×

INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

SOLVED: SM 1.6.0 - polar alignment DISABLED: FOV must be 10 arcmins and guider timeout

  • Posts: 319
  • Thank you received: 25

This was a big and was fixed in the nightly beta a couple of days ago
2 years 5 months ago #76256

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 910
  • Thank you received: 86
I am not sure what the root cause of this might be...
I had it several times randomly and it would go away after a reboot.
Didn't install any updates/nightlies and recently had three nights in a row without this problem.
I did rearrange the cables though.
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
2 years 5 months ago #76428

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 319
  • Thank you received: 25

I think had had to do with the sequence of which your equipment connects to to indi, so sometimes your camera comes last and it’s pixels size is recorded as zero
2 years 5 months ago #76429

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 910
  • Thank you received: 86
Makes sense - thanks!
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
2 years 5 months ago #76430

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 43
  • Thank you received: 5
Hi,

I have the same issue that Polar alignment is disabled so the calculated and effective FOV in the dialogue box at the right are >90. I found several posts. (another one is indilib.org/forum/ekos/10435-polar-align...ue-to-fov.html#75957)

This chain here is marked "solved" but the solution seems to be to switch to the beta release.

Is there a way in the stable release to work aound/change a parameter etc? I don't use the beta versions so far and would need to find out how to do that. Moreover I use the stable versions mainly as the numbers of clear nights where I live is very limited (last night the first in 4 weeks).

So it would be great to understand what can be done to work around this issue until the next stable release if there is an option.

Last night was the first chance for me to use the new release. When I bumped into the problem of polar alignment right at the start I first tried rebooting and reinstalling the index files with no success. Then after finding this chain in the forum tried to switch to beta versions using the dashboard on the PI4 via VNC. This went wrong as it seem to have deinstalled parts and I finally flashed the SD card from a previous image. In the meantime I managed to polar align with a separate version on  backup SD cad and switched back to the card with the latest release. Took a while and not solved for me  - and maybe others.

Thanks for any ideas if there is a way in the stable version to work around for the time being.

Akex

 
2 years 5 months ago #76438

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 319
  • Thank you received: 25
Akex

Switching sometimes is troublesome. The fix should come anyway with the next stable release within the month.
2 years 5 months ago #76448

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 43
  • Thank you received: 5
Hi Mohamed,

Thanks, I was hoping there is a way to patch or work around this for the time being. Last night was clear but the problem is still there and I stopped attempts to reboot or influence the USB connections order after some attempts.

Ok, wait and see and try to manage the polar alignment for the time being with an older version and flip SD cards in between as the latest version seems more stable otherwise ...

Thanks!

Alex
2 years 5 months ago #76468

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 910
  • Thank you received: 86
So... I said it was solved. Not really.
Over the past month, I was playing mainly with my RST-135 mount (which I need to setup/align every night) and 1.6.0.
There I had this error maybe a couple of times but then it just went away - everything was running smoothly for about 10 nights in a row.
Everything was running on RPI.

Tonight I switched to my permanent installation (HEQ5).
There I don't normally do Polar Alignment so I didn't notice before but when I tried I got this "FOV must be 10 arcmins" issue and I couldn't get rid of it!
I restarted/rebooted several times. Rearranged cables. Nothing helped.

I reverted back to 1.5.9 and there it worked.
On RPI.
When switched to Windows KStars client (latest stable 3.5.5) with RPI running on 1.5.9/3.5.4- I again got "FOV must be 10 arcmins" error.

Well. Hopefully it will get sorted out in the next release.
It's really behaving strangely.

Just reporting.
Thanks!
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
Last edit: 2 years 5 months ago by maxthebuilder.
2 years 5 months ago #76568

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 1309
  • Thank you received: 226
I had a similar experience tonight when using the PAA on an unfamiliar mount, a Celestron AVX. New profile had default telescope focal length specifications. I would enter the focal length and hit Save tree Telescope Info, then go to the PAA and set the fov greater than 10 arc minutes warning and some greyed out PAA options. It solve the first frame then crash KStars by the next frame.
It turns out that in my haste, I did not give the telescope information configure a name. Once I did, the configuration saved properly and PAA stopped crashing. Worked flawlessly, no more 10 arc sec warning, and no greyed out options.
2 years 4 months ago #77469

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 910
  • Thank you received: 86
For me FOV issue was finally solved after I updated to one of the nightly builds.

