the time.
It is still a great driver. Thanks for the work that you have done!

Mike
4 years 1 month ago #50839

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Replied by Markus Wildi on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hello Mike

in the mean time I saw the AP 1100 mount :-) and took a look at the manual.

AP Park 3 coordinates: Hour Angle (HA) +/- 6 hours, Dec=90 deg
That means, the counter weights are at their lowest position.

Let me summarize what the mount does, you

  • bring the mount manually to Park 3 position (only for the first time, e.g. a cold start)
  • slew with INDI the mount and it goes to the correct position, the star is "on the" crosshair (more or less)
  • park the mount again with INDI and it reaches HA = +/- 6 hours but Dec = 0 degree
  • unpark it again and slew it with INDI and the final position is correct again
  • park it again with the same result as in step 3
Ok, can you tell me which INDI driver you are using and if possible can you send me the debug log files?

That is exactly my opinion.

Kind regards, wildi
4 years 1 month ago #50926

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Replied by Spartacus on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hi Wildi

As you say previously this is what happened

bring the mount manually to Park 3 position (only for the first time, e.g. a cold start)
slew with INDI the mount and it goes to the correct position, the star is "on the" crosshair (more or less)
park the mount again with INDI and it reaches HA = +/- 6 hours but Dec = 0 degree
unpark it again and slew it with INDI and the final position is correct again
park it again with the same result as in step 3

Now however when the mount is set at AP Park 3 it shows the position on start up to be the HA = +/- 6 hours but Dec = 0 degree position
Despite switching off for a while I cannot get it to work as per the cold start described above. So bearing this in mind the following described the debug log attached

Mount is in the HA = +/- 6 hours but Dec = 0 degree position on start up.
Kstars is started and the astrophysics profile started.
Indi popup starts
I open up the astrophysics mount tab and connect (setting the "last parked" does not seem to make a difference so it is set to "Last parked" position
The mount position appears on the Star Chart to be correct for the HA = +/- 6 hours but Dec = 0 degree position
To confirm it knows where it is I do a load and slew of an image of miaplacidus and using astrometry.net this solves and slews to miaplacidus on the star chart.
I press park (set to AP Park 3 position) but the mount parks at the HA = +/- 6 hours but Dec = 0 degree position rather than the 90 deg dec position

The indi driver is indi_lx200ap_experimental
The mount driver is VCP4-P01-11

Let me know if there is anything you need me to try

File Attachment:

File Name: log_15-21-59.txt
File Size:540 KB


Cheers

Mike
4 years 1 month ago #50942
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Replied by Markus Wildi on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hello Mike

thanks for the log. We have spare_time++ over here, but I need some time to go through the details.

Kind regards, bye, wildi
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4 years 4 weeks ago #50956

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Replied by Spartacus on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hi Wildi
No hurry here. I appreciate the help.
Stay safe.
Mike
4 years 4 weeks ago #50960

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Replied by Spartacus on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hi Wildi
I did a bit more troubleshooting and it appears that the settings for Park 2 and Park 3 are the same. So when when manually set in the Park 3 position it still thinks that it is in the Park 2 position and this is shown on the sky chart. To my simplistic view it would be a matter of resetting the mount co-ordinates for Park 3 to the proper AP Park 3 which is weights down and Dec 90 deg. All the other Park positions work perfectly as described by the Astrophysics manual (1,2 and 4).
Hope that this is of some help :)

Mike
4 years 3 weeks ago #51141

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Replied by Markus Wildi on topic Advice re Astrophysics Experimental driver

Hello Mike

short story: I need to dig deeper into the code and presumably discuss the findings with Jasem. May be the already found error triggers this behavior.

AstroPhysics only describes park positions. Their is no command, e.g. goto park3. The driver calculates the park position and issues a goto command (either in AltAz or RaDec coordinates).

