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
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