Hi Jasem,

after You got the FS-2 driver to work as designed (many thanks again) I have moved the controlling PC to the observatory and am testing all i can get hold of in Kstars. Some additional function to the FS-2 driver would be great:

1. Add guide rates to the <Main Control> tab of the INDI Control Panel
The FS-2 supports the following rates: sidereal, lunar, solar and earth (meaning "stop the motors").
It would great if an initial guide rate could be marked and saved with the telescope/mount settings and applied at start up. (I prefer the telescope not to move when INDI is started.)

2. Add the <Abort> button to any panel from which motion can be initiated
This button is missing on the motion control tab. (I just saw it is already on the context menu of Kstars.)

3. When parking the telescope the guide rate should be set to "none/stop".

4. When starting INDI and the telescope is parked the guide rate should also be set to "none/stop".
When unparking it could automatically be set to sidereal which is the mostly used rate.

I don't know whether these are implemented in the other drivers already. If not it might be a subject of discussions first.

CS
Michael

1. What's the command for FS-2 guide rates? I see :RS, :RM..etc, those are slew rates, not guide. Setting it to :RG would make any subsequent motion commands move at the mount guide rate. AFAIK, there are no command to start/stop mount tracking for FS-2.
2. It's in main control panel because that's the primary panel and it needs to be there.
3. See #1
4. See #1

You're right - there are no commands to set the guiding rates via RS232 on the FS-2 controller!
I contacted the developer of the FS-2 controller, Michael Koch at Astro Electronic, and asked him to implement the additional commands.
Staying with the LX-command set they should be:
:TQ set sidereal guide rate
:TL set lunar guide rate
:TS set solar guide rate
I didn't find a "stop motors" command in the LX documentation and I am not sure if "terrestrial" guide rate (meaning stopping both, RA and Dec, motors) could be represented by
:TM set custom guide rate
Maybe someone can supply the information about the appropriate "Stop" command.

I will inform You as soon I get a response from Michael Koch.

CS
Michael

Just to close this thread:
No response has been received from the FS-2 provider (Michael Koch). As a matter of fact I didn't receive any reply from him even after using the email contact form of his web site.
As the FS-2 does no longer comply to German or European regulations I'm afraid no further development will be seen with this old workhorse mount controller - so I don't think the suggested or any other enhancements to the protocol will ever be implemented.
CS
Michael