×

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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Indi gphoto ccd: many parameters, no documentation

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
Hi,

with a Canon 450D and Linux Ubuntu x86-64 14.04 I tried to play with indi gphoto ccd,
but I cannot get any documentation about the many parameters that I get while connecting through dcd.py and skycharts or xephem ini panel.

Some seem to be dummy, and on the inditrace.txt i get a lot of "Error: invalid state switch for property < ... >. No switch is on".

I succeded in getting some fits images on local disk, but a configuration tutorial is not so simple to build, by trial and test.

I also suspect that there is some missing customization in the source code between x64 and i386 compilations, the source code infact could be not natively portable accross 32 bit or 64 bit architectures, but might need some adjustment.

is there any one that uses or knows this sw in order to understand how to better use it ??

Thanks,

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2401

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

The INDI GPhoto driver uses INDI CCD Standard Properties defined here:

www.indilib.org/develop/developer-manual...dard-properties.html

The documentation is not complete, I will update it soon, but the primary properties are already defined and explained there. Also, there are no dummy properties, and the code is in fact getting compiled daily on Launchpad PPA in both 32 and 64 versions without any adjustments. While you can use dcd & xephem, it might be worthwhile to check out Ekos as you don't have to fiddle much with the driver to get it working.
Last edit: 9 years 3 months ago by Jasem Mutlaq.
9 years 3 months ago #2402

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
Thank You,

I will try Ekos.
I am also interested in getting AR/DEC coordinates in the info section of taken images automatically, to remember what I took picture of , it seems at a glance that Ekos can accomplish this .... I have to learn it ...

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2403

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

You do not require Ekos, you can still use whatever INDI client to achive that. If you start INDI server:
Then under GPhoto CCD Options in the INDI Control Panel , set the Active Telescope to "Celestron GPS" and now whenever you take an image in FITS it will record the RA/DEC of the mount.
9 years 3 months ago #2404

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
Sorry, but the FIT images that I get configuring "Snoop devices : Telescope" : Celestron GPS do not contain WCS info or RA/DEC, in spite of previous slew to a sky point (indi panel confirms telescope position).
I checked with internal kstars viewer and DS9, but I do not find any coordinates in the header.

Any help ??

Note : I am using real telescope C8-NGT and real Canon EOS for the indoor test, with complete alignment and correct time/site.

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2405

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Yes in fact you are correct, the GPhoto driver was not recording RA/DEC, it was a simple snoop issue that is now fixed, please compile libindi and then indi-gphoto from SVN to get the fix.
9 years 3 months ago #2406

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
Sigh ....!!! No way.

I guess there something else I miss or some feature still in alfa state, because i cannot see any ra dec info in fits headers.
Do I look in the wrong place ? Where is it this info ?
It took a while to download all the stuff from svn, compile and reinstall, but I do no see any difference (of course in kstars I now use /usr/loca/indistuff, not /usr/indistuff).
Moreover I downloaded GSC 1.0 (I had a look at the forum), but no way ccd simulator finds it, in spite of env setup ....
Note :
I checked out all trunk, not only indi gphoto because I noticed a lot of source code differences between 0.99 (tag ?) and last svn version.

Any help ?

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2411

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

I assumed you compile libindi and then compiled indi_gphoto_ccd ? They should be installed to /usr/bin to avoid issues in the future
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug /path/to/source

Please run
which indiserver
which indi_gphoto_ccd

What do you get? and how do you those drivers? Manually or in KStars device manager? If you select them from KStars device manager, you must select BOTH Celestron and GPhoto drivers before you click "Start Services". That is, you cannot start Celestron alone, then start GPhoto driver alone. They have to be run together in the same INDI server.
9 years 3 months ago #2415

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
Hi,

I got succes, finally .... THANKS.

I will write more details in another message, I cannot now.
Thanks for the important info about starting all devices with same server, I did not think about it, it makes sense !!!.

Note (about Your questions):
I compiled and put all new stuff from svn under /usr/local in order not to make confusion with ubuntu stuff.
I started indi with command /usr/local/bin/indiserver /usr/local/bin/indi_sumulator_telescope /usr/local/bin/indi_gphoto_ccd

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2429

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
Hi Knro,

as promised,
I put here some results : now dec and ra show up in OBJCTRA and OBJCTDEC fields of FITS header, but ...
>>there is a RA/DEC display problem : <<
if telescope simulator is in
RA 06:00:00 and DEC 67:00:00 I get OBJCTRA = 6. and OBJCTDEC = 67.
if RA is 06:50:57 and DEC is 67:34:19, I get OBJCTRA = 1.4E+17 and OBJCTEC = 9.5E+15.

I guess there is (at least) something to understand/fix about coordinates display format, because eng notation makes no sense ....

Note :
I understood that the RA/DEC feature is available for all CCDs, including CCD simulator+Telescope Simulator.
If not, please tell me !!!!

Hope this topic to be still gphoto, if not we will continue on a new topic.
Note 2 :
gphoto is nice but still It gets confused between Manual and Manual+Bulb modes, real Canon sw SDK under Windows does not ...

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2437

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Yes, the RA/DEC is universal for all CCDs/Mounts. I think the RA/DEC engineering value you are getting were an issue is an older version of KStars, are you using KStars-bleeding from PPA or another source?
9 years 3 months ago #2438

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 21
  • Thank you received: 0
I get RA/DEC eng (bugged) with
xephem 3.7.6, skycharts 3.10, kstars 2.2.0.

I am confused with versioning, being my ubuntu always updated to last versions, so when You say that the issue is old, it should be fixed into ubuntu last distributions, since I update quite every day.
The common factor during tests is ccd andtelescope simulator - the problem could be there.
I could in principle look at the source code, but I would prefer to understand before which are the general guidelines about versioning trend ; I realized that many updates are taken place, both in svn and ubuntu repositories, it is difficolt to keep track of everything.

I will stop my tests because I do not understand if these features are stable or not.

Alfredo
Celestron C8-N-GT +FirstScope 80
Canon EOS 450D
9 years 3 months ago #2441

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 1.090 seconds