Hi Marcel,
Since I wrote the instructions several weeks ago we have found that using warm start does not always work consistently so our work flow is to always do a cold start. So just ensure that you have a "park from" position set that reflects the set up position of the mount before you unpark (as Jasem says custom positions are not advised - I always use park 3 but have tested all positions 1-4 and they all work. Once you are up and running set your "park to" and write the data and save configs.
If you ever get a KStars crash I would always start from scratch, depower the mount and do a cold start as per the instructions. Often after a crash and a simple disconnect/reconnect the mount seems to lose it's position although this may not be apparent on the planetarium and this risks a pier collision. I suppose what I am saying is, until you are really clear and comfortable how the driver works in your set up, do not use it unattended, especially during meridian flips etc. This is still an experimental driver and the warnings are there for a reason. Having said that we have found it works well with the caveats above. Wildi did heaps of work on the driver several months ago and for users in the Southern Hemisphere these changes sorted out the parking behaviour that made the driver unusable for us in Australia. Many thanks to him for the work he did!

I could not find anything obvious in the log but at least the mount is being recognised and does connect OK. If it helps, I spent many weeks testing the driver indoors until I had established a consistent workflow. So don't give up.
If your updates do not help, just keep the information coming on the forum and someone using your controller should be able to assist. The more detail the better as everyone's set up is different.

Mike

Installed the nightly and get a much improved initial setup. No longer losing the Park To attribute each time, the write fields appear to have been removed from the Site Management tab. Assume the save under the Options tab is serving all the needs but did not need to use it each startup. Started up a few times and just needed to use the cold start button to get the Parked status.

Hi Tom,

Now that sounds interesting. I have not done a nightly build recently as I had a working set up but it sounds worth a look and do some testing.

The weather looks set in for clouds and rain here in Brisbane for the next few days so plenty of opportunities for some indoor testing.

Mike

Hi Marcel,

I tested out the revised driver with our set up (AP GTO1100) and it worked flawlessly. Jasem's changes that are available in the current nightly build, mean that you only do a cold start and the site management tab not longer needs any input. Just save your config (in the options tab) after putting your "park from" and "park to" positions. I would specify these rather than use "last parked" as I am not sure this works as consistently and using the "Position 1, 2, 3 or 4" etc.

You need to update your Pi with the nightly build in order to take advantage of the enhanced functionality.

I am writing another workflow and will send you a copy when its done.

Mike

Ready to test....

Rookie question: how do I install nightly build on my pi4?
And how do I check that I have the right version of the driver before I start testing?

Marcel

Hi Marcel,

Here is the link to instructions for ubuntu and other Linux platforms-
indilib.org/download.html
I was unclear what platform you are using but if you look here
edu.kde.org/kstars/
there are general instructions too.

I'm not sure that you need the gsc any more and the last time I used this command it did not work so if you have this problem omit gsc from the commands (see below). Just type these into terminal.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/indinightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indi-full kstars-bleeding gsc

This will lock in the ppa repository to be updated when you do a software update. The latest nightly build should show as Version 3.5.4 beta (find this in the "help" menu in "about KStars").
As the nightly build can introduce instabilities, once you find the setup works I would go into the "software update" settings in the Administration dropdowns and uncheck the indinightly updates and any stable updates in regard to KStars/indi. This is in the "other software tab." This will lock in the working version and avoid updating for a while until you gain confidence in the system.
I will send you my workflow that I tested a couple of days ago which worked well, I will have to send this from another computer.
Mike

  Hi Marcel,Here is a attachment with my workflow for the AP GTO1100 mount.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the help. I am running astroberry distro on a pi 3B+
When connecting to the indinightly repository I get the following error message:

astroberry@astroberry01:~ $ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mutlaqja/indinightly
[sudo] password for astroberry: 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/apt-add-repository", line 95, in <module>
    sp = SoftwareProperties(options=options)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 109, in __init__
    self.reload_sourceslist()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 599, in reload_sourceslist
    self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)    
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 93, in get_sources
    (self.id, self.codename))
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template for Raspbian/buster

After executing the other two lines and restarting the pi for good measures I notice that Kstars is still in version 3.5.3 stable.

Any suggestions?

Marcel
 

Hi Marcel,

This post may contain the info you need although I think that Astroberry is more of a problem to update.
www.indilib.org/forum/astroberry/7371-ho...ry-rpi4.html?start=0

My system is KStars on Ubuntu Mate 20.10.
I am unfamiliar with Astroberry so can't help there. A quick look through the above post suggests it should be helpful.

Jerry Black (thanks Jerry!) has developed a script that automates setting up KStars and would be worth a look. Here is the link.
indilib.org/forum/ekos/9748-build-kstars...-from-git.html#71737

Cheers,

Mike

Hi MIke,

I was finally able to test the new driver under KStars 3.5.4 Beta.
While executing your instructions I noticed the following deviating behavior (log attached):
Start- Up light in the indi driver panel did not go to red
After pressing cold start, the mount is directly visible in the planetarium
Unpark from the Ekos GUI does not work
I then get multiple error messages.

Note that my AP control box is on version L (old).

BR

Marcel 

 

Hi Marcel,
There are a lot of issues currently with the latest nightly build in regard to other drivers (see the forum). Jasem is in the process of making the appropriate changes. Be aware that you may get problems related to this issue. Watch the forum and do a further upgrade of the nightly version once Jasem has uploaded the changes.

Now the likely issue is related to your version L firmware. See this link to info about the AP drivers
www.indilib.org/telescopes/astrophysics.html
This suggests that the AP experimental driver will only work for versions V and above (Mine is V13). Unless you upgrade your firmware to the V version you should really be using one of the other versions.
I think that other versions do work but they don't have full functionality (I am not familiar with the changes but I think they relate to parking behaviour etc).
Updating the firmware is relatively simple
Here is the link to the AP site info.
www.astro-physics.info/index.htm?tech_su...ad_update/controlbox
Maybe one of the users of the GTOCTP3 could advise?

Mike

Hi MIke,

Some time has passed..

I replaced the handset batteries and upgraded the firmware of the CP3 box to V2. 

 I have now more predictable behavior from the mount w.r.t. connecting, (un)parking, meridian flip, and slewing to the right spot.

However, I still experience two problems:
- The mount does not automatically start tracking after slewing to an object from park position. When slewing from a tracking situation, tracking commences for the new object.-
The mount seems to lose connection to the raspberry pi after some time with the following error message "ERROR    558.837511 sec    : check_lx200ap_status: wrote, but nothing received.ERROR    563.841507 sec    : Reading sidereal time failed 1769300527"
- Upon this error message, the mount stops tracking and does not respond to other comments.

I attach the log files for your reference.
Hope somebody can help.

BR | Marcel