Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

Thanks
Clean install completed. Just restoring all the connections to NAS drives etc and I'll be up and running.

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Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

Currently I'm working on doing a full computer backup to my NAS drive and then do a clean install of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS. Hopefully that will restore things. It could be my last upgrade to the OS broke things. Digikam won't run either. I'll report back when I get this done.

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Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

Thanks for the help folks. Here are the responses to the questions

tim@dell-desktop:~$ locate libcfitsio.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcfitsio.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcfitsio.so.8
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcfitsio.so.8.3.47

and
tim@dell-desktop:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/indi_simulator_*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 531760 Feb 20 15:28 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_ccd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 137424 Feb 20 15:25 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_dome
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 134048 Feb 20 15:28 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_focus
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  76448 Feb 20 15:25 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_gps
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 255384 Feb 20 15:26 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_guide
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  87040 Feb 20 15:25 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_rotator
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 233864 Feb 20 15:26 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_spectrograph
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  82616 Feb 20 15:25 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_sqm
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 243880 Feb 20 15:26 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_telescope
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127880 Feb 20 15:28 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_weather
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  75176 Feb 20 15:25 /usr/bin/indi_simulator_wheel


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Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

I've just had a look and I get the same I think

tim@dell-desktop:/mnt$ cd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
tim@dell-desktop:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu$ ls -la /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu |grep cfitsio
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   2419662 Aug  4  2019 libcfitsio.a
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        15 Aug  4  2019 libcfitsio.so -> libcfitsio.so.8
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        20 Aug  4  2019 libcfitsio.so.8 -> libcfitsio.so.8.3.47
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   1498520 Aug  4  2019 libcfitsio.so.8.3.47
tim@dell-desktop:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu$ 


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Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

Thank you. I've just tried that and I get the following output

tim@dell-desktop:~$ sudo apt list |grep cfits

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

libastro-fits-cfitsio-perl/focal,now 1.12-1build2 amd64 [installed]
libccfits-dev/focal 2.5+dfsg-2 amd64
libccfits-doc/focal,focal 2.5+dfsg-2 all
libccfits0v5/focal 2.5+dfsg-2 amd64
libcfitsio-bin/focal,now 3.470-3 amd64 [installed]
libcfitsio-dev/focal,now 3.470-3 amd64 [installed]
libcfitsio-doc/focal,focal,now 3.470-3 all [installed,automatic]
libcfitsio8/focal,now 3.470-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
slang-cfitsio/focal 0.3.8+nosvn-5build4 amd64

So it would appear they are installed already. I installed the libastro one but still get the same result

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Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

Here is the log file in case that helps diagnose the issue

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Tim replied to the topic 'Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

Hi

I've tried multiple attempts to get this to work now. Including several complete removals of kstars and Indi from the computer. I've tried installing using synaptic package manager, using the instructions to install from the command line and an attempt to compile from source. On each occasion the install process did not throw up any errors but trying to run the telescope or ccd simulator threw up the errors I've already posted

This is on

NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=focal
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal


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Tim created a new topic ' Indi server crashes' in the forum. 3 years ago

I decided to do a clean install. So I removed all the indi and kstars packages using synaptic package manager and then re-installed by doing the following

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

Then I tried to run indiserver from the konsole using
indiserver -v indi_simulator_telescope indi_simulator_ccd

This failed with the following output
tim@dell-desktop:~$ indiserver -v indi_simulator_telescope indi_simulator_ccd   
2021-02-19T22:29:48: startup: indiserver -v indi_simulator_telescope indi_simulator_ccd 
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56196 rfd=3 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56197 rfd=4 wfd=9 efd=10
2021-02-19T22:29:48: listening to port 7624 on fd 5
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Child process 56197 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #1
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56198 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Child process 56198 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #2
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56199 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56199 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #3
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56200 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56200 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #4
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56201 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56201 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stdin EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #5
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56202 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56202 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stdin EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #6
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56203 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56203 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stdin EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56204 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56204 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #8
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56205 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56205 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #9
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56206 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
Child process 56206 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: restart #10
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: pid=56207 rfd=0 wfd=9 efd=10
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56196 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #1
Child process 56207 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56208 rfd=3 wfd=7 efd=8
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: indi_simulator_ccd: error while loading shared libraries: libcfitsio.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: stdin EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_ccd: Terminated after #10 restarts.
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56208 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #2
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56209 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56209 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #3
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56210 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56210 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #4
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56211 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56211 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #5
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56212 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56212 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #6
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56213 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56213 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56214 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56214 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #8
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56215 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56215 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #9
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56216 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56216 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: restart #10
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=56217 rfd=0 wfd=6 efd=7
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: indi_simulator_telescope: symbol lookup error: indi_simulator_telescope: undefined symbol: _ZN4INDI10BaseDevice11isConnectedEv
Child process 56217 died
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: stderr EOF
2021-02-19T22:29:48: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: Terminated after #10 restarts.
2021-02-19T22:29:48: good bye

