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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

ZWO AM5 Harmonic Drive Mount

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I believe, ZWO claimed that INDI driver would be available - you should probably ask ZWO on the status.
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
1 year 8 months ago #84671

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I've been spending some time with astroberry EKOS and the AM5 and here's my update/observations. Hope more people can add their experiences and tips here.

First of all, yes INDI already shows ZWO>AM5 as a selectable mount. So driver is technically ready to use if you have the latest indi update. The driver seems to be the same one used for Meade lx200 autostar.

That said, there are some quirks that I felt need fixing in future driver updates.

Firstly, the above problem of slew error does not occur if I first do a 1 star align using the ASI mount app. Once I do an align on a random spot in the sky and then do goto on kstars sky map it goes to the object. But it doesnt work fully. Once the slew is technically done, ekos still thinks it is slewing. So even after I can see that the mount is stopped, ekos says it is slewing and most buttons in different modules are disabled. The band aid fix is to open the mount control window and click on STOP after which the mount shows that it is idle. Also, another related issue is that the Park button does not work. It says 'Parking' but mount doesn't move.

Secondly, kstars has an option to update its time and location using the mount. However, the Time is always +1hr extra because the UTC data downloaded from the mount seems to include +1hr probably due to Daylight saving added. This needs to be fixed in kstars because the mount app has no option to adjust daylight saving info. Until then I'll be using GPS dongle which takes a while to get a fix.

Guiding, polar align works well in conjunction with above band aid solutions.

I welcome any qs anyone may have. Will probably create a new thread with logs for troubleshooting above issues.
1 year 8 months ago #84677

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Replied by Bill on topic ZWO AM5 Harmonic Drive Mount

I did contact ZWO and was told the ASCOM and ASIAIR control works fine, ( not exactly helpful to an Ekos user, right?)
I would encourage you to contact Zwo support, maybe they will help. The engineer did say they would look at the issue.
I am wondering if the log warning “ReferenceError: xi18n is not defined” is related to a lack of GPS data.
I don’t know what you mean by “Mount app” but if on a phone it would provide GPS data and possibly the reason it worked after using it.

I am throwing ideas at the wall right now but hopefully we will get somewhere.

The Astroberry.io docs mention setting up virtual-gps.

Hope this helps
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1 year 8 months ago #84681

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Replied by Giles on topic ZWO AM5 Harmonic Drive Mount

INDI "Support" for the AM5 was added in 1.9.4.

However, this is the commit: github.com/indilib/indi/commit/3bddbf7a3...bfe79b9f7af97519657a

Note that this is before any developers had an AM5 to test, so it was just guessed that it would be an LX200 compatible mount.

It appears that, in fact, it is "mostly" compatible, but has some differences.

These won't be sorted until a developer has time and has access to an AM5 mount for testing.
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1 year 8 months ago #84684

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Replied by Giles on topic ZWO AM5 Harmonic Drive Mount

Also, in your logfile, I'm not sure whether you actually had the telescope driver debug enabled.

See here for setup : www.indilib.org/forum/general/571-read-b...ugger%20tool%20(gdb).

Check all the parts in the screenshot for the AM5 telescope (mount) driver.
The following user(s) said Thank You: polarus umi
1 year 8 months ago #84687

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Man, I wish I knew how to debug drivers. Would love to be able to contribute to such efforts.(Is it easy for someone with some c language code debugging experience??). Hopefully, posting logs and documenting problems counts as contribution.
Anyways, it seems like only minor fixes may be required though. Fingers crossed, there is a developer out there with an AM5 who can fix it. I am happy to help in any way possible.

The main problems I'm seeing:
1. Local Time Mismatch:
There is an option in KStars to get local time data from the mount (which in turn gets the info from the smartphone wifi or local wifi network to which it is connected to). However, the time is always extra 1 hour compared to actual local time. I'm guessing this is related to the "time format" error that crops up when starting the indi server (both logs below show this error). So, basically daylight savings seems to be added once in the AM5 app and once more in KStars (cannot modify UTC time offset in the mount's indi control panel and cannot modify the time in the AM5 app to compensate).

