Hello,

I'm not sure this is the correct place for this post, so if not, can someone please direct me?

I'm trying to run Astroberry on RPi4/4GB and I find that the AvalonStarGo INDI driver lacks a feature that I previously used running StarGo under Windows 10.

Under Windows, displayed in the StarGo RA/DEC tab, is a slider to set RA Tracking Adj to a specific value. There is also a check box to enable Auto Tracking ADJ. These two controls are absent on the INDI AvalonStarGo RA/DEC panel.

Under Windows I have found that I can achieve good guiding when I set the RA Tracking Adj slider to a value of -108. I have also found that, for my mount, enabling Auto Tracking ADJ results in wide swings of the RA Tracking Adj value, taking quite some time before it finally settles down. My best practice is to set it to the value that I know works for my mount and leave it alone.

Stefano at Avalon Instruments informs me that the RA Tracking Adj value is reset to zero whenever the mount is moved to a new location or whenever the clutches are disengaged. As I do not have a permanent observatory, moving to different locations is a constant in my life. Therefore, being able to set the RA Tracking Adj is critical to my achieving good guiding.

Is it possible for someone to update the INDI StarGo driver to incorporate these two adjustments?

Thank you for your attention and assistance.

Regards,
David Kreiton

Hi David,
I‘ll take a look into it.

-Wolfgang

Thank you, Wolfgang.
I'll be happy to do any testing that you might require.

Regards,
David

Hi David,
I've received the instructions from Avalon how to implement the feature. Since I am on holliday next week, it might take a while.

Just for curiosity: what are you using this feature for?

- Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang,

I'm currently running StarGo under Parallels/Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro. I find that if the RATA is left at the default value of zero then all RA guide pulses are in one direction and the RA graph on PHD2 never gets to zero. In addition, a star cross test shows that the star did not return to its initial location. Setting the RATA to a value of -108 gives roughly an equal number of RA guide pulses in each direction and the RA graph varies about zero. In addition, the star cross test shows the star returned to its initial location. If I check the Auto Track Adj box then the RATA value starts to swing wildly (ranges like -400 to +150) and I've never had the patience to let it settle down (if, indeed, it will).

I'm trying to get all functions consolidated onto a Raspberry Pi 4 running Kstars/EKOS/INDI so that I can operate wirelessly, both for convenience and to reduce the number of cables dangling from my scope to the tripod.

Thanks for your help. I've operated this way for several months, so there's no rush on my part. Enjoy your vacation.

Regards,
David

Hi David,
the tracking adjustment is ready for testing. Currently, it is only available on my fork of Indi-3rdparty on branch stargo-1.9:


I would like to push it asap, since there was a recent change in INDI so that I need to update the Avalon driver.

Cheers
Wolfgang

Hello Wolfgang,

Thank you for the very fast response. From the look of the screenshots it's exactly what I need.

I've run into some difficulty installing the new driver; largely, I think, due to my ignorance and inexperience. I've never done any C coding and have never used cmake.

I followed the INSTALL instructions on branch: stargo-1.9 and after typing cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../../3rdparty/indi-avalon
Got the message: "bash: cmake: command not found"
Without changing directory (I didn't think of changing until later), I installed cmake
sudo apt-get install cmake
this appeared to install OK

I then ran the INSTALL cmake command again cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../../3rdparty/indi-avalon
"CMake Error: The source directory "/home/astroberry/indi/3rdparty/indi-avalon" does not exist.

I then followed these instructions at indilib.org/download.html to make sure I had indilib installed

Stable Release
INDI Library is available for Raspbian Buster. To install stable INDI Library, run the following commands:

wget -O - www.astroberry.io/repo/key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo su -c "echo 'deb www.astroberry.io/repo/ buster main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/astroberry.list"
sudo apt update

No errors were reported. It appeared to install cleanly.

I then went back to your INSTALL instructions and to avoid the error with not finding the 3rd party/avalon-indi directory, I ran

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
Cmake started to run but after 24 or so lines of print-out said

-- CFITSIO not found.
-- CFITSIO not found.
"CMake Error at cmake_modules/FindNova.cmake :49 (message):
libnova not found. Please install libnova development package."

Also CMakeOutput.log and CMakeError.log files were created, but I don't understand what they're trying to tell me.

I searched for cmake libnova and did not find information that I could use to install libnova.

I'm afraid I'm not being of much help, but I'm willing to keep trying if you can point me in the right direction.

Perhaps this is all too much for the forum and we should take it off line?

Dave

Dave, libnova-dev is missing.

Wolfgang, you need to create a pull request so Jasem can merge the changes into the main branch.

Hi Dave,
it looks like you need to install the libraries needed as pre-requisites:
github.com/indilib/indi-3rdparty#building
github.com/indilib/indi#building

If that doesn't help, send me a PN.

@Wouter: Sure, the PR will follow. Since Dave asked for the feature it would be great if he could test it before I publish it.

- Wolfgang

Just to close the loop for those who might be following this thread, I finally managed to make and install the modified driver and it appears to work. Unfortunately, the weather has turned cloudy for a few days so I won't be able to test it under the stars until later this week. Many thanks to Wolfgang for his patience and kind suggestions to help me navigate through unfamiliar territory.

David

Further update.
The sky finally cleared and I was able to test the RA Tracking Adjust. It works great. Thank you, Wolfgang

David

Hi David,
I changed the implementation slightly, since there is a feature of StarGO to store the adjustment in its firmware. The new version is available for testing as stargo-1.10 on my indi-3rdparty fork.

It would be great if you could double check it whether it is working as expected.

- Wolfgang