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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Digital Dome Works - does this work?

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I know I am a couple months late but I am trying to use DDW also. Now, I see two options:
1) DDW can receive basic ASCII commands, so I could attempt to control it directly
2) Slave it to the LX-200 and AAG cloud watch and hope it follow instructions
I am very interested to see if you were able to easily get the system to work out, I am about to combine the systems together and the DDW is the only things that does not work well with INDI.
8 years 9 months ago #4491

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You'd need to write an INDI driver based on INDI::Dome and slaving is already handled, you just need to specify the mount.
8 years 9 months ago #4496

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I too have a dome and am looking at Linux options for controlling it. Did you receive any solution to the initial request?

Thanks,
Jim
8 years 2 months ago #6560

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DDW provides documentation for controlling the dome, but it's a lot of work and someone with programming knowledge must do it. So, someone must step in to develop the driver, or ask DDW to provide an INDI driver.
8 years 2 months ago #6565

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Is there somewhere I can find this documentation online ?
8 years 2 months ago #6576

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Sure you can get it here
8 years 2 months ago #6584

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Hi,

Just today (4 Dec 2020) I tried to install ASCOM under Wine with no luck.

Wine comes in a couple of flavors. There is the "bleeding edge" Wine and what's known as WineHQ, the more stable version. I was using WineHQ.

ASCOM also has several releases. The latest release, 6.5SP1, requires .Net 4.8. If you look at the web page for how WineHQ handles the various .NET packages, the rating for 4.8 is "garbage." No, not a misprint. So I downloaded 6.4SP1 which requires .Net 4 or better. I installed .Net 4.6.1 which WineHQ lists as "gold" into my Wine prefix. Then I tried to install ASCOM 6.4SP1. No luck in either a 32 or 64 bit environment.

So, probably like you, the DDW ASCOM requirement is a big problem. I also have a focuser from Starizona that is ASCOM dependent.

I have used KStars to control my scope (Celestron mount), camera and filter wheel (both SX devices). I've also manged to install 40 astronomy related programs on Ubuntu linux, with a handful that seem to run OK under Wine.

So, if anyone is watching, a question but first some background. In GoTo mounts you can calibrate a mount by centering on different stars which gets stored in the smarts of a hand controller. Celestron, in collaboration with Plane Wave, released ASCOM/Windows software that computes and stores a pointing solution on your MS Box. Question: is there any s/w that runs on linux that has similar capabilities, say under the direction of KStars?
3 years 3 months ago #63882

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I have an untested driver for DDW done, just haven't had time to go to our astronomy club's observatory to actually test it. If someone is adventurous enough to try, the code can be found in github.com/jpaana/indi/tree/ddw_driver (ie. ddw_driver branch in my fork of main indi repo). Any reports if it can even find the controller, let alone do something with it would be welcome. I can't promise it won't break anything, so being present to physically stop things might be a good idea :)

As for the pointing model, KStars/Ekos has a tool for creating mount model in the alignment tab, but I haven't had the need as I just plate solve the targets anyway.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
3 years 3 months ago #63914

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I'll let you go first :)

Seriously, my dome is in s/w New Mexico and I'm currently at home in northern Virginia hunkered down until probably mid-January.

As for Ekos/Indi, thanks -- I'll give it a try. We also have a roll-off with a C-14 Edge and a 140 mm refractor for visual work. I'd like to see if I can control both scopes with one computer.
3 years 3 months ago #63930

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I might have some time to try it on a raspberry pi.....Any issues you foresee? I'm new to the pi experience.
3 years 3 months ago #63947

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I don't see there would be any PI specific issues, the driver is using very basic serial communication like most INDI drivers. So if you can compile INDI from source and connect the PI to the controller, that should be enough.
3 years 3 months ago #63948

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Any progress? I'm confident I cant get everything else in my chain to run under INDI (mount, camera, filter wheel, etc).
3 years 2 months ago #66456

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