Paul, you gotta open a terminal window on the stellarmate OS desktop and type in the following lines to get more information, each line followed by a return (CR)

open terminal app and enter:

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sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

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These two commands update the repository to get new software package versions, and update software packages for which newer versions are found. You have to enter Y to start the actual system upgrade after you are presented the list of packages about to get upgraded.
I had connection issues today fetching ffmpeg (iirc). If that happens to you, just issue the second command again.
If something still fails, you will see an error message, please post it in here.

@stellarmate team:
I updated the OS and the ever hanging app experience was gone. THANKS for the good work.
When i manually triggered the camera at testing time, at some point the little screen (canon eos 1100d) said: BUSY.
Right after i tried to trigger an exposure from the quick camera controls (app). I could not get the camera to be controlled by Stellarmate again

After half a minute i had to disconnect the camera, so it came back to manual mode to finish the session.

Any idea how to reconnect a DSLR without rebooting and restarting everything?

Thank you for the instruction, I will try again tonight.

But your advice begs another question. If the terminal window is the proper way to make updates, what then, is the purpose of the "Check for updates" function within the Android app, and in the "Stellarmate Tools" dialog box? Why should upgrades done by those methods keep failing?

I'm not a stellarmate developer, but i know this way of upgrading debian based distributions since many years now. It just works best.
For myself, i would assume that the dialog box (application) was made for the desktop user's experience.
However, it is not very verbose about what's going on, so best use the "old way" to check for more output.

And yes, bugs are daily business in software development, it's just that the projects became way bigger and more complicated to maintain.
I wouldn't assume a room filling bug-hunting and functional testing team is at work for $50 of cost for a lifetime license.

It's bad when we run into bugs, even less severe. Sometimes there is an instant workaround available or made obvious.
I could not imagine doing Astrophotography without stellarmate again, but the Asiair stuff has features that don't work as well as with stellarmate, and for sure, it has and will have bugs too. Code is still written by humans...

Also try to look for existing forum threads covering stellarmate OS upgrade issues, might help.

Mr. Mister, I fully appreciate what you are saying - my problem and frustration up to now has been beyond simple bugs though. Right now I have a very simple astro rig and even with this, 2 months after initial purchase, I have still not been able to use this software "in the field", not even once. After all, this is not beta test software, both the OS and the app have been available for what, 2-3 years?

EDIT
Hmm, just took a look at a couple of long running topics on Cloudy Nights.....seems that many other have either given up or are about to give up on Stellarmate.

www.cloudynights.com/topic/794637-a-begi...rt-eaa-setup/page-15
www.cloudynights.com/topic/813424-a-begi...stated-ver-2/page-12

Yeah, who needs trouble anyway?

But for now, let's get back to trying to solve problems. Did you manage to execute "sudo apt-get ..."?
Waiting for results (select all/copy using right mouse button) or select using a mouse and hit the enter key (can't remember exactly).

Let's focus on the solution(s), not the problem(s).

Going home in a couple of minutes, then I am watching the lunar eclipse for a few hours....after that I'll attack it again. Thanks for you assistance, seriously.

Well, I finally got around to re-flashing the SD card to 1.7.3 as a starting point and started the Pi
I then followed the instructions from Mr. Mister to use the terminal window to do all necessary updates. It "appeared" that everything went smoothly
Re-booted the Pi
Started the app on my android tablet.
Had to re-insert my optical train and profile....again
Just about to start testing, then it complained that the INDI server could not be started
Re-booted the Pi
Desktop icons for Kstars, PHD2 and some other were now broken - something had been corrupted.

Honestly, I have just about had it with this project - I don't have the energy to keep fighting with this garbage.

I would open a bug report after trying a last time with a new, high quality sdhc-card.
ASIair was more than double the price and didn't support AZ mounts. This is why i decided to use Stellarmate, and it worked after optimizing some things and a libcamera bug, which was solved within a couple of days after updating.
In AA all the optimization is done already, but you have to pay the price, and AFAIK you can't just expand the system like you can in an open linux system like Astroberry or Stellarmate, browsing the www while capturing frames....
So, as my setup mostly worked, i switched to en EQ mount and decided to keep Stellarmate. I wouldn't call it "garbage" at all.

Paul, please submit a ticket to StellarMate Support to follow up with this issue.

I suggested so too.
Sorry for hijacking the thread

...and what am I supposed to say in this ticket?

The android app is still broken can't even start it now, it has locked up at the optical train input screen - even rebooting my tablet doesn't clear it.
The Stellarmate OS keeps self destructing (I am using a brand new Samsung 128GB EVO Plus SD card, so I doubt it has a problem
I can't record an image from my camera
I have spent maybe 50 hours trying to get this POS working.

Nah, I have had it. Deleting the OS, and the app, I'll see if I can ebay the Pi and I have had it.

I paid my US$50 to your company for the "privilege" of becoming a beta tester - sorry not going to do it any more.

I was going to suggest to plan a session and look at your issues in real time. At any rate, you're welcome to contact us via support ticket at any time.