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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Anyone been using PHD2 and dithering from EKOS these days?

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I've been struggling to get EKOS to consistently dither via PHD2 now for a few months and I thought I'd write to see if anyone else is seeing this or if it is just me.

I don't have a single test case to cause the problem - it just seems rather fragile and I've been hit many nights where I left it running to come back and realize it hadn't been dithering for awhile which is pretty aggravating to say the least.

I wrote a python script to initiate and wait on dither commands to PHD2 and at the moment I'm just running it as a script during my EKOS sessions but the real answer seems to be we need to really stabilize and make PHD2 robust like it was say 6+ months ago when I never had any problems with it.
5 years 10 months ago #25840

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A couple of days ago I had tried to dither via PHD2 but didn't succeed. Otherwise guiding did work very well. PHD didn't dither and once timeout was reached the next picture was being taken, without dithering. indilib.org/forum/ekos/3277-my-first-session.html#25656 This could be unrelated to what others experience running PHD2 though.
5 years 10 months ago #25843

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Robert is handling the Ekos-PHD2 integration at the moment, so I'm not sure if the problem is at Ekos side, PHD2, or both?

Any ideas on how to reproduce this reliably? I don't really use PHD2 so I don't know. Can this be reproduced with the simulators?
5 years 10 months ago #25847

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I saw it happen using PHD2 with its simulated camera yesterday. So it should be possible to reproduce in a controlled way.

Honestly it happens at least once or twice each night I've imaged with the newer EKOS builds so I'm suspecting either no one else uses PHD2 to guide or people use PHD2 but don't dither because it is practically impossible to avoid this issue.

I'd been running a build from around March for awhile so I'll grab the latest from git and try using it this week to see if its improved.
Last edit: 5 years 10 months ago by Michael Fulbright.
5 years 10 months ago #25859

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I've have two different machines running sequences using simulated cameras/mounts with the latest HEAD of kstars and it has been working well. When I started up one machine it did not initially do the dither but when I restarted the sequence it did start dithering.

For these tests I was careful to follow the same procedure for both machines.

One thing I did this time I haven't consistently done when I'm in haste getting setup for dark is have PHD2 running before I had EKOS started. So when EKOS runs it can't initially connect to the PHD2 server since it isn't running. I would then manually connect EKOS to PHD2 in the guide tab but I'm wondering if that is part of what causes issues later.
5 years 10 months ago #25868

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I also can confirmed that the dithering between EKOS and PHD2 is having issue after upgrading. Since both the EKOS and PHD2 also upgraded recently. So, Can't really figure out which one is causing the issue.
5 years 10 months ago #25877

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Hi Jasem,

I have done the simulator test right after I found out this issue, but simulator dithered flawlessly in PHD2. But it is opposite when real hardwares connected.
5 years 10 months ago #25878

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