I hit a serious focus bug last night. Not sure what happened.

During the night, my focus is set to re-run every 45 minutes. It ran as scheduled all night. However, for some reason the images were not updating in the focus module. So every time it ran it moved the focuser, and read out the last stuck frame in the module which showed FWHM 1.11. So all night long it thought the focus was 1.11 every time, and yet, the focuser was being told to move, and no images were captured. So overnight, images got progressively worse as the focuser moved, and never got in focus again. The camera module did continue taking images, and I woke up with a directory full of blurry images. I'm not sure how that frame got stuck in the focus module.

Here's the log.

See this long thread about exactly this issue with a workaround at the very end:

indilib.org/forum/ekos/6756-re-problems-...s-not-coming-in.html


Clear skies, Wouter

Wouter, Thanks for showing me this! OK, So I'll enable the fits viewer. Strange that I've been imaging with this 3.4.0 for a few months with no issues. Only last night did this first occur for me. Hopefully it's sorted out in the next version of Ekos.

I guess it depends on how often you update your software. The bug was introduced a few weeks ago when the FITS Viewer memory bug was addressed and it made it to the stable build last week before the official KStars update to 3.4.2. I was on the nightly builds for a while which is why I encountered the bug early on. But I didn't know about the cause nor the workaround until my Zoom session with Hy yesterday.

Hy told me offline that he implemented a fix for this bug which should hopefully make it to the nightly builds in the next few days. I'll monitor that and can let you know it's there if you would like me to.


Wouter

I appreciate the offer, but I don't like to use the nightlies as you never know when you'll encounter a show stopper bug. I like to try and make sure I don't waste an imaging night. This bug seems serious enough that I hope they push it out in a point release quickly after; even if it doesn't make it into 3.4.2.