Joseph,

Thanks for the work you are doing on this. I usually shoot at gain = 0 so I haven't spent much time sorting out exactly where the mode switching occurs. If it is of use to you, I'd be happy to do some more work with the camera and test intermediate gain levels - just let me know. Heading into a week or more of cloudy weather here.

If you are interested in the data, advice on how to approach the project would be great. For example, would it make sense to start at gain = 100 and just back down by 1 unit for each set of frames? I'm not sure I know how to recognize when I hit the mode switching point so would I just continue to shoot in 1 step increments all the way down to gain = 80?

Best,
Fred

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Frederick Ruegsegger replied to the topic 'Kstars 3.6.9' in the forum. 1 week ago

Not sure it will help but Apple released 13.6.5 a few days ago - maybe they fixed something there that will help? Here's a link to their support for some of the fixes in that release: support.apple.com/en-us/HT214085.

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Joseph,

I've posted revised files here: drive.google.com/file/d/14ADHoURhUkqGXb9.../view?usp=share_link. I checked the region in question in the new files and they aren't exhibiting the speckles. The cause of those is a mystery!

Thanks for all your work on this.

Fred

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Joseph,

Thanks for the feedback. First, I'll say that the graphs are surprisingly (at least to me) close to the published specs from ZWO. Second, let me go back and see if I can get you some clean flats for those gain settings. I took a look at the frames and I can't explain why those 3 gain settings might have exhibited those artifacts. All the flat frames were taken in sequence in order of ascending gain, one pair after the other.

Hopefully get you clean frames in the next day or two.

Fred

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Hi Mike,

I have an UPBv2 and the INDI driver works well. I know that some of the latest Pegasus Astro gear needs updated INDI drivers and they may not be available yet (notwithstanding that the Pegasus Astro site may indicate otherwise).

Your screenshot doesn't show the connection tab so I'm not sure of your connection status. Mine shows INDI driver version 1.6 and I've attached a screenshot of my connections page. I should note that the UPB is connected to a RPi at the mount so your port mapping may end up being different if you're connecting to a PC/Mac directly.

Good luck!

Fred

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It's too bad about the old nightly builds for MacOS. I've not found an easy way to download them (if they still exist at all) from the new location. I'm sure there's some scripts/command line things I could use to build my own but I haven't spent enough time on that.

Aside from that, I've assumed that official releases of KStars would still support the MacOS.

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Sonny - I have the same mount and had trouble with the USB hub that iOptron supplies. I tried some cabling through the mount as well and now I've just gone to putting the RPi and a Pegasus Astro Ultimate PowerBox on a plate attached to my optical tube. I should probably run the power cable for the Pegasus PowerBox and the ethernet cable to the RPi through the mount but those two cables haven't degraded my guiding so I haven't been motivated . . . . yet. In the meantime, the setup allows me to use very short cables for everything else.

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While I haven't personally installed Linux on my Mac, I know there are a number of ways to make that work. You asked about installing on iOS and I'm aware that it possible to fiddle with an iPad to get it to run Linux in some version but it may not be fully featured..

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Hi Sonny,

Isn't it also possible to run the Stellarmate Pro as an INDI server and just connect to it from a Mac using the KStars Mac app rather than the web interface or Remote Desktop. The StellarmateOS certainly allows you to do that when it's installed on and RPi and I don't believe it works any differently on the Stellarmate hardware. Once the RPi is running I can access it via KStars from my Mac, via the web app, via screen share, and via the Stellarmate tablet app. Lots of ways to connect.

Cheers,
Fred

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Peter,

I use a Mac to run KStars/EKOS and it has no astro equipment connected. I have all the mount gear connected to a Raspberry Pi running StellarmateOS. Since everything is on the same network, I use the Raspberry Pi as an INDI server and control everything from inside my house via the Mac running KStars. Depending on your situation using an RPi like this is an inexpensive solution. You could also buy one of the Stellarmate hardware packages if you don't want to hassle with putting together an RPi solution.

Another thing to look into (although I don't have experience with this) is the newer RPi 5's have two video output channels. There is likely some fiddling around to do in order to get StellarmateOS or another version of KStars to run on the newer RPi's but I have no experience with that - others here do I believe.

Also - when you say future Mac use won't be reliably supported, is there something you can point me to where I can get up to speed?

Best,
Fred

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Frederick Ruegsegger replied to the topic 'MacOS Nightly Builds' in the forum. 1 month ago

I've spent a little time on the link Nou sent but it lands you on a general announcement page for the platform and not a specific KStars area. I've been searching around for an easily accessable download but haven't found it yet. I haven't spent a lot of time on it but maybe this weekend I'll spend some time.

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