2. Slew Error:
I get a slew error message whenever I try to do a GoTo without first doing a 1-star align using the AM5 app. This is the first log attached below. I did the following sequence of actions: Start indi server-->try GoTo on some star (deneb I think)-->See Slew Error-->Try sync on some star-->Try slew again-->Slew Error.

File Attachment:

File Name: log_20-03-...rror.txt
File Size:60 KB


3. EKOS thinks mount is still slewing even though slew is complete:
IFF I do a 1-star align on the AM5 app, the GoTo command works on EKOS mount control. However, once the slew is complete and there is a beep from the mount, EKOS still shows the message that the mount is still slewing. I am still able to GoTo another object but I have to manually click on STOP in the Mount Control window first.
The second log file was saved after doing the following sequence: 1-star Align with AM5 mount app-->Goto Vega-->STOP-->GoTo Deneb-->STOP-->GoTo Vega.

File Attachment:

File Name: log_20-11-...pped.txt
File Size:60 KB

One consequence with the mount slewing message not going away is that, since EKOS thinks the mount has not reached the target, "Load and Slew" in the framing tab is not possible without manually Stopping the slew from the mount control window.

Since the mount is based on the LX200 driver, maybe these issues were seen in those mounts as well?
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1 year 7 months ago #85379
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Note, I did apt update apt upgrade just yesterday so everything should be the latest version
1 year 7 months ago #85380

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I pushed an update today that adds full support for the mount. It defaults to WiFi connection. I tested it with the actual mount and it appears to work OK. On stellarmate, you can run this:

update_indi_core
update_indi_drivers

or on Ubuntu, you can try it from the nightly PPA.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Chris Howard
1 year 7 months ago #85498

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Thank you for this! How do I do the equivalent command of update_indi_core,
update_indi_drivers on Astroberry?
From looking online, it seems I have to build from source. I followed some instructions but I'm not sure I did that correctly because the firmware version is from Aug 4 and still the errors persist.
Could you please link to the correct instructions in this case?
1 year 7 months ago #85519

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Ok quick update, by stopping and starting the drivers from the browser webpage (astroberry.local's left side panel) and then starting the indi server on EKOS, I saw that the driver for the AM5 had changed to indi_lx200am5 version 1. So I think that's the newest driver I need.
Also, not sure if it helped, but in indi options, I changed the location of indiserver to the new indi-core folder I created when building indi drivers from source (instructions to build from source from github.com/indilib/indi).

Slewing seems to work fine now without having to mess about with align in the AM5 app.
I have not yet tested in the field, but so far, the two issues related to slewing I reported previously seem to have been fixed. I will post an update later after I try out the capture and slew function under the stars.

The remaining issue is the +1h time that gets added to KStars when selecting "Mount updates KStars" option. Please let me know if there's any way I can help with resolving this.
1 year 7 months ago #85555

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Actually, now the capture function seems messed up. Whenever I try to capture a pic using either the guide cam (ASI120mm) or primary cam (QHY183m), it says capturing... but the only thing that happens is that the indi control panel opens up for some reason (capture module continues trying to capture). Stopping capture and trying again causes a crash of kstars.
So basically, can't do polar align or take images. I wonder if the above steps to get the updated AM5 driver is responsible. Note, I am using the 'Remote' option under device profile in ekos. 'Local' kept showing the old AM5 driver.
Can someone let me know how to get the nightly AM5 driver and what paths I should use for indiserver exe and indi driver xml folder? currently I've changed the paths for these from default to /home/astroberry/Projects/build/indi-core/indiserver and /home/astroberry/Projects/indi because I thought it made sense to point to the folder that has the new indi drivers built from source.
Alternatively, A simple guide on how to just update to a nightly driver on astroberry would be much appreciated.
1 year 7 months ago #85574

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@Jasem were you able to do polar align and capture?
1 year 7 months ago #85575

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