Hi Wolfgang,

Thanks for the super fast follow up. What I do is this:

- Go to the device manager in KStars (under Tools) and connect to LX200 Basic via TCP/IP.
- At that moment the RA and DEC are correct.
- Slew to an object.
- From that moment on RA and DEC are swapped. This can be seen in the device control panel. If you enter a RA/DEC combination and click the Set button, you can see in the same screen that they get set correctly and then get swapped after a few seconds.


HTH, Wouter

Wouter, I checked the LXBasic driver with my Avalon mount. At least with this combination it works correct, it does not show the effect yo are describing.

Are you 100% sure that the error is not somewhere in your mount firmware?

Wolfgang

Like I wrote, the code works fine with SkySafari and AstroPlanner but of course that doesn't rule out that there is an issue with my code. Perhaps the format of the RA and DEC strings that are sent by my code is incorrect. Would it be possible for you to capture those strings from your mount and post them here so I can compare with my code? I'll send examples of output from my code as soon as I get access to my MacBook.


Thanks, Wouter

OK, here we go. When INDI sends a slew command, it sends the following commands:

2023-10-22 19:55:47,034:DEBUG:LX200Mount:Read command line: 'Sr14:16:44#'
2023-10-22 19:55:47,034:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:Setting RA to 14:16:44
2023-10-22 19:55:47,034:DEBUG:LX200Mount:Read command line: 'Sd+19*03:56#'
2023-10-22 19:55:47,034:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:Setting DEC to +19*03:56
2023-10-22 19:55:47,034:DEBUG:LX200Mount:Read command line: 'MS#'
2023-10-22 19:55:47,035:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:Slewing to RaDec (14:16:44, +19*03:56).

So it first sends an Sr command with the RA and then an Sd command with the DEC. Finally it sends an MS command that initiates the slew. Before that, my code sends the following RA and DEC strings, to indicate that the telescope is at AZ 0.0 and ALT 0.0:

2023-10-22 19:55:45,945:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:ra_str='07:43:51.18'
2023-10-22 19:55:45,953:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:dec_str="49*16'37.50"

The telescope is correctly displayed on the northern horizon. As soon as the MS command is received, the telescope code starts slewing to the position of, in this case, Arcturus and sends these strings:

2023-10-22 19:55:47,982:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:ra_str='07:56:56.31'
2023-10-22 19:55:48,986:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:ra_str='08:51:5.20'
2023-10-22 19:55:48,993:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:dec_str="57*26'6.05"
2023-10-22 19:55:49,997:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:ra_str='10:22:29.87'
2023-10-22 19:55:50,006:DEBUG:Lx200CommandResponder:dec_str="60*35'29.43"

And there I see the cause of the issue. Apparently the ra_str reply is sent twice. My guess is that this is a timing issue with two consecutive commands being received to request the telescope RA but I'll dig into my code to make sure that it is not an issue on my side.


Wouter

I enabled command logging in my code and found that indeed a duplicate GR command is sent by INDI. I added some code to ignore duplicate commands and now it works in KStars and Cartes du Ciel. I think there may be some timing issue or some other problem in INDI causing a duplicate GR command to be sent. No idea why it works with the Avalon Mount though!

I will keep ignoring duplicate commands in my code so it works well with INDI.

Thanks for helping me get to the bottom of this, Wolfgang!


Wouter

Strange thing, these duplicated commands. But anyway, good to hear that you resolved it!

Yes, I am happy that it is working for me now. I hope someone will take some time to dig into these duplicate GR commands. My python code for the LX200 protocol worked without the need to filter that out about two years ago and now not anymore. Seems like some regression in INDI to me.

I'll check it with my mount tomorrow whether it shows the duplicate code as well.

Hi Wouter,
the problem with the doubled commands must be somewhere in your setup. With the Avalon Legacy (using LXBasic), I get the following log entries in the INDI log when issuing a slew command
- Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang,

Thanks for looking into this again. What happens after the MS command? That part is missing from the log you posted and that is where I receive two consecutive GR commands.


Wouter

Thanks. That indeed doesn't show the duplicate command. A few more questions for you so I can investigate further.

What OS are you on? Which version of KStars? How is your mount connected to INDI? Via a serial cable or via TCP/IP?

I am on macOS with KStars 3.6.5 stable build 2023-06-01T21:31:40Z and connect via TCP/IP. I install KStars via homebrew so I will remove that and will install KStars 3.6.7 which I am downloading from the KDE website right now.