Can someone help as I've tried everything I can think of. The library libcfitsio.so.5 doesn't seem to exist in any repository to allow me to install it.

Thanks
Tim

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Tim replied to the topic 'Debugging' in the forum. 3 years ago

Thank-you for the reply Ken. I've actually taken the decision to stick with ASCOM for now. Until the whole INDI experience has been improved that is. I had worked pretty hard at INDI for over a month and not even got to the stage I could write a simple driver.
From start to end in ASCOM it took a week and that driver is nice and solid with no issues. GUI could do with tidying up though :)

Regards
Tim

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Tim replied to the topic 'Returning to ASCOM' in the forum. 3 years ago

I am very grateful you put that tutorial together. It helped clear up many points for me :)
I would say the most important documentation to start with would be a very detailed account of how to set up the development environment. Especially with the removal of KDESudo and the new look QTCreator. Also a look at what the difference is between native and 3rd party drivers. Am I developing a 3rd party or a native driver ? I have no idea. And which should I produce ?
Then for both client and driver developers a detailed look at how the messaging between them occurs. I don't mean at the protocol level that indiserver implements but at what that means for developers. For a driver what functions get called by a client and when. Can a driver send a message to the client at any time etc etc. So some practical examples with diagrams as to how this all works. For example a diagram of what the server sends to a driver when it connects. When does the does the driver creator function get called ? When does the initproperties function get called etc etc. So a timeline drawing of how the client, indiserver and driver interact during the initial connection, for the interactions during normal operation and finally during shutdown.
I know that the project is very focussed on error free communication, that is obvious from the sample code. However it does not make the sample code easy to read when a large part of the functionality is built into the condition statement of an If Else. Much more readable would be to separate that out. So the functionality sets a local variable to true or false which is then tested. The conditions that have double negatives in them are even words. I know this makes for elegant code that shows off the skill of the programmer as to how much he can get done in a single line, but for a C++ newbie it means 10 minutes deciphering a single line of code !
I would suggest some code with no error checking is published. Not for operational use of course but to make the basic program flow easier to understand. Then a version with error checking included but in the simple manner I describe above, and then the preferred final version. Only then can the student get their head around the flashy code that the best programmers can write :)
All this could be done in a simple driver that just talks to an arduino or some such device to get and set a single value and display it. Maybe with a switch element as well. Then the student can play with everything they need to know. It's all very well having tutorials that don't talk to a real device but that leaves a steep learning curve as to how to actually do serial communications with the hardware for which it seems Indi has some useful functions.
I was also very confused about where everything gets put in the development environment. I wound up with the source code, a build folder and I was never sure where the installed code I was writing got run from. I wound up with multiple binaries of my driver and didn't have a clue which one was actually being used when I invoked them from EKos to try and debug. I would up always changing a bit of text in my code, like the name of the driver, so I could see from the client what was being actually run.
And that's before we get onto XML files, where they go and if I need one for my driver for Indi to see it.
So a map of where all the files go during the development process on a standard Linux machine and what are being run when would really really help.
Hope this helps, if it sounds confused it's because I am :)

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Tim replied to the topic 'Returning to ASCOM' in the forum. 3 years ago

I look forward to seeing the results of your documentation project, it's definitely the right thing to do.
I just had a long chat on the phone with one of my professional programmer friends. He had looked at the documentation in an effort to help me but also found it somewhat sparse and confusing. I really think that once this is sorted the uptake of Indi will be much stronger and that uptake could be exponential. I would also imagine that even more device manufacturers would then be in the position of having to write Indi drivers much as in the past they had to write ASCOM drivers for their product to be accepted into the astronomy community.

