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Questions about equipment when running Ekos

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i have installed all of my gear and i am doing some runs inside the house in order to get a feel for ekos and how to operate it and i have some questions that came up. i list them here instead of opening different topics.

1. Is there an option for multiple park/unpark positions? With EQMod i had setup a parking position with the scope pointing east and the unpark position where the scope would point at polaris, not to mention the home position when i wanted to polar align my mount.

2. i want to use phd 2 but i can't conenct to it. Here is what i do

I connect to the equipment via ekos (i have setup for phd guiding)
i open phd 2 but the sx lodestar is not listed, same thing for the mount (eqmod mount)

Also when i run phd2 without running ekos i can see the lodestar camera, connect to it and see images but i can't connect to the mount, the EQMod mount is not listed

3. I have an ASI120MC USB 2.0 and i tried connecting to it, even though the camera connects i can't see any image when i preview it. From some digging at ZWO's site they mention that with linux there are issues with the camera, has anyone made this camera to work?
HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Mod, GSO RC8'', SW ED80, Atik 383L+, Atik EFW2, Atik OAG, SX Lodestar, ZWO ASI 120MC
5 years 7 months ago #28231

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You have to update the driver for the USB 2 cameras using the Firmware Update tool on the ZWO website.
astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software/FWTool.zip
That only runs on Windows, though. So you need to connect your camera to a Windows computer, then run the update tool. Use the -alternate.icc for the 120MC. The other one won't work.

Also, don't make your life hard! Use the internal guider, not PhD2. Much simpler and works great, for me at least.
The following user(s) said Thank You: kostas
Last edit: 5 years 7 months ago by Jose Corazon.
5 years 7 months ago #28234

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Corazon if i could kiss you i would for the help you have given me. The ASI works, it took me so many tries the last days with no success. I will give the internal guider a try but i want to have the alternative of phd. Also i would like to know if there is a documentation for ekos or any recent tutorials since all the videos i saw are old.
HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Mod, GSO RC8'', SW ED80, Atik 383L+, Atik EFW2, Atik OAG, SX Lodestar, ZWO ASI 120MC
5 years 7 months ago #28235

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Hi
Make sure you have indi-asi installed. Make sure PHD2 is up before connecting to indi. Select the profile you are to use in phd2. Select the mount as in the screen I have attached. In the guide tab in ekos, hit 'Connect'. That's it.

If you don't need the control which phd2 offers, then you could use the internal guider. The main disadvantage of which is that it must be calibrated both for each new target and after a meridian flip.

HTH and clear skies,
Steve
5 years 7 months ago #28236

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Dear kookoo,

As happy as I am that things are working out for you with your camera now, I have to nevertheless warn you that you have precipitated a marital crisis in my household. My wife strongly objects to our new-found romantic relationship and the last I saw of her, she was in the kitchen sharpening the knives...

:) :P B)

Anyway, I don't think there are any more recent tutorials than the ones Jasem posted on YouTube a while back, but you may want to ask him. Most of your questions will likely already have been answered somewhere here in the forum, and if not just post the question.

Good luck and clear skies. Indi and KStars are working great and Jasem, Rob, Eric and their colleagues continue to improve it all the time. I only started using it last fall and already there has been dramatic improvement on multiple fronts.

Jo
5 years 7 months ago #28237

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i am writing at this topic so i won't open a new one.

I finally managed to go outside with my scope in order to test the astropi i have setup and i have some questions so please be nice when answering them since i may have missed some things.

1. The polar alignment was fairly easy once you learn the procedure. With my Atik383l+ and my rc 8'' the plate solving took under a minute with 4x4 bin. One problem i encountered is that before i started the polar alignment tool i tried to plate solve a part of the sky and sync the mount. The issue i had was that even though the plate solver was successful ekos failed to sync the mount. What could be the cause of this?

2. When doing the polar alignment how many iterations are acceptable? i did 3 iterations and according to phd i had a 1.7 arcsec error.

3. When i boot up my pi i noticed that the date/time of mate were wrong, i corrected the time/date but i would like to know if there is a workaround this minor issue. I read that the pi needs an internet connection in order to have correct time/date, since i don't have an internet connection on the field will a usb-gps dongle help solve this problem? (i found this www.supershopping.gr/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=2574 gps dongle is it ok?)

some observations i did while running ekos and maybe suggestions for future updates for the software.

4. At the camera tab it would be nice if there was a drop down menu when clicking at the exposure time, what i mean by that. I used sequence generator pro and when i entered exposure times along with typing the exposure time i could select exposure times from 5s,10s, 30s 1min 3min 5min 10min 20min 30min. it would be nice if this was included at ekos since it's a lot easier to have predefined exposure times than typing in the dark especially in the winter.

