Chris,

i will test it, but can't do it today. First need to get it compiled before I can test something. So hopefully tomorrow.

Paul

Hi Chris,

I cloned your code and built it here. I'm having issues with the mount pointer in kstars, and the reported hour angle: When slewing to a target, the iEQ pointer in the starmap does several circles around the pole, and ends up in arbitrary positions. The pointing of the telescope itself, as far as I can judge, is correct. Also, when pointing close to zenith, the reported hour angle is close to -12h (11h 50).
I also noticed that in the site settings of the mount my longitude is reported as 342, whereas I'm at -18 - don't remember if that is normal or not, and/or related to the issues.

Here's what I did:

1. Slew to Praesepe
2. Noticed the pointer in the map is off, went back to home
3. slewed to Venus.
4. slew to M31, on the other side of the meridian
5. slew to some star close to meridian. Watch pier side info, it indeed changes when CWB goes through lowest
6. slew to ε Per, 2 minutes before Meridian. Wait til it crosses Meridian (+2 minutes)
7. again press 'slew to target' to simulate meridian flip (auto flip was disabled as camera etc. are not connected). It correctly flipped to the other side, so did the reported pier side
8. Go back to home, switch off

Hope that helps
Also, if you have an idea why hour angle and screen pointer are off... Do I have to recompile kstars, too, when updating INDI? I thought no, but maybe I'm wrong?

As far as your longitude goes, I think KStars only uses positive from Greenwich. I'm at -95 and my memory is it's 265 in KStars.

Yes, you're right, that is not an error. I just wasn't sure and couldn't compare directly, so I rather mentioned it

For Chris: I just compiled and installed the current official INDI git version, with that one both hour angle and sky pointer are correct. So must be something of your changes...

Edit: Also now Meridian flip is active. So likely the inactivity was related to the wrong hour angle?

Hi,
Sorry! I'm converting the Ra as if it was degrees instead of hours, that explains the multiple circles on the display.

I've pushed a fix, the only file that changed was ieqdriverbase.cpp

Still it shows that the GEA command is returning things that seem sensible.

When you say the Meridian flip is active do you mean the side of pier display in the INDI display? I would expect that because the GEA command is working.

Got it compiled and did a quick test.
- The slews I did east/west of meridian report correct side in the log file. (tested only with scope pointed south)
But: i don't see any indication of pier side in indi control panel. (label pier side does not show up, maybe something more needed?)

Then tried a meridian flip and things got wrong. First one set to flip 0.1° after meridian said flipping, but nothing happened to the scope.
A second one did something but ended up in wrong position.
Third one then was completely lost and scope got locked up. Hanc controller to the rescue.
Don't know if this has something to do with the new code. Need to test in more detail tomorror.

Rgrds,

Paul

First the pier side tab didn't show up to me either (when still pointing at the pole). Once I started moving, for me it did show up - it's what I looked at, not at the logs....

Oh, this is weird. It seems when you connect the first time to the mount, if the mount is in zero position there is no pier side, and the buttons are not shown. If you now slew to some position, then disconnect, and connect again, the mount has a pier side, and then the buttons get added....

Hehe, that indeed explains it, and the fix fixes both the pointing and the reported hour angle!

No, in the mount tab. It's whether EKOS performs a flip when crossing the meridian. And there I had the note that it is disabled. I assume that was because of the wrong hour angle. Now, with the fix, it works as normal: It reports 'inactive' when already flipped, and the remaining time until flip when before the meridian. So all well!

For the East/West buttons, see my previous post - that will need some attention.

But yes, this is absolutely a great thing. I will leave your version running and check how it copes with PHD2 - but the coming days I'll be under some cloud cover, so no real chance for now. But I'd also suggest you try to push this to the main version (and hope Jasem accepts it).

Good to hear that that fixed things.

One thing that Paul reported was that it went haywire at the meridian flip. The log shows the mount approaching the meridian, then there's a GEA command that doesn't get a reply. Two minutes later an attempt ro start a slew which doesn't work.
I can understand the GEA command failing but would expect a timeout error from the serial port.

This needs investigting - tomorrow.

Hi,

think I found out what was wrong with the first meridian flip. Tested again today and had same result, then I noticed mount was still pointing east, while the object had already past the meridian. (also when doing a goto) But, the mount was not synced to the real position (stupid) but that is difficult during the day (and with no scope on it) So I will test that later today with the Sun (after doing a sync with the Sun, maybe that helps getting Kstars less confused)

Paul

I've done a fair bit of analysis of this log.
You are in Belgium and your local time is offset by 2 hours from UTC so the times around 1900 are 1700 UTC.

There are a couple of slews before debug logging is enabled.

I can see a slew starting at 19:12:03 which ends at 19:12:40 which changes pointing state from east to west with no problems.

Then two attempts at a meridian flip. The first one at 19:17:27 to Ra 7.60 Dec 31.84, starting PS West
This fails, finishing 3 seconds later with no significant movement.
The hour angle, derived from your time and longitude and the scope Ra is about zero but the mount axis seems to indicate that the mount thinks it is an hour before the meridian with an hour angle of -1h.

Right at the end of the log at 19:26:31 there is another meridian flip attempt, to Ra 7.743, dec 28.83
This time the hour angle derived from the ra and that derived from the mount axis match, so something changed between this attempt and the last one which changed where the mount thought it was pointed. That's a minor issue, perhaps there was a time zone or DST change.

The snag here is that something happened that stopped any messages from the driver to Ekos. The last entry in the log that comes from the driver is a GEA command and no response is recorded. the log shows nothing for 50 seconds when Ekos sends a meridian flip. A couple of minutes later everything is closed down.

This worries me because the failure occurred just after the mount had tracked past the meridian and when a GEA command had been sent to the mount. It doesn't appear to be the mount not responding because I would expect a timeout error but can't see a reason why any data returned from the mount would cause such a catastrophic failure.

What this means is that I need logs that show the mount tracking through the meridian. I need it to track for a significant distance past the meridian. Please don't enable meridian flip, I don't want to test that until we have demonstrated that the mount and driver can continue to work after the mount has tracked through the meridian.

This doesn't need a new version of the driver but i will do one soon. I've worked out why we aren't seeing the pier side in the mount display.

Chris