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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Do Not Use FTDI and Profilic Serial-USB Drivers in the Same Setup

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@Collin: Just a guess, but perhaps it would work if you used the old-school approach for your mount, and plugged an FTDI cable into the the hand-controller port, e.g. using optcorp.com/products/stellarmate-usb-to-...q5-eq5-eq8-eq3-cable or the USB2EQ5 cable on www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/products_eq.htm
2 years 5 months ago #76713

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Hello Hy. Many thanks for your suggestions :-)

Yes, there are a few ways I could go with this. I have tried connecting to the mount using AstroTelescope which worked fine (I needed to know if my mount was broken so I went back to the fundamentals) although it would only connect at 9600 bps.

I happen to have an FTDI FT232 ttl cable and I'm wondering if I can "spoof" INDI by making it think it has an FTDI interface. As I say, I'm not sure how to proceed. I need to sit and think for a while - but not tonight, it's way past my bedtime and my head hurts :-)

Thanks again for your suggestions, I'll add them to the mix - so to speak.

As they say. Tomorrow's another day.

Best regards,

cas
2 years 5 months ago #76714

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There's a more than decent chance I don't know what I'm talking about here ;) but, just in case not, here's what I mean:
Connect your mount to Ekos using the SkyWatcher -> EQMOD Mount connection, then just plug that cable from your computer's USB to the mount's hand controller port.
That's what I do with my Orion Atlas Pro, which I believe is pretty much the same mount as what you have.
2 years 5 months ago #76715

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I don't know how it is on a Mac  but on a Linux system (especially with Astroberry installed) I would check the gpsd rules file in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d

These rules sometimes take a serial2usb chip for a GPS (pl203 ...) en then you risc that GPSD connects  ..... and messes up things.


Paul
2 years 5 months ago #76719

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Hi PDB.

I just looked for the file at the location you suggested and it doesn't exist.

Thanks for the suggestion though - another tool in the bag :-)

Yes, I'm running a Mac and remoting into a pi running Astroberry.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards.....

Best,

c
2 years 5 months ago #76722

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@Hy.

Thanks for the thought. I may ultimately have to resort to something like this.

Best,

c
2 years 5 months ago #76723

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Well I sympathise with your frustration, but I have been forced to use both an FTDI and Prolific chip sets for Serial to USB drivers at the same time for ages, mostly with success and occasionally with temporary issues when things don’t connect. All was good until some major Linux kernel changes a year ago made USB ports invisible. A large number of updates later and with KStars 3.5.5 and Indi 1.9.2 things seem (fingers crossed) to have settled down. 
2 years 5 months ago #76731

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I had a look at my installation to see if I could pin down what the latest version (3.5.5) of KStars offers. This is a screen shot showing the Indi control panel and the (serial) Device Port Selector screens.
 
The two serial devices are the Pegasus PPB with a Prolific chip and the EQMOD mount driven by a Lynx Astro USB to serial cable with an FTDI chip which these days seem to work happily enough together.
 
2 years 5 months ago #76752
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Avocette, You are lucky.
I see that you are running Windows and I am running macOS.
May be the macOS version of KStars is the problem ?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Avocette
2 years 5 months ago #76754

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Hi Avo,

I've messed around quite a lot with this and it's all a tad confusing :-( - for something so apparently simple it's bizarre ! I now strongly suspect that in this case it is a buggy driver implementation. I don't know which piece has the dodgy implementation, whether it be Astroberry/Debian/INDI et al or a straight defect in this particular driver.

I've used FTDI, Prolific, and the bargain bucket jobs for MANY years. I've never had a problem like this.
I'm pretty sure it's not the prolific hardware per se. If it was, they'd be out of business :-)

Looks like my options are buy or make something.

I have the bits to make something, just can't locate a verified pin-out diagram. Looks like FLO will be getting an order :-)

Oh, thanks for taking the time to make the screen shot.

Best

c
2 years 5 months ago #76755

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@ Avo

forgot to say that this looks like a Prolific pl2303 driver problem specifically
2 years 5 months ago #76756

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And that's a bad one and they are bad quality. I stopped using profilic (that exact model) once it burned my HEQ5 MCU!!!
Almost had a fire because of it. Very dangerous. Profilic no more... at least for me
2 years 5 months ago #76757

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