Hi!

I've been using a side-by-side setup for a while, and would want to utilize it better. This is the current situation:

One Losmandy G11 (mount)
One refractor with a Moonlight focuser (scope 1)
A guidescope with Lodestar (guidescope)
One C8 with a Moonlight focuser (scope 2)
One R-Pi4 (Stellarmate)

What I do now, is to manually switch between the scopes. That is, for swithcing from scope 1 to scope 2, I shut down Ekos and Indi, attach the relevant USB-cables and disconnect the one's I don't want. (if both moonlights are connected, there are strange things happening).

What I would want:
To be able to set up a Scheduler sequence, where I first execute a job on Scope 1, and then a job on Scope 2. (I am currently not using them in parallell, they are not that well aligned either).

My idea has been to attach a second R-Pi to control Scope 2. But if I do, how on earth could I set up a Scheduler sequence that uses Scope 2 (attached to R-Pi number 2) AND control the mount and the guiding (attached to R-Pi number 1)?

Or else - if I could just attach all things (Scope 1, Scope 2, including both focusers, and the guidescope, and the mount) to just one R-Pi and run in the same Ekos session - how then, could I tell scheduler/capture model which scope and focuser to use? Currently, neither Sequencer nor Capture module seems to have a way to switch main scopes, so to speak. They use whatever I have set up in the beginning.

I'd be grateful for any advice and your experiences on this. I am probably missing some easy solutions and overseeing possibilities... so any advice is very welcome.

Magnus

You can run indi on 2 RPis. I think this tutorial might help.

Indi on multiple devices
When you run RPi 2, that does not have the mount connected to it, you use the procedure described in the link. Otherwise, you have everything on the same RPi.
Run ekos for scope/camera 1 on RPi 1, and for scope/camera 2 on RPi 2. Two instances of Ekos, but you only use one at a time of course.

Hi!

Thanks! This works nicely this far. And I realized I set the camera in the Capture module, meaning that each job has a dedicated camera, and now it switches nicely between them! SO far so godd!!

Only problem left is the focuser. How do I make sure the correct camera/focuser combination is used in the Focuser module? States differently: how do the Focuser modul know which camera and which focuser to use?

Connected to that: both focusers are now called Moonlight. How can I give them different names?

Magnus

Also be careful with dithering

Hi!
Yes, my plan is to use one camera at the time.... then dithering would work, right?

But I need to solve the focuser issue - how to make sure the right camera and right focuser do the focusing... I don't get that.

Magnus

Yes, one camera at a time should be fine.
Regarding the focuser issue: how about creating aliases and using those? If you search on this forum then you should find several posts in which Jasem explains how to do that.

Hi!

Yes, I'll solve that, creating aliases (I guess).

But then: maybe not a problem and I haven't tested it, but how would the focuser module know which camera to focus with at a particular time, and even more, which focuser? I realize that the capture sequence specifies the camera - is that "carried over" to the focuser, or does the focuser use the last camera used (in which case it will be the wrong camera when shifting)? But nowhere do I specify which focuser is to be linked to which camera....?

Magnus

If you go into the details of the lsusb command, you can extract info on each focuser which makes it unique, sometimes a serial nr. You can then use that to identify each focuser. But I must admit, I have never had to use that. Usually, vendor id and device id are enough to identify a device uniquely. The info you need should be in the tutorial.
I believe (but am not sure) that the combination of port mapping/binding and aliases solves your problem.

Hi!

Thanks for you advice.

But...

First, the persistent port mapping: It turns out my two Moonlight controllers (MyFocuserPro, actually, version 1, but running on the Moonlight protocol) has exactly the same serial header:

udevadm info -a -n /dev/ttyUSB0 | grep '{serial}' | head -n1
ATTRS{serial}=="0000000A0005"

and

udevadm info -a -n /dev/ttyUSB1 | grep '{serial}' | head -n1
ATTRS{serial}=="0000000A0005"

So how can I do a persistant port mapping now.....?

Secondly, I still do not see how this solves the Ekos challenge of Focuser module knowing which of them to use. All the cases I have seen here, only use one focuser, but someone must use two.....? (there was a discussion of N-camera setup in an earlier thread but as I saw it, no real solution)

Magnus

I'm not an expert with the scheduler. But I believe when creating jobs you can choose a specific equipment profile for it. So I would try creating separate profiles for scope 1 and scope 2 and assign them to their respective jobs in the queue.
You will still have to resolve the identity of your moonlight focusers. But one trick may involve using the Custom Drivers feature under Tools>Devices to create a uniquely named driver for the second scope. You should then be able to save its own configuration, such as unique serial port mapping for the custom INDI Driver.

I think it is doable. At least when not used at the same time.

Hi!

Thanks! That makes sense. The profiles then would only include one camera and one focuser, so matching focuser and camera would be solved Great, a step forward. I had not noticed this possibilty!

Remains then how to persistently match focusers to drivers - when their serial headers are identical... hrm... work around that?

Magnus

When you run lsusb. Do they also have the same Vender ID and Product ID?
I expect they do, but it's not a guarantee if they made revisions.