FYI the file

/Applications/kstars.app/Contents/MacOS/astrometry/bin/astrometry.cfg

contains an add_path entry with Rob's personal directory for the FITS files. I had to modify it to get it to work.


Wouter

Ok I will put that on my todo list

Hi Rob,
sorry for the slow response, but I too had to tend to my day job...
My MacBook Pro is from 2017 (the first with the Touch Bar), and it's running Mojave 10.14.2.
I don't use QHY and have no idea what RTLSDR is, hence I'm assuming I'm not using it.
Therefore we should good to go.
I'll download the latest build and give it a few tries.
One more thing...
I have noticed the same hang response when switching to and from full screen view when watching any videos, be it on youtube or movies on VLC.
This thing has cropped up lately, and if memory serves me well, it is concurrent with me installing KStars 3.0.0.
I can't remember exactly, but I'm sure I did not have the hang issue in December. Funny thing: sound keeps on playing. Go figure...
I'm not saying KS is causing it, my hypothesis is that something is the underlying cause for both kinds of freezes.
Or I might have gotten some kind of extremely rare virus. I never had anything like that happen to me since I switched from Windows to Mac, but good thing seldom last forever.
Or the aliens might have taken possession of my computer.
Which one do you reckon is more probable?
a) Aliens
b) Virus/Malware
c) KS killing my Mac
d) Something else killing both Mac and KS

I hope this helps
Now I have to go test your latest piece of work
Will keep you informed
Cheers
Antonio


UPDATE
Hey Rob,
tried for a couple of hours, playing with settings and .esq files.
The hanging seems to be resolved, although it appears at the cost of the application looking "soft", like in severe anti-aliasing.
I have changed nothing else since 3.0.0, therefore it must be something that has to do with the way 3.1.0 handles the graphics.
I'm no software guru, actually I'm no software nothing, so take my impressions like you would if you talked to a Neandertal man...
It seems that the other problem when maximising videos still persists, which kind of rules out any idea that KS might be the culprit.
Now it's down to aliens or a virus/malware.
We shall see...
On the other hand, I've tried a few sequences with the simulators and when I click on "play" nothing happens.
The simulated mount does nothing, the plate solving does not happen, the focusing sits still, the guiding seems to be out for lunch and the capture is probably on vacation.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I've restarted from scratch many times, always with the same result.
Rather, non-result
Any ideas?
Cheers
Antonio

UPDATE 2
Sometimes I feel like a real moron (well, I know I am, but having it proven over and over again is kind of frustrating)...
The full screen video issue has been fixed by simply re-booting the Mac.
God knows what happened and when that threw a wrench in that feature...
But now, after the reboot, KS 3.0.0 refuses to start at all, while 3.1.0 has inherited the nice hanging feature from 3.0.0, which initially seemed solved by 3.1.0.
I'm really scratching my head, now.
I reckon I'll have to totally uninstall KStars from my system and just go for 3.1.0, hoping this little gimmick restores everything to its pristine state.
If that does not work, I have no idea what to do next...
Will keep you posted
Cheers
Antonio

Any news about the Windows version crashing on image load in FITS viewer?
It's been cloudy for weeks now, so I haven't had opportunity to image before today.
I have now had 3 crashes during a couple of hours.

Regards, Odd

I have tried 3.1.0 and last night I downloaded also 3.1.1. But the crash error is still there. The symptoms are the same. Crash while loading image into FITS viewer.
I loose at least 50% of clear sky time due to tthis.
This is really frustrating. I love the features of Ekos/Stellarmate and I very much appreciate the effort the development team puts into the system. But if this is not fixed, I must soon look for another system.

Rgards,
Odd

Do you actually need to load the images in the FITS viewer? In other words, can’t you disable the FITS viewer while you’re shooting to avoid crashes and make use of the clear sky time?


Wouter

At least I need to load image at startup, to see that the composition is right, and to check exposure, focus, etc.
Maybe I could live without viewing images after that, but very often the crash occur before I am ready to start a sequence.

/Odd

I can't reproduce crash on Windows. What are you settings? your camera? is it random or consistent?

I have experienced kstars crashes since I started using my Stellarmate. I learned the hard way, that I should not touch any of the preview screen or the Fits viewer. If I try to zoom in and out a few times. Kstars crashes altogether, all screens get killed immediately. I hoped that running all screens (Kstart, Ekos, Fits) in independent windows would make sure only the Fits viewer or Ekos would crash but that is not the case.

FYI this is all happening on my stellarmate while controlling it via VNC.

Do you have zram installed?

I would suspect that this is a memory issue since you are trying to load images on the pi. It only has 1 gb remember.

Zram can give you a little boost by adding a compressed swap file for extra ram into ram. Swap files do slow the system down just a little as a cost for the little bit of fake ram, but since this swap file is actually in ram it does not really. Also swap files tend to wear out the hard drive since they have to be read and written to all the time. But again, since zram puts its swap file in ram, that disadvantage is gone. There is very little cost to the system resources actually, and the gain could help, here is the command to install it on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get -y install zram-config

I run Kstars/Ekos on Window 10, Stellarmate runs the rest.
Camera ASI1600MM-Pro
Guidecam: ASI120MM
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-Eq 6 via EQdir
Focuser: Microtuch

Crashes happen as described earlier in the tread, while an image has been captured and is about to be loaded int Fitsviewer.
This may happen during preparations for shooting, i.e. taking preview shots in order to evaluate composition and exposure, or in a programmed sequence.
The only thing that is consistent is that it happens right after image download, and before the image is rendered on screen.
Once the crash happend during plate solve.
I will upload a couple of log files

After an image is loaded, I don't experience any crash while zooming or opening histogram (like others report).

/Odd

No, Kstars Ekos runs on the PC. Images are transferred to the PC and loaded there. Not on the PI.

/Odd