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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

egmod control

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Replied by Markku on topic egmod control

Hi Jasem.

It's for getting the EQ8 pointing at the celestial north pole as the mount does not have absolute encoders,
that means if you get a power failure or maybe something gets stuck/hitting something while slewing or tracking for
some reason there is no way to know where the mount is pointing, and if that happens even the normal park position will be all wrong and can cause other unexpected things to happen when parking the mount.

So Autohome and Park/UnPark is different things. I hope I was clear enough explain it, maybe somebody else having a EQ8 or HDX110 can add something more.

Br
/Markku
8 years 1 month ago #6811

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Replied by Bruce Morrell on topic egmod control

Jasem,
Any time the mount gets shut down without parking, power outage, or gets bumped after being turned off, it has no idea where it is. The handcontroler finds home as the first step of any power up process. I would like to push a button that says find home. It straightens itself out at that point. Further I would like to see this at a higher level than just the mount driver, that may be asking too much.... Bruce
8 years 1 month ago #6814

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Replied by Jean-Luc on topic egmod control

HI,
I remember to have looked for some info concerning EQ8 and AZ-EQ6 mounts to be able to perform some very basic tests. I did'nt find anything so I left it down. Now, after using a trial/error procedure (there are dozens of pic microcontrollers), I'm quite able to simulate an EQ8 mount. Actually looking at the code sent by maxer (thanks to him and skywatcher), the autohoming procedure makes the mount slew at full speed in both directions for an angle of 5/10 degrees (or 3 seconds), and this for both axes (this is also a reason why I did not implement it without more info). I still have some questions:
- the procedure will only work if the mount is within 10 degrees of the pole. If you face a power failure for instance, do you have a way to put the mount back in this situation if you are in a remote place? Using a webcam maybe.
- do you use horizon limits other than tracking, I mean goto and slew limits? If you try to put the mount within 10 degrees of the pole, there may be situations where the mount (which still believes it has started from the pole) will get outside the driver limits.
- Can you confirm if the mount ends up its autohome procedure always in the same direction ?
- I think I may have access to the encoder/home indexer/worm home indexer info. Would it be useful to expose them in the driver ?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Markku
8 years 1 month ago #6877

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Replied by Markku on topic egmod control

Hi,
Thank you for looking into it again :)
Yes, I have a webcam so I can get the mount to point within probably ~3-5 degrees in best case after a powerfailure.

I use limits only for tracking but have never run to limits, when slewing/goto I mostly keep an eye at the webcam.

That's a bit tricky to know, in webcam it's impossible to know that the position is exactly where it should be, but taking a exposure can confirm that by resolving.

If you ask me it's definitely useful, that would save a couple of trips to my obsy in the middle of the night.

Br,
/Markku
8 years 1 month ago #6878

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Replied by Bruce Morrell on topic egmod control

Gentlemen,
It is not my experience that it only works within a limited range of home. I have started the mount up at different angles and it finds home. I can experiment with this if need be. I can also experiment with it starting up from either side of the pier if need be. Bruce
8 years 1 month ago #6880

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Replied by Jean-Luc on topic egmod control

Hi,
I've built some sort of EQ8 replica on breadboard with some PIC18F452, but unfortunately it is unable to get into either highspeed nor goto mode. It always gets back to lowspeed slew mode. So I am unable to perform basic tests concerning autohome. Rather than searching for the underlying reason I would ask to people owning an EQ8 or AZEQ6 to test the autohome sequence (the sequence itself should be ok, where the mount really goes, I don't know, if it ever stops!).
Prior to make a commit I would prefer if someone may test at least the basic behaviour of autohome. I've attached an archive of the driver to be hand-compiled.
Perform the test while you're physically near your mount, I really can't know what could get wrong. Autohome is in the Site Management tab, you have to hit the Perform button twice within 10 poll periods, just to be sure.

Thanks,
Jean-Luc.
8 years 1 month ago #6938
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Replied by Bruce Morrell on topic egmod control

I could do it, but I not sure about compiling it? How about I extend a teamviewer invite to you??.... Bruce
8 years 1 month ago #6939

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Replied by Jean-Luc on topic egmod control

I don't have (and use) teamviewer which seems to be a commercial product.
Maybe you could try to compile yourself:
cd /tmp
tar xzf indi-eqmod-autohome.tgz
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr /tmp/indi-eqmod/
make
sudo make install
That should replace your current indi-eqmod version which should be in /usr (not in /usr/local). You may have to install dependencies (indi-devel, nova-devel..).
I may help further if you need.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Markku
8 years 1 month ago #6942

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Replied by Markku on topic egmod control

Hi Jean-Luc,

I did compile the driver and made a quick test, it was a bit scary when my mount didn't stop when I expected but it seems that I maybe missed the xml-file when trying..?? I'll see if I get the time to give it a try later on..
8 years 1 month ago #6957

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Replied by Markku on topic egmod control

Here you can take a look what happened.. pretty scary, but Abort worked, otherwise I would have forced to switch off the power.



My guess is that when the mount slows down first time it should change direction and also the next time it slows down.. but it's a bit hard to say because I only looked through webcam.
I'll have to go to my obsy tomorrow to get things right again, but no problem, I'm pretty sure it will work one day :)
Thank you so far!!
Br
/Markku
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jean-Luc
8 years 1 month ago #6964

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Replied by Jean-Luc on topic egmod control

Thanks Maxer, it was a little bit risky to perform this test remotely, but we know that Abort is working in this situation.
Otherwise I've looked at the video and saw the problem arised in the 4th move: after checking the code I saw I have made a mistake (read a loop while for a loop until). So I inverted the stop condition here. I also changed some direction settings in the 2 next moves, but I'm quite confused about this (I believe the firmware sets the shortest path direction in some cases, well I hope). I put a new version here.
If you make further tests, can you activate driver debug and serial port debug and post the log file. The video is really useful.
Thanks again,
Jean-Luc.
8 years 1 month ago #6967
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Replied by Markku on topic egmod control

A bit risky, but abort works so I'm fine with that.
So, here is results from second test..



And the log :
2016-02-17T11:18:03: Telescope Aborted.
2016-02-17T11:18:01: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:59: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:58: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:57: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:56: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:55: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:54: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:53: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:52: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:51: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:50: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:49: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:48: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:47: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:46: Autohome phase 5: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:45: Autohome phase 5: Moving back (10 deg.)
2016-02-17T11:17:45: Autohome phase 4: end
2016-02-17T11:17:43: Autohome phase 4: detected DE Home index: 24583, stopping motor
2016-02-17T11:17:43: Autohome phase 4: detected RA Home index: 24583, stopping motor
2016-02-17T11:17:41: Autohome phase 4: find the home position index
2016-02-17T11:17:41: Autohome phase 3: end
2016-02-17T11:17:40: Autohome phase 2: end
2016-02-17T11:17:39: Autohome phase 2: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:38: Autohome phase 2: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:37: Autohome phase 2: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:36: Autohome phase 2: start
2016-02-17T11:17:36: Autohome phase 1: end
2016-02-17T11:17:35: Autohome phase 1: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:34: Autohome phase 1: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:33: Autohome phase 1: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:31: Autohome phase 1: Waiting for motors to stop
2016-02-17T11:17:31: Starting Autohome.
2016-02-17T11:17:30: *** AutoHome NOT TESTED. Press PERFORM AGAIN TO CONFIRM. ***

Behaviour didn’t have changed a lot for some reason, it still wants to do a full circle and I can't just do that because the floor in in the way :(
I tried to start from 2 different positions, first from East of pier and then West of pier but the result was the same..??

Br.
/Markku
8 years 1 month ago #6970

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