After another update (November 2) I started to have KStars crash after the first PAA image taken - on internal solver attempt to solve.
ASTAP solver works fine though...
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
2 years 4 months ago #77472

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 43
  • Thank you received: 5
Polar Alignment is NOT solved with 1.6.1 stable release - at least not for me.

After several week of clouds today I gavethe latest stable version 1.6.1 (KStars 3.5.6) a try. Even the moon was shining I wanted to test the latest stable version after Polar Alignment in the stable release 3.5.5 failed for me with the message "FOV must be 19 arcmins",
Good news; The error message is gone and Polar Alignment starts with this version.
Bad news (really bad): The result of the PA and the resulting guidance is not usable - at least for my setup.

Here is what I did to hopfully help others to aoid such timely analysis
I updated via command from 3.5.5 stable to 3.5.6 stable. Confirmed today that all packages are up to date and started a test.
Started polar alignment with 3.5.6 stable - and have been surprisingly off in the first run. Though I have to set up my gear every time, I use marks on the floor and my offset is usally way below 1 degree. Now it almost reached 2 degrees. Corrected what I thought is the polar error down to 6'32"and started guiding.
Using the same settings that turned out fine with the 3.5.5 for the guiding now it was worse than ever. Calibration looked strange and usually my RMS" is below 1,  now around 8! So I stopped after the first image.

I decided to try to compare the exact same status of the hardware setup but now using a backup copyof the 3.5.6 Beta (Build 2021-10-06T08:29:02Z).
So no change on the orientation of the mount, just exchanging the SD card brought me from a display of the polar error of 6'32" (with the stable 3.5.6) to 2°5'45" (with the 3.5.6 Beta). Now which version to trust?

Result: Polar Alignment with the latest stable release does not seem to work for me (EQ6-R, EQ Mod Driver)
Visual problem: Using the 3.5.6 stable release I noticed that the setting to return to park (which is my default) in this release does something odd: It takes a picture, rotates by 30 degrees, returns to park position and then starts for the second rotation. Not sure if in the second rotation it does 30 again or 60. On the screen I see always the same image and in between images with startrails when the mount was moving. Not sure if this is the root cause for the wrong results but it just doesn't look right.
The 3.5.6 beta instead rotates in two steps as expected.
I then used the 3.5.6 beta (which for me caused a lot of connection losses with VNC) to redo Polar Alignment. Finally I managed to get it done when the connection was stable enough.
Then I booted again with the 3.5.6 stable (which was rock solid with regards to VNC) and voilá when guiding the same target as earlier that night the RMS" is below 1 again. So it is apparent that the calculated Polar Alignment of the 3.5.6 Beta was right.

That leaves we with a 3.5.6 stable release where I cannot rely on the polar alignment. Just after the problem I had with the 3.5. stable. Another problem I found has been the linear focuser in 3.5.6 stable that drove my motor focuser permamently in one direction claiming the RMS value becomes better though the number of stars dropped and the images apparently became worse. Stopped two attempts after 8 itearation and choose an alternative allgorithm.

I just planned to do a test today and it ended with several hours spend to find more questions than answers. Both the 3.5.5. and 3.5.6 stable releases broke things that I ticked to work fine for me before. Even I really love the integrated concept and the idea of Stellarnate to run all this on a Raspberry Pi two stable versions in a row that show massive problems make me think if this time for the system itself is well invested. The number of clear nights per year is very limited for me anyway.
And no, I did not collect log files but I took screen grabs if someone is interested.

I just downloaded an original image of the 1.6.1 to start fresh in case it has been the sequence of updates that caused these problems. But there is just little hope and clouds roll in...

A bit frustrated for tonight...

Kind regards,

Alex
2 years 4 months ago #77909

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 910
  • Thank you received: 86
For me PAA works fine with my both setups running 3.5.6 Stable and Stellarmate 1.6.1
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
2 years 4 months ago #77915

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.420 seconds