I've tried to take INDI out of the equation for a while and communicated with the focuser just with a terminal (screen in my case).

After a fresh boot without INDI the focuser behaves the same as we've seen it here in the thread: #GT10000! moves inward.

I've recalibrated the focuser again under Windows and reconnected it to the Raspi. When I sent a #GT10000! then the tube moved outward as it should.

Now I started INDI and the focuser moves inward again. Not just in INDI but also in the terminal.

It seems like INDI is doing something that the firmware of the Sesto Senso doesn't like at all.

Thats great info.
The only command Indi sends out (except for requests for status) is '#SM;0096746!'
The response is `SM;96746! which seems good.

Maybe the Sesto firmware has an issue with the Set Max command?

When the Sesto software calibrates it uses the #SM! command to set to the current position so it does not use the #SM;XXXXXXX! command.
Maybe it doesn't like he leading zero's or the whole command.
Now I need to setup a build environment to see if changing/removing the command makes any difference.

Good progress everyone! I agree that the next step involves process by elimination. So eliminate the startup INDI Driver commands and see which one causes the focuser to go haywire and then report our findings to PrimaLuca.

I have setup a dev environment with Ubuntu and everything builds (great instructions!).
Now to start the process of elimination.

I have made a change and rebuilt the indi_sestosenso shared library.
I copied the shared library to /usr/bin on the Stellarmate but now it does not recognise it when I try and start up Ekos.

I guess this is not the correct procedure. What is the minimum I need to do in order to make changes and test?

you can't copy x86-64 binary to armhf.

Why don't you build on StellarMate? just use the same procedures.

Thanks, got too used to Windows recently, forgot it was a different processor!

I still need to do more testing but not sending the #SM:XXXXXXX! and #Sm:XXXXXXX! seems to cure the problem.
I first removed the leading padding with nulls (%07d replaced with %d) from the SM commands but that did not help
The Sesto app sends the focuser to a position and then uses the #SM! command, maybe thats their workaround.

I will now do some more extensive testing and if this works see if I can come up with a work around OR we simply accept that the initialisation is done from the Sesto app. I must say I am leaning towards letting the Sesto app do the initialisation . The less the Indi driver has to do the more stable and future proof it is.

@Jasem, if you can send a mail to PrimaLucelabs then I can ask them if there are any known issues (they will only talk to me if you say its OK) with these commands.

Maybe it is the ";" that is causing the issue? The GoTo command doesn't need this extra separator.

Just tried that but it doesn't help.

I am pretty convinced now that its the SM and Sm commands that mess things up. As soon as I stop sending these commands the focuser works perfectly.

My suggestion is to remove the ability to set the max position but still display it. That way we have the feedback to know its still OK but we can no longer set the max position. If you want to alter the max position use the Sesto app.
OR
We could add a button to set the current position as the max as this does not seem to cause any issues.

If that is the way to get it work, it would be fine for me! I do not need to set the maximum position in Ekos anyway, because that is done by calibration with the PrimaLuceLab software. From my point of view it is enough that Ekos knows the maximum (and minimum) position and doesn’t let the Sesto Senso go beyond these positions during the Autofocus or by a manual desired focus position.

Thank you for all that awesome work!

I agree.

Does anyone else have a Sesto Senso on the StellarMate/RPi or Ubuntu?
If so I would like to send you the library so we can confirm that this does solve the problem.