What version of the NexStar+ Hand Control are you using? This is information is available in the options menu on the Hand Control. If you have never updated it, and have the version that shipped with the CGEM, this is likely part of the problem as that software is ancient.

So you powered on the mount, and via the hand control (with nothing else connected) the time was still set to July 2018?

What did the INDI Control Panel show? Do you have logs from the KStars client?

Why don't you disable Time & Location updates from KStars completely? It's in INDI options.

I will look for the disable setting.

Question: if the CGEM is aligned and the goto is working from the hand controlller, do I understand correctly that if the RPI3 changed the time and long/lat on the CGEM, all that needs to be done it to change it back? No realignment is needed. No power off and back on.

If true then, what are your thoughts if I was to do the following:

1. Use a web page on the RPI3 and setting RPI3 as an access point
2. Web page gets time from phone, and displays the RPI3 time
3. Button on webpage syncs RPI3 to phone
4. Indi then sets the RPI3 time on CGEM

I may try this today and I am sure I can get it to work. However, if it ruins the alignment on CGEM then it is not worth doing.

I see benefits here if possible, as then phone, SkySafari, Kstars, RPI3 and CGEM are all in sync.

Perhaps I am over complicating too, and i shiuld just let CGEM push time to RPI3 and let Kstars use that.

However, if possible to do with time, it would be awesome to do this with long/lat too. The idea being put long/lay values on web page, or in Kstars/indi and have it pushed to CGEM. This again assumes that the alignment remains true and would not need to be redone.

Thank you for the thoughts.

Thank you rockstarbill The CGEM was fine and is the part that is setup first.

I will check handcontroller version today.

When CGEM is powered on everything is connected. Should the setup to RPI3 only be connected after?

Indi is not connected until after CGEM is aligned and up and running.

Sorry, was not able to check the Indi values for date and time, and the debug was turned off.

Update:

- Nexstar+ for CGEM version 5.29.6225
- Kstars' INDI settings rechecked, it was set to computer update device. Reviewing this now considering the above.
- there were logs and since the RPI3 was not connected to a network it was set to July 2018. As soon as INDI was started this time was sent to CGEM. So all is working and it was my miss in a setup.
- It seems the start and connection of the INDI server is when the INDI updates the Mount. So connection is acceptable as long as computer (RPI3) has time set correctly before starting INDI.
- Considering web page to sync iOS time with computer and then push to CGEM. Not attempting Computer updating the Long/Lat.

If the CGEM is aligned with with time and location via HC, then changed by computer, does an alignment need to be done again?

e.g. CGEM date/long/lat set to "now" and actually locations. Then Kstars updates it due to user error to wrong time and location, such as a year in future and another contintent. Can the computer time location be changed back and resent to CGEM, and all be right again without having to do another alignment since the time/location were correct, changed, and then made correct again?

Okay... I finally got some good results, although there were crashes with imaging at times. The crash I will dig into once I know thing are settling in the process.

As I setup and take down every sessions, does this process make sense:

1. CGEM is balanced
2. CGEM polar aligned with polemaster
3. CGEM hand controller aligned using Auto Two Star align (may start using one star if the follow provides repeatable results)
4. Ekos and INDI server started - Indi does not update RPI3 time or location; CGEM setup time and locations is used
5. RPI3 time, and KStar times are confirmed to match CGEM time within seconds
6. Immediate Ekos plate-solve and sync is done
7. Slew to celestial equator - need to confirm same results with HC, SkySafari and Ekos.
8. PHD2 calibrated near celestial equator
9. Imaging session can start with Scheduler.

Not clear if an immediate plate solve and sync is needed whenever INDI Mount is connected and disconnected. Ideally, SkySafari and INDI mount could connect and slew at same time. SkySafari cannot connect if INDI server is connected. If Skysafari is connected, INDI server disconnects Skysafari.

About those crashes, are they repeatable? If so use GDB to capture them.

In your workflow it all makes sense to me. I don't think disconnecting INDI and reconnecting it would require you to sync the mount. As for SkySafari and INDI being connected to the mount at the same time, that should certainly be the case -- are you connecting to the mount in SkySafari via a SkyFi adapter or something?

Excellent. It took a while to figure out how to get Ekos aligned. For some reason without the plate-solve sync Ekos was very off. Once it started working on the M101 capture I did not want to stop it once it started. Now it seems I need to wait the typically 1 week for another clear sky.

SkySafari and INDI are using ser2cat to connect to the mount. It would be amazing to have them both connect without disconnecting one another.

As to the crashes, I may have those logs to go through. It was not repeatable and more of repeating. I will definitely work to capture.

It was exciting to see things start to come together. Now if the meridian flip can work, it was attempted twice and so far it is 50/50, I can start a schedule and leave it go.

Cheers!

Regarding SkySafari & INDI. Maybe it is about time someone approach SkySafari folks and ask them to support INDI? It's quite trivial for them to add support on all platforms.For the crash, we need GDB output. For the meridian flip, more details from mount & ekos logs.

I sent a request to the contact that comes on CN to see if they have any plans.

I will work on getting the logs for the crash and flip.

I thought I was capturing all logs that exist. There are kstar and indi log locations. Is there a specific Ekos location?

I have some shell scripts to capture logs from all locations possible, package and then renew to help isolate things.
- /home/pi/.local/share/kstars/logs
- /root/.indi/logs
- /home/pi/.indi/logs

Is there another location?

Quick update...

The steps above seem to work. The key ones being to not let the RPI3 update the time and location for the CGEM and then to do a sync as the first step.

Things went well enough the attached image was gathered over the weekend. This M101 is my first image that worked with my ZWO ASI1600, and all done with Ekos on RPI3. It worked with the align!

All processing done in pixinsight:
- 7 900s lum 1x1
- 3 RGB 350s 2x2
- 13 darks, bias
- 33 flats per filter

The guiding was done with PHD2.

Interestingly everything is running on the RPI3, and noVNC is used to connect to Kstars/Ekos on one display and PHD2 on another display. There is no window mate-session running to increase RAM available.

A new image and M101 is being attempted again tonight again to confirm things are working.

Thank you for this great project!

Cheers!