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How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

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How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ? was created by Fitchie

Maybe this question has been raised before, but I can't find a satisfactory answer in the manual nor the forum...

Since I want to capture a larger object, I prefer to use the mosaic planner. This works very well and creates 4 jobs corresponding to the 4 parts of the object, which I tested yesterday with a series of 4 x 15 exposures.

So far so good!

Next step is to sequentially repeat the 4 jobs during the whole night. But no matter how I try to do that, it results in repeating the individual jobs one by one, rather than repeating the entire series.

I guess I need to group the 4 jobs together, and repeat the grouped jobs, but I get stuck here.
Can someone please put me on the right track?

Thanks before hand...
Last edit: 8 months 2 weeks ago by Fitchie.
8 months 2 weeks ago #95005

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Replied by Fitchie on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

Found this in the StellarMate manual:

Group repeats

This feature allows you to run two or more scheduler jobs at roughly the same priority, such that if they were both runnable, they would progress at roughly the same rate. This may be applicable, for example, to jobs imaging the multiple tiles in a mosaic, but is generally applicable to any set of jobs.

Normally the (Greedy) scheduler's job priority is set by the row the job is listed in the Scheduler's job table. Jobs on rows closer to the top run with higher priority than jobs lower down. Thus, if a job on row 2 (Job2) uses Repeat Until Terminated, and that job's running constraints are satisfied, a lower down job (e.g. Job3) will not be scheduled to run.

If you wish to alternate jobs, you can assign each of the jobs the same group name, and give the jobs one of the repeating finish conditions (e.g. Repeat for N times, or Repeat Until Terminated). With that setup, jobs in the same group will cede to each other if they have completed more 'Repeat Iterations' than the other job. So, if Job2 with group "MyGroup" completes its 2nd iteration, and Job3 with the same group name has only completed 0 or 1 iterations, when the time comes to schedule Job2, Job3 will run instead.

Practically speaking, imagine you had a 6-panel mosaic you wanted to alternate. You might give all of those jobs the same group name, make them all e.g. "Repeat for 5 times". Then, they would run in lock-step. The cadence of job switching would be controlled by the length of the sequence file assigned to each of those jobs. You wouldn't want to make the cadence too short (e.g. capturing one 2-minute image), as there is overhead in switching jobs. For instance, starting jobs may involved aligning, starting guiding, and even focusing.


According to this information, my scheduler does contain the following jobs:



All 4 jobs are in Group_1.

Will this configuration start at 22:23 and run the jobs alternately (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 -3 - 4 - ...) until 05:47 ?
Or will only the first job be executed and repeated until 05:47 ?
8 months 2 weeks ago #95016
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Replied by Hy Murveit on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

It should do 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-... You can see the initial estimate for start and end times in the table. If you look in the log window at the bottom of the screen (you cut off your screenshot above where the log starts) you should see estimates for further repetitions.
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8 months 2 weeks ago #95023

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Replied by Fitchie on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

I hoped so too, but apparently job 1 doesn't stop after 15 shots, but just keeps on running.



All settings seem to be ok, but apparently I'm overlooking something...
8 months 2 weeks ago #95025
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Replied by Fitchie on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

Could there be an error somewhere in the scheduler?

I now have 'Remember job progress' unchecked in EKOS and 'Repeat all jobs x times' enabled in the scheduler.
And that seems to work at first glance.



But the estimated start end times are incorrect and do not match the log:

8 months 2 weeks ago #95026
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Replied by Hy Murveit on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

Please send your .esq and .esl files and I can try and look into it.

Also, if you have logs with verbose on and most ekos modules (especially scheduler) checked,
then please add them too.

8 months 2 weeks ago #95027
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Replied by Fitchie on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

The rig is running and it's a perfect nigh, so I prefer to let the started sequence run.
Verbose log files are not available, but I have added the .esl & .esq files.

File Attachment:

File Name: Archive.zip
File Size:6 KB
Last edit: 8 months 2 weeks ago by Fitchie.
8 months 2 weeks ago #95030
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Replied by Fitchie on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

The job scheduler does weird things no matter the settings of the added jobs. Especially the counters and the time estimates are very strange.

In this example 15 photos must be taken, but in practice the counter runs to 20 before the next job is started.
Remember job proces is unchecked, remaining jobs from last night deleted, Kstars/EKOS restarted just to sure.