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Tim replied to the topic 'Returning to ASCOM' in the forum. 3 years ago

It's only fair that I should let you all know what I found so difficult.

Setting up the debugging environment. This page indilib.org/develop/developer-manual/163...ent-environment.html is the only one I found on the topic. There are two videos where the action runs at a pace I could barely keep up with. Some explanation of what each step does would have been useful as well. I've never used QTCreator before for example and the mouse flashing around the screen, presumably to point things out is just confusing. It took a while to understand when the mouse stopped and was clicked. Worse, it's not an up to date version of QTCreator and the new version has those buttons in very different places. Add in that on the latest versions of Ubuntu there is no KDESudo command as the page acknowledges, but it puts in a cryptic note that to install I have to run

sudo make -j8 install
. Do I have to do this every time I build the project to debug it or just when I'm actually deploying it ? So more detailed instruction on how to set up the environment would be very helpful, especially as it uses CMake which I for one had never used before. I asked a friend of mine who's a professional programmer (even wrote code for nuclear submarines !) and even he said he hardly ever uses CMake.

How a driver actually works and how to set properties etc. This was a minefield for me. I could not understand any of it for a week or more. The fact I had to call "define" completely passed me by. Fortunately a very kind guy, Rick, sent me a link to this page rickbassham.github.io/indi-dev-tutorials...0-project-setup.html . This was a revelation and things started to make sense. But why did it take me over a month of frustration to find this information. Even then it's not part of the development guide and so not available to all. This page should be made easily available to everyone from the project home page.

There is little or no advice on how client actually interact with drivers. I am still not clear on how this is done. I understand that properties are initially gathered from initProperties function which I guess is called as soon as the driver loads the driver (notice the words "I guess" !), then they are updated from the UpdateProperties function when the client tells the driver to physically connect. But then how do the values of the properties get updated after that ? If my dome moved and my dome gets that info from the hardware how is that published to the client. I assume the client asks for an update from time to time but I can find no explicit references as to how that mechanism works in the indi documentation.

There have been several responses to my questions that I should just look at already existing open source drivers to get answers to my questions. That's probably good advice to those who are very familiar with C++ . This is my first project in C++ . I'm an airline pilot by training though I have written a lot of code in the past, one of which gained me a lifetime achievement award for gliding, that has all been in Pascal (Lazarus) with a little VB. To then have to read someone else's poorly documented code in a language I'm trying to learn at the same time is not very productive of my time. Add to this that different developers have different styles and so scatter code around in different places and it was a real struggle. So this catch all phrase on the forum of "just read the open source drivers, it's all there" is disheartening and discouraging.

Folks should not need to go to the forum to get all this type of information. And I've seen several responses to others along the lines of "why don't you search the forum first before asking this common question again". To this I would make three comments 1) there are around 7000 topics on the forum. Put in a search term and you get swamped with topics that are not what you are after 2) if it is such a commonly asked question maybe it should be in the documentation, 3) I know for those in the know about Indi such repeated questions must be a pain and rather boring but that response is hardly going to endear the platform and community to a new user who is after all just trying to learn.

The website has a fair few broken links on it, or links that go nowhere. Currently when you click on Get INDI | Ubuntu you get a page that just says "Category Ubuntu" indilib.org/get-indi/download-ubuntu.html . This is not helpful and for anyone visiting the website who is maybe interested in trying Indi it gives the impression that the project is not active. I have found other links to the developers manual that give a 404 error. Again this just gives a bad impression.

I have taken quite some time to think about and write the post and I do it in the spirit of wanting Indi to succeed. I have spoke to more than one other person who has been put off by the lack of documentation and so rejected using Indi. One of those was another professional software developer. If I was to suggest anything which would make this project really become popular it would be documentation above development for now. Not documentation only a professional developer can read and understand but documentation someone like me can understand and feel confident with. I'm not a computer newby, I wrote a driver for my dome under ASCOM that took around a week to write and debug. I regularly do observing sessions of 5 or 6 hours and that driver has never failed me yet. So whilst I'm an amateur given the right information even I can write reasonable code.

I hope I haven't offended anyone with this post as I know how much work must have gone into Indi and I do appreciate it.

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