A reply just for future reference for anyone else who encounters this.

The method Pavel suggested works. Basically it involves using the DSD driver (Windows) to connect directly to the focuser and change the max movement setting there. That is then remembered, and when you log in via EKOS the updated max movement is there.

A bit fiddly but its a workaround.

Pavel from DSD was saying that in the original code, max movement was propagated to the motor when changed in KStars, but in later commits it was moved into the INDI layer (I'm not a coder so I don't really understand the subtlety there). So the problem seems to be that SMXM (max movement) is not being sent to the device when it is changed in KStars (which is what I experienced).

I'm just sharing this in case people with better coding skills than me (who has none!) might know how to change things!

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Thanks Jasem. I'll keep a focus log next clear night. In the meantime, I contacted Pavel at DSD and have forwarded to you via email some insights he shared which hopefully might be useful in tweaking things. Cheers!

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Hello,

I recently updated to 3.6.4 and have noticed a glitch. I use a DeepSkyDad AF3 focuser. The "Max Movement" section in the Main Control tab seems to be set to 1000 and cannot be changed. The input box to the right where you would normally enter a value (and then hit "Set") doesn't seem to work. It shows a number with blank spaces in front of it - if you delete that number (and the blank spaces) and then hit Set nothing happens.

This is a big problem b/c when it's refocusing if it tries to do a movement more than 1000 steps it just errors, and then the Scheduler just gets stuck. I lost about 3 hrs of clear skies last night when this happened.

I used to be on 3.5.4 so I don't know in which version this may have crept in but hopefully this should be an easy fix? (Or am I doing something really stupid?)

Thanks!

Vin

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Hello,

I'm trying to set up a new equipment profile on KStars/EKOS, and it keeps coming back with this error:

"Error making FIFO file /tmp/indififof0f31e2a: Permission denied"

I'm logged in as the root user on the laptop with full privileges. Does anyone have any ideas what that might be about please?

Thank you,

Vin

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I think you may have cottoned on to what's happening. I haven't tried to get Ekos to control my Minitower2 since then, but I do remember that after the first astrometry, it would keep slewing way off towards the west (always by the same amount in any session). And for park also it went west. So maybe something in the clock is what's causing it. It would be great if SM/Ekos could also control an MT2! Cheers.

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Doh, I'm clearly an idiot, thanks @Alacant! I'd noticed that and hovered over the icon and where it says "Centre Sky Map Centre" just thought that was something else. This is v handy, thank you!

Can that be done for the Align function too? (I've noticed that if I load-and-slew to a particular FITS file location, and then meridian flip happens, the Align module seems to get lost about where it's meant to be looking for?).

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Thanks Hy, that's v helpful. I'll try that on the reverse DEC setting out of curiosity (I don't think I need to b/c when I've played w that in the past - out of sheer ignorance! - it's not been good; my mount is an HEQ5Pro).

Yes, I did look at the log the next day & wish it had kept trying (I'm still puzzled about what could have happened - the main scope with narrow FOV found & aligned fine, so I'd have thought that the guide scope with a much larger FOV would be less susceptible to a freak cloud since it would need to be a much bigger cloud which would also interfere with the primary scope; M81 was pretty much near the zenith at that time, so no way any trees or roof lines could have been a factor. A mystery).

On the keeping-trying aspect side of Scheduler, I didn't realise that was a one-time rule that it only tries at that time. The reason I set a time was b/c I was in the middle of an imaging run which was centred on empty space to get a particular framing. And so I just thought I'd set a time to switch to M81, b/c I couldn't figure out how to se the earlier target as a Scheduler run (the Scheduler seems to require a specified target, vs the ability to either put in specific co-ordinates, or put a load-and-solve file as the target - unless I'm missing something. If Scheduler could be set up to not need a named target that would be great b/c then I could do these all as Scheduler runs and w the Terrain tool also up & running, hopefully it would figure out by itself when to switch targets)?

Anyway, thanks for the pointers on the guide calibration - much appreciated.

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Hello,

So last night I left the rig on an imaging run (Leo Triplet) that was meant to finish at around 0120 w a job (m81) scheduled to start from 0130.  I thought that the Leo run may not finish all its images (time added for dithering & settling etc), and was curious to see what would happen.

Looked this morning, and happily the scheduler took priority at 0130, the Leo run was terminated and the mount slewed and aligned successfully on M81.

But then the guiding seems to have been the problem - it couldn't calibrate.  But it was a clear night (the plateseolving & alignment worked so it can't be have been clouds at that time, and it was guiding fine for the Leo run).

Slightly disappointing b/c it was 4 hrs of missed moonless skies.  Hey ho, M81 will still be there in the future, but it would be good to understand how/why this happened b/c if Scheduler is going to be unreliable I am going to have to change my imaging sequencing.

Log file here: www.dropbox.com/s/20ydmtxbytvtpr2/log_20-37-09.txt?dl=0

Guidelog file here: www.dropbox.com/s/cs0gjg36k2syh03/guide_...06T20-45-50.txt?dl=0

Thank you!

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Thanks Wolfgang, the log file should be at the end of this link:

www.dropbox.com/s/fyrix1yodd3q3g2/log_19-09-11.txt?dl=0

You'll see that the log file starts for a 31 Jan session and then suddenly becomes a 4 Feb session. Not sure why it didn't start a new log file for the Feb session. The first successful flip & continuation happens around 2140-2150ish. The flip that happened but then imaging didn't continue is around 0226.

There was a scheduler job that should have begun anyway at 0230 if I remember correctly & that didn't start.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

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Hello,

I was testing if I could use EKOS to control an old iOptron MiniTower2 the other day.  Connected the laptop to the handset and the handset to the mount.  The mount connected fine and when I told it to do a star align, it went in roughly the right direction, saw that it was not there and then for the correction went waaaaayyyy off.  Strange thing was that when I told it to Park, it would not go to the same position that it started in (it went to a completely strange position).  Even after I purged the parking configuration & mount model on EKOS.

Is the problem the handset, as in, do I need to clear alignment on the handset and then drive it with EKOS?  Or do I need to align with the handset first and then connect EKOS (the problem with that is visual alignment probably won't be as accurate as EKOS alignment would be, and its a faff to replace a diagonal and EP w a camera and refocus for an EAA session)?

Thank you!

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