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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Apogee timing/triggering problems

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I have INDI/Ekos installed on a Mac Pro (High Sierra), with an Apogee Alta camera. When I set up a sequence (typically doing 100 frames or more), the time between exposures tends start out "normal" (3.6 seconds on a 2 second integration), but then drifts longer and longer, then suddenly shoot up to > 10 seconds (often 20-30 seconds). The ~20 seconds between exposures sometimes immediately drops back down to a few seconds (normal timing), or stays pegged at ~20 seconds for quite some time before returning to normal. I've simplified everything down to having nothing connected but the camera, no other obvious processes running. I've broken the sequences up into 100 frame segments, I've put a delay after each exposure. While some of these things seem to help, none of them fix the problem.
Thoughts? Is there any support envisioned for external triggering?
5 years 11 months ago #24764

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The shutter closes correctly on time, every time, just the time between that's variable? Is the rest of the EKOS gui responsive when the delay is "extending" ?
Do you use the FITS viewer and does it display the frame after the exposure or after the delay? I have an Apogee Alta F8300 and use a Mac and haven't seen this.
5 years 11 months ago #24766

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The shutter closes correctly at the correct exposure, so yes, just the time between exposures varies.

The EKOS gui (and Kstars in general) become non-responsive, though other Mac apps are working just fine (which also means the USB bus is behaving because the keyboard/mouse are on the same bus).

The FITS viewer does display the frame correctly after the delay.
5 years 11 months ago #24767

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I may have seen something similar then, I've seen the EKOS GUI go non-responsive, I think always after I have been messing around in the EKOS GUI while a sequence is running. I suspected some type of EKOS gui race condition/deadlock and also suspected the FITS viewer (no evidence). I avoided the problem by disabling the FITS viewer and leaving EKOS alone while the sequence was running. I've run long sequences of unattended calibration frames, that ran fine, which is why I lean towards a GUI interaction problem(one difference I guess is no guiding running).
I will keep an eye out and do some more testing to try to get more info for the development team.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
5 years 11 months ago #24768

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It might be the process of loading the image itself that's the reason for this. Try disabling FITS Viewer and see if that helps.
The following user(s) said Thank You: James Mason
5 years 11 months ago #24780

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I've been slow to get back to you. Disabling FITS viewer had a small impact but not significant. I suspect MacOS. I've since updated indiserver and KStars, but haven't checked this again.
5 years 9 months ago #26444

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