I am running on an Rpi4 (8 gb) with OS Ubuntu 22.04 (from an SSD) and recently updated Kstars 3.5.3 to 3.7.0. I have a CGEM DX mount which is loaded as CGEM HC configuration which actually uses CGEM GPS config file (as I understand from the Indi Control Panel). Polar alignment works fine, Slewing to targets works fine, Phd2 guides as well as it can with this mount. There are times when I need to make small adjustments to the mounts position to 'frame' a target (for example: try to get 2 galaxies into one view). To do this, in the past, I use the mount motion control panel popup on a low speed scale (3 or 4 but I am testing using 7) and step the mount a little in the proper direction to 'frame' the image I want.

I have a working Astroberry 3.5.0 on an SD card and I ran that tonight with all the same equipment and this process works almost instantaneously. However, ever since I started using Kstars 3.5.3 (I recall) the motion control buttons on the Motion Control Panel sometimes work and sometimes don't work and when they do work there is a latency between when I 'click' on the direction button and when there is motion and when the button turns red to indicate that motion was activated. I tested this on several versions of Kstars (3.5.3, 3.6.8 and now 3.7.0) and I am finding the same letency associated with the Motion Control Panel.

Tonight I ran a test using both the SD card with the Astroberry 3.5.0 where the Motion Control Panel works quickly and the latest SSD with Kstars 3.7.0 where there is still the latency. I did notice that in the 3.5.0 version the mount does not come out of Tracking before making the required motion, while in the Kstars 3.7.0 version the mount does come out of tracking first before moving the mount and then restarts tracking. The delay for stoping tracking looks to be very small in the logs, the issue seems to be that sometimes the mount motion is halted before the mount moves. I am attaching two logs from the run using Kstars 3.7.0; one log is an Indi log and the second log is the normal Kstars log. The test tongith was simple; I setup the mount using the last alignment on the pole, slewed to a star where I would see both RA and DEC motion if the mount moves, and then proceeded to use the Motion Control Panel to move the mount several times in each of the four directions. The log shows that sometimes the motion is halted almost immediately and sometimes it does move. When the mount does move it takes about 1 second to switch from "Tracking" to "Moving" and about another second to complete the move and restart "Tracking." But there are a number of instances where the mount motion is started but immediately halted.

The third log attached is from the test using Astroberry 3.5.0. If you look at the Motion of the mount in the logs you will see that the Astroberry log shows that the time between the mount moving and movement halted is very short, but the RA and DEC values have changed. However in the Kstars 3.7.0 log there is a similar short period between the call for motion and the halting of motion, but the RA, DEC numbers have not changed.

All of the equipment, cables, USB hub and RPi are exactly the same for the two runs which were only miutes apart.

I really would like to figure out what has changed to make the CGEM mount behave differently between the two versions of the program.

There are the two logs for the Kstars 3.7.0 run:



And this is the log for the Astroberry 3.5.0 run:


Thanks for any help with this!

I examined the Indi driver files for the AStroberry 3.5.0 and the Kstars 3.7.0 configurations and they have all the same values and "on" and "off" settings.

I used the system to image the eclipse and the response is the same, there is a delay between the time I executed a motion (which I needed to do to keep the Sun centered in the imaging window) and when the mount actually moved. But it did eventually move and I was able to operate that way. But I do not understand why this new version (and others) does not respond like the earlier Astroberry 3.5.0. It appears the configuration files are the same and the drivers are the same (I think).

Has no one else experienced this latency with their mount using the Motion Control Panel? Am I the only one using Kstars with a CGEM mount?

thanks for any response.