Last night logs:
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.932 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_1' 15x60\" TRB requires a dither procedure."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.932 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_1' estimated to take 00h 22m 40s to complete."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.933 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_2' 15x60\" TRB requires a dither procedure."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.933 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_2' estimated to take 00h 22m 40s to complete."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.933 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_3' 15x60\" TRB requires a dither procedure."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.934 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_3' estimated to take 00h 22m 40s to complete."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.934 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_4' 15x60\" TRB requires a dither procedure."
[2023-08-23T00:17:12.935 ] "Job 'IC_5070-Part_4' estimated to take 00h 22m 40s to complete."
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.105 ] "IC_5070-Part_4\t08/24  00:34 --> 00:57 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.106 ] "IC_5070-Part_3\t08/24  00:11 --> 00:33 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.107 ] "IC_5070-Part_2\t08/23  23:47 --> 00:10 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.107 ] "IC_5070-Part_1\t08/23  23:23 --> 23:46 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.108 ] "IC_5070-Part_4\t08/23  23:00 --> 23:22 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.109 ] "IC_5070-Part_3\t08/23  22:36 --> 22:59 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.110 ] "IC_5070-Part_2\t08/23  22:22 --> 22:35 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.111 ] "IC_5070-Part_2\t08/23  05:24 --> 05:34 \ttwilight"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.113 ] "IC_5070-Part_1\t08/23  05:01 --> 05:23 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.114 ] "IC_5070-Part_4\t08/23  04:37 --> 05:00 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.116 ] "IC_5070-Part_3\t08/23  04:13 --> 04:36 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.117 ] "IC_5070-Part_2\t08/23  03:50 --> 04:12 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.119 ] "IC_5070-Part_1\t08/23  03:26 --> 03:49 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.120 ] "IC_5070-Part_4\t08/23  03:02 --> 03:25 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.122 ] "IC_5070-Part_3\t08/23  02:39 --> 03:01 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.123 ] "IC_5070-Part_2\t08/23  02:15 --> 02:38 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.125 ] "IC_5070-Part_1\t08/23  01:51 --> 02:14 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.126 ] "IC_5070-Part_4\t08/23  01:28 --> 01:50 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.127 ] "IC_5070-Part_3\t08/23  01:04 --> 01:27 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.129 ] "IC_5070-Part_2\t08/23  00:40 --> 01:03 \tjob completion"
[2023-08-23T00:17:13.132 ] "IC_5070-Part_1\t08/23  00:17 --> 00:39 \tjob completion"


Are there other members using the mosaic scheduler?
Is there perhaps a mistake in the mosaic planner or am I doing something systematically wrong?
Last edit: 8 months 2 weeks ago by Fitchie.
8 months 2 weeks ago #95110
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Replied by Hy Murveit on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

Fitchie,

I made a change based on what I was able to reproduce from your .esl/esq files, see invent.kde.org/education/kstars/-/merge_requests/980
Not sure if that will fix your issue or not, but please update to that software.

(Are you compiling or downloading nightlies? That change may not yet be in the latest
released nightly, not sure. If you are compiling then just grab the latest software.)

- Please upload full logs (and the esq/esl files you're using),
- Please explain the issue with the time estimates. It's not obvious to me from your screenshot.
- Why are you unchecking "Remember Job Progress"? Why not just move the the captured files to somewhere else when you want to repeat, and keep RememberJobProgresss checked? That way, if a job needs to restart (e.g. clouds etc) it will pick up from where it left off. Better yet, set the jobs to "RepeatUntilTerminated" and keep RememberJobProgress checked and you don't have to worry about moving them. This is all assuming you're saving the captures on the same machine as KStars/Ekos is running on.


It's certainly possible that there is an issue in the software, and I'm happy to try and help fix it, but just FYI I also was running a mosaic capture last night, and it seemed to work well for me.

Thanks,
Hy
8 months 2 weeks ago #95113

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Replied by Fitchie on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

Thanks for your feedback.

'Remember job progress' has been turned that off because otherwise job 1 will repeat endlessly and job 2 - 3 - 4 will not be started. But even then, strange things happen. Please see screen dumps below.

Each job consists of 15 automatically created exposures, but the counter goes randomly (?) over and continues for no apparent reason.








Where is the job management stored ofter creation? Is it somewhere in a database and can it be deleted? I'm starting to suspect that 'leftovers' from previous jobs are sticking around and causing this weird behaviour. Makes that sense?
8 months 1 week ago #95137
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Replied by Hy Murveit on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

It is simply looking on disk at the image files.
If you still have image files there from previous jobs, you will see those files included in the counts.
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8 months 1 week ago #95138

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Replied by ALESSANDRO PENSATO on topic How to repeat jobs created by mosaic planner ?

I noticed that the number growth over the scheduled in case that the object exceeds the minimum distance configured every X number of captured frames
8 months 1 week ago #95139

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