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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Astrotrac 360 support

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Peter,
You can also email me offline at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We can share numbers and talk if u like. 

What time zone are u in?

Sameer
2 years 7 months ago #74579

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

Hi Sameer,

Thanks I'll send you a mail. I am mostly in the Netherlands (central european) , but on the road quite a bit. So often in different timezones.
2 years 7 months ago #74581

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Replied by Abdi on topic Astrotrac 360 support

It appears after some testing with Jasem that the RA values during slewing are changing rapidly from say 2hr to 14hr.

It appears there is jitter in the dec encoder which is changing the sign from + to -ve randomly and that affects the calculation for the coordinates.

We tried an updated driver that accounts for the jitter but it continued to show similar behaviour in my indoor testing today.

Out of curiosity instead of leaving the Dec access at home position I changed it to + or - 1 or something more or less than 0. I did similar for the RA access. In that mode all the SLEWs showed correct Ra values as you would expect at say x800 speed. I also tried the polar alignment module with these slight offsets to the starting position and it worked consistently every time (indoors under simulation) did not matter if I was slewing east or west or the speed of the mount. 

I removed the offset and began in the home position with encoders at 0.00 inn both axises and polar alignment would fail sometimes. It failed precisely at the time the RA values jumped around probably related to the dec jitter and the message mount aborted changed speed came up. I the checked again with my little offset and again it worked again consistently.

Might help some of you whilst it can be figured out, I cannot test outdoors I haven't seen the clear sky in 3 months.

Jasem is working on it.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Peter
2 years 7 months ago #74964

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

Glad to see you guys are still working on this. As far as the weather is concerned I am in the same boat here I’m afraid, never seen such a terrible summer in a long time.
This jitter you are talking about, is that something that happens on the mount’s side or the driver’s side?
I am still not sure if I have the latest driver. I updated every way I could think of, but I am still at version 1.0 built 5.
Anyway hope to be able to do some more testing as well this week.
2 years 7 months ago #74983

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

Hi guys,

I understand there is a stable driver available now in the new Indi update, is this correct?

Thanks,

peter
2 years 6 months ago #75594

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Replied by Abdi on topic Astrotrac 360 support

I think it is finished I think it is part of the ‘stable’ release, everything works perfectly as far as Sameer and I have used. Jasem put much work into it and ironed out all issues we could find.

Do use it and tell us if any issues, Sameer and I will be writing documentation, Sameer has done a good chunk I will complete and add this weekend.

Hopefully it works ok too for you!
2 years 6 months ago #75601

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

Hi guys, today I finally had a chance to upgrade my StellarMate and update all the drivers. I suppose I am using the stable one now.  I have only used it indoors so far. From what I can tell the mount moved as it was supposed to with the goto commands I gave it. The only thing I notice in the driver was that While the mount was pointing towards the Sun in the southwest, the driver said the mount was west side of the pier pointing east, while in fact it was the other way around. I could also not change the value as it was grayed out. not sure why or if it really matters as the mount was performing all the goto commands in the proper direction. It was also doing proper meridian flips with commands to the other side of the meridian. Good work it seems. Unfortunately I cannot use the IPad app as it is constantly crashing but I understand an update is on the way.
Thank you guys for all the hard work.

Peter
2 years 6 months ago #75861

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

where will I be able to find the documentation?
2 years 6 months ago #75862

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Dear Peter,
I created a forum topic for Astrotrac 360 Stellarmate documentation development. Have captured my learnings so far. We can all build upon it.

Sameer
2 years 6 months ago #75865

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

I am having trouble finding it Sameer, where is it?
2 years 6 months ago #75869

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

Disregard, found it! Great idea
2 years 6 months ago #75870

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Replied by Peter on topic Astrotrac 360 support

Well, I seem to have everything working reliably now. Adding an external WiFi dongle to my StellarMate, made a big difference in staying connected to the mount. I still have a few issues. When I try to park the mount I get a message that parking failed even though the mount then slews to the parking position. It does not however stop tracking. The driver starts up unparked, which is said to be be the other way around in the documentation from the other thread.
Another thing I cannot get to work is using Skysafari (version 6plus on IPad and Android phone). I checked the correct pi address of the StellarMate, port 9624 etc. I have also set Skysafari in ekos as aux 1 and it shows Astrotrac as the telescope.
Skysafari fails to connect. It says that it can connect to the scope but that the scope is not responding.
I know some of you got it to work so if anybody can tell me what I am doing wrong, I would like to hear it. I did update all the drivers and Indicore.

Thanks,

Peter
2 years 5 months ago #76541

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