I found that the mount has received the correct park 3 coordinates
[2020-03-20T15:30:11.380 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <#:Sz 180*00:00#> successful. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
[2020-03-20T15:30:11.413 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <#:Sa +27*26:06#> successful. "
but, as you reported, it "decides" to stop at
[2020-03-20T15:30:40.561 - : "[DEBUG] Parking... currentAz: 89.9442 dx: 0.399722 currentAlt: 0.107778 dy: 0.189444 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
[2020-03-20T15:30:40.569 - :  "[WARNING] Parking... slew status indicates mount stopped by dx/dy too
pointing to exactly East at alt=0. I found at least an error and strange values
# ok, pointing to SCP at HA=+/6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.075 - :  "[INFO] calcParkPosition: parkPos=3 parkAlt=27.435000 parkAz=180.000000 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
# ok, axis1 is az, axis2 alt, looks good                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.076 - : "[DEBUG] Setting Park Axis1 to 180.00 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.076 - : "[DEBUG] Setting Park Axis2 to 27.43 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
# I guess here is the culprit:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
   if (calcParkPosition(parkPos, &parkAz, &parkAlt))                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
   {                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
       SetAxis1Park(parkAlt); // should be az                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
       SetAxis2Park(parkAz);  // should be alt                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
       LOGF_DEBUG("Set predefined park position %d to az=%f alt=%f", parkPos, parkAz, parkAlt);                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
   }                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
# This is a real error, not a log format error:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.077 - : "[DEBUG] Set predefined park position 3 to az=27.435000 alt=180.000000 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
# do not know yet, what that means: sending coordinates to the controller?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.083 - :  "[INFO] Device configuration applied. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.083 - : "[DEBUG] Configuration successfully loaded. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
# but the mount reports ra=0., dec= plus 90 (!), I assume that the controller                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
# could  not handle az, alt values                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.084 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <:GR#> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.084 - : "[SCOPE] RES <00:00:00> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.084 - : "[SCOPE] VAL [0] "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.084 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <:GD#> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.085 - : "[SCOPE] RES <+90*00:00> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.085 - : "[SCOPE] VAL [90] "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.086 - : "[DEBUG] CMD: <:pS#> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.086 - : "[DEBUG] RES: <West> "
A little bit later:
# again why these values                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.153 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <:GR#> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.154 - : "[SCOPE] RES <00:00:00> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.154 - : "[SCOPE] VAL [0] "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.154 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <:GD#> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.154 - : "[SCOPE] RES <+90*00:00> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.155 - : "[SCOPE] VAL [90] "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.155 - : "[DEBUG] IsMountInitialized: RA: 0.000000 - DEC: 90.000000 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.155 - : "[DEBUG] IsMountInitialized: raZE: 1 - deZE: 0 - de90: 1 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
# ok ,not yet initialized                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.160 - :  "[WARNING] Mount is not yet initialized. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.160 - : "[DEBUG] EXPERIMENTAL: LX200AstroPhysicsExperimental::IsMountParked() "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.161 - : "[DEBUG] EXPERIMENTAL: check status... "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.161 - : "[DEBUG] check_lx200ap_status: received bytes 6, [P00000210P000] "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.161 - : "[DEBUG] parkStatus: P "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.161 - : "[DEBUG] Mount is not yet initialized. Initializing it... "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.162 - : "[DEBUG] APUnParkMount: Sending unpark command. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.162 - : "[SCOPE] CMD <#:PO> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.162 - : "[SCOPE] <abortSlew> "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.162 - : "[DEBUG] Mount is initialized. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.163 - : "[DEBUG] Unpark() -> unpark position = 0 "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.168 - :  "[INFO] Unparking from last parked position... "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
[2020-03-20T15:23:06.172 - :  "[INFO] Mount is unparked. "


AstroPhysics says:
I understand this as, that the controller stores Ra and Dec values and stops. If it receives (local) time then it knows everything to point the mount correctly.

After you parked (at HA=+/-6h, dec = 0), you said, that after another slew the mount pointed to the correct sky location.
Unfortunately this case is not covered in your log, but let's assume AstroPhysics know how to properly store "proper calibration".
The Park-off descriptions explains, why the slew points to about the correct sky location.


I attached your log file with my annotations. That's for later use.

Kind regards, wildi
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Last edit: 4 years 3 weeks ago by Markus Wildi. Reason: shortened log lines
4 years 3 weeks ago #51318
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