Hans created a new topic ' Problem with goto' in the forum. 1 month ago

I'm having some trouble with stellarmate. It does, after some hiccups with the VPN connection, as very nice polar alignment, but from there on it refuses to plate solve or do a goto. I noticed that the date and time in ekos are wrong and I need to reset them all the time, but even then goto and playesolving don't work. Plate solving takes ages and then times out, both with the internal solver and ASTAP, and goto is way off and mostly ends with the scope pointing below the horizon. What am I missing or doing wrong here?

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Thanks, I got it to work by trying multiple times (not very satisfactory, but functional) and the Port Selector worked fine indeed!

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Hi everyone,

I'm getting a bit frustrated with Stellarmate. First, my connection to the Pi is problematic in the sense that I will often need to try up to ten times to get VNC to connect to the Pi. My laptop (Windows) is on the Pi's wifi network, but I will get a lot of 'no such host known' screens and yesterday I called tit a night after twenty plus times. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may cause this? This happened after I disconnected when the Pi shut down because the power was turned off accidentally.

Then there's EQMOD. My mount is an LX75 that has an astrogadget EQStar modification. This works on and off, but last night I never got it to connect. It was turned on and tracking (I could hear the motors buzzing) and I tried changing USB ports, but to no avail. I did work earlier, and that makes it all the more frustrating.

Here's what I get:

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Hans replied to the topic 'Stellarmate solving is erratic' in the forum. 10 months ago

Ok, so the location is good, but it refuses to memorize the date and time. However, I could not test anything because it refuses to connect to eqmod and refused to plate solve anything.

I'll have another go this evening.

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Hans replied to the topic 'Stellarmate solving is erratic' in the forum. 10 months ago

Great, I'm pretty sure the coordinates and time are correct, but I'll check this tonight and I'll certainly share logs if it still doesn't work.

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Hans replied to the topic 'Stellarmate solving is erratic' in the forum. 10 months ago

Thanks, Euripides, but what do you mean with 'recheck your coordinates information'? In INDI the 'Kstars updates all devices' box is checked, so that seems ok.

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Hans created a new topic ' Stellarmate solving is erratic' in the forum. 10 months ago

I'm not sure what's happening here, but I find the plate solving to work erratically. Yesterday, for example, it worked like charm for PA, but only after switching a couple of times between my main scope/camera and the guide scope/camera (it worked with the guide scope). But then I couldn't solve any images for syncing with either scope afterwards and as a result goto didn't work. The EQMOD mount's position is shown and I can direct it, but it will not solve. I run stellarmate on a Pi and access it through a VNC client on my windows laptop. Does anyone know how to fix this?

I also find that goto's don't work. The mount will move, but quite often to a direction in the southern hemisphere so there's something off there as well.

Many thanks,
Hans

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I'll try that this afternoon and let you know.

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Yup, it's shutting down completely. I'll need to check the version to be sure, but I think I'm on 1.7.0 64 bit. I tried it again yesterday and it wouldn't connect to EQMOD at all. It kept giving the following message '[ERROR] failed to connect to port (/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Silicon_Labs_CP2102_USB_to_UART_Bridge_Controller_0001-if00-PortO)Erro:Port failure error: Input/ouput error. Check if device is connected to this port'. Disconnecting and connecting cables didn't make a difference, so I'm unsure what's happening here.

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OK, I got the guidecam to work last night to the extent that the software would recognize the stars and try to guide. However, I'm now experiencing problems with plate solving and mount control. EQMOD is erratic at best, shutting down and restarting randomly at about 30 second intervals and the internal plate solver doesn't solve, even when the recommended files are installed. I tried to get it to create some log files, but I'm unsure whether that worked at all. I guess that the problems with QOMOD explain why the mount doesn't move but the fact that it doesn't solve is also quite puzzling. If I can find and access the log file I'll share them over here.

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Apologies for taking so long to reply, but I've been unable to come to the computer. GOTOs didn't work nor did the PAA. The app takes an image, solves it and then states that the mount it slewing to take the second image, but there is no slew whatsoever. Same for the third image.

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That was remote on my laptop and the only operation I could get with the mount was to get it to move with the virtual handpad.

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Thanks for responding so quickly! Sorry, this probably shows my NOOBness, but what do you mean with control from Ekos directly?

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OK, I'm fairly new to this so I will have made some huge NOOB mistakes, but here's my problem.

I have an LXD75 that now has an astro-gadget astro-gadget.net/gadgets/control-of-telescopes/eqstareq5EQstar EQ5 set to drive it. On top ride my Pentax k-5 and an Orion Starshoot guidescope and guidecam. I can connect to the RPi using an ethernet cable and a laptop and then I'm also able to control the mount, but I can't get the camera to work.
When using the Andoid app, I experience numerous connection problems, with the app telling me that it is already running, whilst the app indicates that it is not. Anyway, after a few attempts I'm able to get it started. When using the PAA, an image is captured and solved successfully, but the mount doesn't move at all when the app says that the mount should be slewing to take another image. Still, I do get a PA solution (mostly not that far off since I'm using the internal polar scope to do a pretty decent alignment). This ties in with a more general inability to control the mount from the app. I've selected the EQMOD driver and the mount (rather the grey control box that then connects to the motors) is connected to the RPi by means of a USB cable. The guidecam is connected to the grey control box of the mount by means of the ST4 cable and it is also connected to the RPi by means of a USB cable. My main camera, the Pentax K-5, also has a USB cable connection to the RPi, and I'm fairly sure it is connected (though the app never gets me far enough to verify this).

I'd prefer to use the app, but if the laptop is better, I'll just use that, but I would really like to get this working, so any and all tips are most welcome!

All the best and clear skies,

Hans

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