Hi everyone,
I'm pretty new to INDI, but i immediately fell in love with all the possibility it opens!

So, I started testing this technology in my association's observatory in Italy... for us is very important to make INDI server talk with some home-made pieces of software controlling some custom systems.

I'm aware that this could lead to some troubles, and indeed I'm opening my first topic because of a strange behaviour I'm experiencing...

Everything was going really well, when I made the first tests, and I was able to set a property from a third party client and see the devices' properties changing in my application's terminal... Then, when I switched on Ekos I became unable to read anything from INDI server all the time Ekos was running.
I'm using the xml communication protocol on a tcp socket as described in www.clearskyinstitute.com/INDI/INDI.pdf

So, does actually Ekos blocks other clients from getting properties from server? Or maybe I have to search the problem somewhere else? In the first case, does anyone know a workaround?

Thank you all!

Andrea

Normally, the server provides a new port for each client, and propagates information to all. Problems appear when several clients try to request actions. But for instance, PHD2 will listen to mount moves to automatically suspend guiding. You probably need to clarify your test setup.

-Eric

Hello Eric, thanks for your reply!

this is the behaviour I'm experiencing while using Kstars or Pixinsight but, as I said, the problems begin when I start Ekos...

My setip is basicly a Stellarmate OS running on a RPI 3b+. I've added Apache and PHP to run my former web interface, that deals mainly with domotics, safety and dome control.
In order to make my system "aware" of what happens in INDI, I wrote a small service that opens a tcp socket to localhost:7624, sends <getProperties version="1.7"/> and loops reading from the socket. After the first, complete, response, any time something happens I see the service receiving the update from the server and translating it in json... everything keeps working good until I open Ekos and start using it. With Ekos running, my service doesn't report any update; but as soon as I close Ekos, the service starts working again.

Really strange...

Andrea

Hi Andrea,

I just had a try here. I have a dedicated small computer for running INDI and PHD2, and connect to that from my laptop using kstars/EKOS. PHD2 also has a general INDI menu that shows you all available units on the server, and allows you to chnge things there.
That said, I can connect both EKOS and PHD2 to the INDI server and see/change settings for all devices. So EKOS is not blocking access to INDI server, the problem must be something else...

Hi Peter,
I tried as you said, using Kstars/Ekos from my laptop instead of inside the same rpi running INDI... Everything worked fine, thanks!

It seams that the problem only appears when opening Ekos from inside stellarmate OS. So, it's not a big issue anymore, but I'd still prefere to understand the reason behind this behaviour....

Attached, a screenshot of the wip