Thanks, Toni. They are very interesting. But since my target activity (for now, anyway) is EAA rather than Astrophotography, some of it is over my head. I've never taken a dark capture, a bias capture or any of that stuff, nor do I understand why I'd want to do that. I may someday but one step at a time is the way I'll go. Still, it is interesting that the factory recommendations for WB_B and WB_R had no documentation about what activity they are recommended for.

Regardless of the usage and Zwo camera, here is a link with an explanation about the WB_R and WB_R values ​​

bbs.zwoastro.com/d/15936-what-should-be-...asi2600mc-pro-camera

Stephane: this noob thanks you for all your help.

I think the "green problem" must have begun when I turned auto-debayering on. I have now taken captures in bright daylight that clearly show the effects of changing the white-balance settings.

If I may offer a UI suggestion for future noobs like me, part of the problem came because the auto-debayer is a KStars setting, while the White balance values are INDI camera settings. I understand why it has to be this way, but a tool-tip message on the auto-debayering setting something to the effect of "if you turn this on, please check your white balance settings (WB_B and WB_R) per vendor recoomendations or other reasonable values n your camera's INDI controls or your captures will have an annoying tint to them" would be helpful.

I spoke too soon it seems. Something is still very wrong.

After verifying this afternoon that changing the WB_R and WB_B settings to ZWO recommended values did get rid of the "green problem" when capturing a daylight sky, I looked forward to a successful evening of observing. Clear skies for the first time in weeks, no moon, ideal conditions. Alas, total failure. I couldn't capture anything. Something was wrong with the camera or its settings and nothing worked. Focus, alignment, captures all depend on my camera and nothing was working!

Logs continually showed errors like this:

KStars Log:
2024-02-04T22:07:23 Exposure failure. Restarting exposure...
2024-02-04T22:07:20 Exposure failure. Restarting exposure...

INDI log for same time (note: KStars logs in local time, INDI logs in GMT and I am 7 hours behind GMT)
2024-02-05T05:07:26: [ERROR] Exposure failed after 3 attempts.
2024-02-05T05:07:23: [ERROR] Exposure failed after 3 attempts.
2024-02-05T05:07:20: [ERROR] Exposure failed after 3 attempts.
2024-02-05T05:07:17: [ERROR] Failed to set exposure duration (ASI_ERROR_GENERAL_ERROR).

OK, so what's ASI_ERROR_GENERAL_ERROR? It's an error with my ASI camera but what does it mean?

I attach my latest CCD control settings:



How can I debug this situation?

I am using WB_R = 50 and WB_B = 50 with all my cameras (ASI294 -> ASI071 -> ASI2600) for more than 3 years now.
Works well for me. If there's color cast (I usually have green) - I don't care - it's easily removed in post processing.
(I have Neutralize Background selected in APP stacking software - this takes care of the color cast).
I vaguely remember that WB_R = 52 and WB_B = 95 caused problems with ASI294 for me.
Stellarmate wasn't as robust as it is now back then.
Many things changed since 3 years ago.
Will do a comparison.

We are using our ASI294 with default values WB_R = 52 and WB_B = 95 for years to this day without the mentioned green cast. (On 3.6.9 stable currently.)
We remove (rare and slight) color casts in SIRIL.

Thanks, maxthebuilder, but you aren't responding to my latest post. Seemingly, I had solved the green tint to my satisfaction, only to find new problems I don't know how to solve. Now the camera refuses to capture with obscure log messages that I can make no sense of, principally

You mention Stellarmate, which I am considering as I suspect flakiness in my homebrew Raspberry Pi. I'd be interested in more detailed comments on Stellarmate from you, particularly how it compares to a homebrew RPi.

Now the camera refuses to capture with obscure log messages
Did you see this thread ?
Or this one ?
Seems to be an USB3 issue.

Thanks.
Hmm. I'm using ZWO USB3 cabling. I have a spare I could try, But it;'s all very discouraging.

Sorry, I realize that this is not relevant to this thread anymore but since I did do the comparison...
WB_R = 52 and WB_B = 95 produce images with blue tint
WB_R = 50 and WB_B = 50 produce images with green tint
Both are OK to use...

Steve,
I use only Stellarmate from the beginning. RPI3, RPI4 and now Mele.
Briefly tried Astroberry a couple of years ago. It worked but I prefer Stellarmate.
Stellarmate works very well for me. I haven't had any serious issues for a long time.

Well - all I can say is Glory Halle-f'in-lujah!

I have finally gotten to the bottom of all this. As several of you have suggested it was the power supply, which I was too thickheaded to believe.
But I have now proved it to be true.

My last problem was that, day or night, the camera would only produce a uniform-colored square.

I tried a test: took my Raspberry Pi completely out of the picture and connected the camera through the USB3 cable to my laptop, on which I had booted Windows and was running ASICap. Same problem therre.
So, it's got to be the camera, the cabling, or the power.

I thought the camera was the most likely culprit, so I took it to Starizona, where I'd bought it, and told them my problem. He hooked it up to a scope in the store, connected it to an ASIAir, powered it on, and quickly focused in on a building across the street and the camera captured it easily. He suggested that my problem might be out-of-focus. So I tried it again last night. But how do you focus the scope when you're looking at an undifferentiated grey-black square???

So I gave up in disgust and went to bed.
Overnight it dawned on me that
1) I had a power supply, a Starizona Power Pack II that came with my used scope and mount. I never used it because it wasn''t very powerful and I had this Bluetti EB3A that looked so nice and SEEMED like it was working, and indeed once it did work, powering all my devices, including the camera, whereas the Power Pack could only power one device at a time, and how long would the power last? Who knew, and good luck even finding documentation for the thing online. Maybe I could use that to power the camera. The Bluetti had no trouble with the mount or the Pi.
2) What did I have to lose.

So right before dusk I pointed my scope at a stucco fence post in my yard, focused it using the eyepiece, then connected the Pi and the mount to the Bluetti, the camera to the PowerPack, and captured a FITS image of the fence post., Then I turned everything off, and plugged the camera power connector into the Bluetti instead of the power pack, and took the same capture.



When powered with the PowerPack, I captured the stucco fence post .
When powered with the Bluetti, I got the undifferentiated square of color .

So that settles it, I think. The Bluetti has crapped out unless it's the cable I'm using but I've used several different ones, and the results don't differ. Here's the info on the Bluetti . Has anyone had any experience of this type of device, or any understanding of why it might fail with the camera but still be good with the mount?
I am still deciding if I should cancel my order for the Stellarmate. Its shipping date remains murky.
I guess this means I'm in the market for a SOLID, and RELIABLE power supply for this equipment. Any recommendations?

And thanks to you all for putting up with my bullheadedness.

Glory Hallelujah.