Magnus,

I have used PHD2 and INDI guiding on a Raspberry Pi without issues with a Lodestar X2.

What camera are you using and what software settings are you using?

Log does not contain mount logging. Using ST4 or Pulse Guiding?

Hi!

Ah, sorry for not having mount logging. Will supply as soon as I can (next star visible).

I use pulse guiding, no ST4-cable, just the USB cable. I use a Lodestar. Indiserver installed on a R-Pi sitting by the telescope.

I'm not sure which settings I should look at. Camera settings were the same in Win as in Linux. Exposure 1s to 2 secs, Hysterisis and Resist switch algoritms. I have not tried PHD2 in Linux without PHD2, though. But I did try internal guider in Ekos without PHD2, same behavior - and that indicates to me that this is not PHD2 related. Right?

Phomer60: what settings should I check? There are a lot.... Since it works for you (with gemini 2, right, and the Losmandy Gemini driver?), it should be some kind of setting here. Basically, I did not change anything switching from the Gemini 1 to Gemini 2. It worked nicely with Gemini 1. Anything that should be changed doing that switch?

Magnus

Magnus

Magnus,

I was thinking of the settings under options - calibration and guide.

My problem at the moment is that I don't have my camera and don't know how to bring up my settings without it.

So The gemini driver uses the Meade pulse command guiding... does Gemini support its own pulse guiding routine or is it the same as Meade?

EDIT: Ok from the documentation, it supports the same format with this note:

:Mg<direction><time># Moves into <direction> "e", "w", "n", "s" for <time> milliseconds. <time> is converted into motor encoder ticks, in L4 the result must not exceed 255 or will be cut off modulo 256.

So if you have L4, this might be a problem as anything above 255ms will be cut off

My recommendation would be to try an st4 cable to see if you get better results. I have had a Gemini 1 for about 8 years now. For years I was guiding with pulse commands and never really got great results. I used different software packages, different computer types, and still did not get good results. (Mac, Linux, PHD, PHD2, KStars, direct USB, over INDI, etc.) I had not tried an ST4 cable because my camera didnt have an ST4 out jack. I bought a ZWO ASI 120 usb3 because I thought the issue was related to pixel size. It gave no real improvement though. But about 5 months ago I tried the ST4 jack and saw immediate improvement. I got even more improvement when I started running PHD2 on a raspberry Pi stuck right on the mount so no communication or image download delays.

Thanks,

Rob

Hi!
So, after a few days of clouds, here is a log with mount driver data as well. Same behavior - wild swings in RA when guiding also in Dec. I have turned Dec on and off a few times - each time I turn it off, RA calms down, each time I turn it on, it goes wild again. Attached is both INDI, Ekos and PHD2 logs.

Magnus

Hi again!

And now I can confirm that using the ST4-cable instead seems to work nicely. No swings at all, good guiding behavior.

Maagnus

Hi!

A slight update: ST4 works, but my experience now, is that it does not work as nicely as I first said. I cannot get guding below 1", even though I previously, with Gemini 1, hade 0,6-0,7" as standard. And the experience among many Losmandy users seems to be that performance is better with pulse. However, I am going to explore this further next week (travelling this week). And if we could get the pulse guiding to work, that would be wonderful!

Magnus

Hi!

Any hope of any progress on this? Tried tonight and still same problem: wild swings in RA when mount connected through Indi, much calmer when "on-camera" But guiding quality not as good as it used to be with connection throgu Indi.

Magnus

Magnus,

I have experienced the wild swings, if you mean it suddenly slews to somewhere completely unrelated to where you want it to go - sometimes making the camera head towards the mount. I always make sure I can abort it from INDI, as I have found that when this happens the hand controller does not respond.

I have found that the best way to avoid this is to always perform a synch after a coldstart and then use align for the following slews.

I believe that it must be corrupting the model because the park at CWD still works correctly so it knows where it physically is. exactly what the problem is eludes me and is unpredictable. It means I cannot trust the mount when slewing and need to keep an eye on it. The only solution I have found is to perform a coldstart.

Hi!

No, I'm talking about swings in RA while guiding - up to 15" in swings,, killing every possibility of imaging, and seemingly triggered by pulses i DEC - when not guiding in DEC, it is smooth. And this is only when using pulse commandes, using ST4-cable works OK. See my previously posted guidelogs for a visual illustration.

Magnus