5. No matter how much i looked i could not find multiple park/unpark positions. It would be nice if this was included just like eqmod has this option

6. When i did the polar alignment i tried to do a drift alignment with my ccd in order to check how good was my PA. What i noticed is that even though i had tracking ON at the mount tab when i slew by 1x speed the tracking was disabled and i could not do my drift alignment procedure. Maybe i missed something or it is supposed for this to happen at ekos and eqmod when i do this procedure so i would like some information on this issue.

7. I am looking for a capture software for my asi120mc that is equal with firecapture or if ekos has this feature. When i did some tests with ekos i could not find any way on how to adjust the histogram of the colors while being at live view so i would like some help on that

8. I have a temperhum usb sensor in order to record temperature /humidity i read somewhere that under linux this sensor is not accurate i would to know what are my options
HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Mod, GSO RC8'', SW ED80, Atik 383L+, Atik EFW2, Atik OAG, SX Lodestar, ZWO ASI 120MC
5 years 7 months ago #28908

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??
Why not use the Linux version ?
syntax hint:
zwo_fwtool_usb2/bin/x64$ sudo ./zwo_FWTool_USB2 -i ../firmware/ASI120MM-compatible.iic -t li2c
HTH
Last edit: 5 years 7 months ago by alacant.
5 years 7 months ago #28979
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4. Noted. I think a calibration algorithm putting bright stars at 90% saturation could be nice too.

-Eric
5 years 7 months ago #28980

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3. The Raspberry Pi needs an internet connection to get the correct date and time. It takes a minute or so before the clock runs correctly. There are several hardware RTC (Real Time Clock) solutions out there for RPi and I have tried two but neither worked. WittyPi2 doesn't work on Ubuntu because it takes too long for Ubuntu to boot and the WittyPi2 thinks that there is no power and switches of the RPi before Ubuntu has the chance to boot. RasClock works on Ubuntu and I managed to get it to set the system time but for some reason after several minutes the RPi freezes and needs a hard reboot before it will work again. As soon as I took out the RasClock the RPi started working ok again.

In short: when you have no internet connection then just make sure to set the internal clock yourself and you'll be fine. It may be off several seconds to even minutes and it will still work OK.
5 years 7 months ago #28984

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1. Which mount do you have? Can you please put your gear in your signature?

2. I always only do 1 iteration and apart from one time I never had any issues with the polar alignment accuracy. That one time I did I probably bumped into the mount or tripod after polar alignment completed. I never checked but I am sure I am within 1 arc minute of the north pole of the sky. Did you check with PhD after the 3rd iteration or also after the 1st and 2nd?

5. If I understand correctly, there is only one park position possible in Ekos. Why would you want more than one (I am asking to learn because I think one is enough)?
5 years 7 months ago #28985

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I have an HEQ5 Pro with the Rowan belt mod and i am very happy with how it performs in the field and i can get under 1'' with good guiding.
Unfortunately i had very limited time to do all the tests i wanted and short out any bugs at the setup and i only checked the PA with the phd guide assistant after the third iteration my usual check for PA is with the ccd drift alignment method . I have bought the GSP/GLONASS U-Blox 7 and i set it up today and tested the Share GPS app in order to enter coordinates and time(?) at my pi so the next time i will give a better test with the polar alignment, the bad thing is that at my day off the sky started raining cats and dogs and i have to wait a full week for new tests.

Under Windows EQMod i have set a parking position for my mount where the scope points east and an unpark position where the scope points at polaris. This way when the mount is parked i can load my scope at the mount, also i can set my polar scope at a home position and do a PA without releasing the clutches from my mount and manually rotating the mount. It's not the end of the world but if Ekos had this option it would be a convenience and for those that have limited space at their observatory.

I have some screenshots from when doing the tests and my gear when at the field (some of the wire were reduced in length today).
HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Mod, GSO RC8'', SW ED80, Atik 383L+, Atik EFW2, Atik OAG, SX Lodestar, ZWO ASI 120MC
5 years 7 months ago #28990
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Yes I have an HEQ5-Pro with belt mod (installed it myself) as well and I, too, get guiding RMS below 1”. It is a great mount. Last week I also bought an EQ6-R but haven’t had the chance to test it properly though my expectations are high! Anyway, I get very good polar alignment with the HEQ5 though I never really measured how well but. Am sure it is less than 1 arc minute.

Yes, having park and unpark positions like that makes sense. I never really thought about it that way. Then again I don’t mind rotating the telescope manually for using the polar scope so that’s why I never thought about it. But if you are used to doing things in a certain way and all of a sudden you cannot do it like that anymore then you regret that things have changed.
5 years 7 months ago #28991

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