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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Update Rainbow Astro RST-135(E) driver to allow syncing of star alignment.

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The Rainbow Astro RST-135 and RST-135E mounts allow for a 5-point star alignment model, calculating 6 alignment parameter errors. 
The current INDI driver does not seem to sync its plate solving results to that 5-point alignment model. Instead, only the last sync seems to populate an RA/DEC error value.
For a future update of the INDI driver, it would be great if the 5-point star alignment model could be populated using the plate-solve/sync cycles of KStars/Ekos.
 
The following user(s) said Thank You: Stephen Wong
2 years 6 months ago #75428

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I have been in contact with BJ from Rainbow Astro and he is willing to share the protocol for star alignment to be added to the INDI driver. For ASCOM this has already been implemented. Realising that resources for development work are probably limited, how can this be accomplished? @Jasem Mutlaq, did you write the original driver for the Rainbow Astro RST-135(E), or was that someone else?
If I remember correctly there are possibilities to commit to fund certain developments? If so, I'm happy to do so. And if I knew anything about coding, I'd be happy to help,,,:-(.
 
2 years 4 months ago #77423

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Hello Willem, perhaps BJ can submit a patch to add this feature to the INDI driver? Did you ask him if this was possible? We can also go the other route and perhaps fund this via Issue Hunt and hopefully one of the INDI developers can step in to implement it.
2 years 4 months ago #77424

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Hi Jasem, no, I did not ask him, nor do I know exactly what that means. How does funding via Issue Hunt work? Do you have a link?
2 years 4 months ago #77427

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You need to create an issue in INDI Github then fund it via issuehunt.io/
2 years 4 months ago #77435

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Happy to support. Will be a useful enhancement even for RST-135 albeit not as helpful as supporting unguided operation for RST-135E.
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2 years 4 months ago #77436

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Done. For anyone who wants to support this feature, you can do that here: issuehunt.io/r/indilib/indi/issues/1564
2 years 4 months ago #77437

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Willem, I have some questions regarding your issue description:
What I would like to have is a checkbox in the driver to turn on 'star alignment on sync'. When ticked, a regular sync command from Ekos would then be interpreted in the mount as star alignment point. As soon as the mount has received at least 5 star alignment points, it automatically calculates this model. [Is this something you would like to have or is this BJ's statement how the mount works?] If such an option is available, the existing mount model functionality in Ekos  can be used to just define five (or more) random alignment points, press 'run', and the model builds itself in the mount. Once the model is built, the check-box can be unchecked again if desired.

The protocol's command "star sync" is already implemented into the INDI driver, though I don't know yet where/when this function gets called during Ekos operation. Sorry, self explaining... 
Last edit: 2 years 4 months ago by Christopher.
2 years 4 months ago #77448

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@Christopher, the automatic calculation of the model in the mount is something that already exists in the mount's firmware. But it only does that if it is fed with 'star alignment' points. But even if you do 20 syncs from Ekos, the number of 'star alignment points' in the mount is still 0. So the 'Sync' command from Ekos should have the option to behave as 'star alignment'.
I also have a 10Micron mount, and there Ekos 'sync' behaves always as a star alignment point and you can create your mount model already with three alignment points. The mount model in 10Micron mounts is much more advanced, and separate software is written to manage those models (MountWizzard, Modelcreator). The RST-135(E) has a much more simple model, which can be easily fed from Ekos, as long as Ekos is sending 'star alignment' syncs.
This link is to a supplementary document on the mount, which describes a lot more detail on this model, and Chris Woodhouse is much better in explaining it than I can. See page 13-15.
Last edit: 2 years 4 months ago by W J Drijfhout.
2 years 4 months ago #77449

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Thanks, got it know.
And BJ did not yet share this additional command with you, right? Because that's definitely needed for implementing into the INDI driver. In the protocol BJ sent me some months before only the single "star sync" command is listed. But it's very likely already there since I think the ASCOM driver will use the identical serial command set and not a completely different protocol (maybe I'm mistaken though).
2 years 4 months ago #77450

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No, not yet. But he said that he would if we wanted to update the INDI driver for this. He also referenced the ASCOM driver that has such an option. Not sure why the earlier protocol did not have this command. I remember someone saying that at the start BJ wanted to keep things as simple as possible, as that was the focus of the mount. Fiddling with mount models did not fit that picture. But if that's true, I don't know.
Did you write the current INDI driver?
2 years 4 months ago #77451

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No, Jasem wrote the driver. I just contributed some fixes regarding time and location pulling.
I could give the syncing a look if I had the commands. Do you want to ask BJ – I think that's more straight forward since you already opened the discussion with him about this topic.
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2 years 4 months ago #77453

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