teoria_del_big_bang

Well some progress made last night.

Took ages to get the ASI224 colour camera working in being able to see any stars at all. Turned out to be so far out of focus. When I was using the Altair camera the focusser would not extend out far enough and had to pull the camera out of the clamp by about 8 mm to get focus. With this ASI224 it was coming into focus when when wound fully in but still out of focus. Luckily there was a section of the guidescope about 20 mm long I could remove and finally achieved focus.

So to cut to the chase so to speak eventually at 3:00 am I did get it guiding, and it must have been reasonably well as I could take 900 sec images that looked reasonable.

But I am still not sure it works flawlessly. There is some bug, maybe it is to do with using two ZWO cameras with same drivers. But sometimes the main 1600 camera does not finish its exposure. Say I take a 30 sec sub, the timer loads 30 seconds and it starts the exposure and the counter counts down in seconds, then for last second in tenths but it stays at 0.1 second and just never seems to finish. So maybe just doesn't download the image but it just gets stuck there unless I press stop and then there is no image. Only way round it is to shut EKOS down and re-open everything.  I tend to think if I take an image unguided with the 1600 camera then it works and then start guiding everything works, but if I start guiding first then try to take an image with main camera it doesn't. Also even if this is the case an all going well then if I were to go into the camera tab and select the guide camera in the drop down list and take an image then when I go back to the maincamera it faults again in the same manner.

Anyway at 3:00 am and what darkness there actually is at this time of year fading fast I left it doing a simple sequence of about 6 exposures just to test it all. It seemed to work fine until the flip. It took 3 identical 900 sec exposures and then flipped but then never got going again. As yet I have not looked into why . The last sub before the flip still looked fairly dark so I do not thing it had got too light for the guider to not pick a star out but as I was fast asleep I cannot say for sure.

Steve

1 minute ago, endlessky said:

Hi Steve,

nice, I didn't know you had an ASI 224MC! Let me know if you manage to make it work ok for guiding, because that's exactly the camera I am thinking of buying for my guide setup. If it works with your Astroberry - fingers crossed - it should also work with mine. As I told you in the messages, I want to abandon the 120MM (Mini or -S), as too many people are having problems making it run with Pi/KStars/EKOS. The 224MC seems a better choice in all respects and it will also double as a planetary camera.

Let me know!

Clear skies,

Matteo

To be honest I forgot for a while as it is in a box of bits for an allsky camera I am building so thought I would give it a go. If it works I either get another or abandon the allskycamera.

Steve

Many thanks Dave and Matteo for the advive.

I did read all the previous posts and any links included but just could not work out what was going on.

In desperation, and because I had read another thread with somebody have issues with the Altair guide camera I had, but I think they got it working (somehow - eludes me though) , I retrieved the ASI224MC camera out of my allsky camera to tey as a guide camera just to see if this was any better.

I don't want to jinx anything so I will say this very quietly - it just seems to work with this camera.

I say seems to work this is just with the rig in the garage in relative daylight so no guiding as such. BUT, I am a bit more hopeful. To get the Altair camera to do anything I had to really mess about, set binning to at least 2x2 and change all sorts of gains etc. Also the INDI setup just seemed to revert back to default every time I powered off and so had to do this every time.  This ZWO camera seems to keep the settings and just loops in PHD2 (although no stars yet obviously to setup the guiding).

Also with the Altair PHD was always complaining about no darks library even though I had done it a dozen times. I will now take a new set of darks and see if that fault is cured. 

Anyway Shh, I won't say anything out loud just yet a few more tests and try it out under a clear sky with any luck.

Also Matteo I know this is not the guide camera you talked about but I do have 2 ZWO cameras attached and so far seen no issues so if all goes well tonight I will go ahead and order the ZWO mini guide camera and give it a go.

Steve

A very good nights work (and day probably with the processing). There is a fair bit of detail and the colouring is good.

If you can persevere with PI, it takes a while, probably much longer than the trial, although i did ask for an extension and I got another month I think. Bought it now though and I love it

Steve

With a relatively clear and almost moonless night I gave it a try out last night.

My early elation was short lived. The guiding was just not working aging either with HD2 or the internal guider.

Unfortunately I did  not want to stop up all night so played about bit didn't really take all the screen shots of things I should have so I can get the help I needed.

I seemed to do a lot of things right and to be honest there is an awful lot about KStars i really like and would like to still pursue this before giving up and going back to a Windows based system.

I do like the way you just click once and it platesolves and re-syncs the scope then platesolces again and would move again if needed but it was bang on after that everytime.

I am not too keen on having all these seperate screens open just on one monitor when I have two. Is this just me - is there a way to use two monitors on a remote computer ? This really is a downside if I cannot.

Also three times KStars crashed and I had to re-open. Again I did not like this. If this happens during a sequence and I was not monitoring it then the night could be lost.  It did happen when I clicked on something so whether it is more robust when just running the sequences without any user input I am not sure but it does not seem as stable as I would expect software to be in this day and age.

Regarding guiding this just did not work whatsoever. Same sort of issue as I have had from the start. If I select the guide camera inhe camera tab instead of the main camera then it works a treat and it works flawlessly every time. 

In PHD or in the guiding tab the camera and mount connect fine but just times out when taking any image of a few seconds. 

Quite a few times I have managed to take a set of darks so long as I bin it at at least 2x2. But I keep taking a set of darks and it is happy for a while but more often than not when I shut the RPi down and back up again it says the darks library is for a different camera and I have to do it again, if it lets me. Also I seem to have to set camera to 8 bit and 640 x 380 pixels to have any chance of taking images, it will not take a single frame at 1240 x 760 or at 16 bit. There are a few other parameters I have to tweak as well. But every time I shut the RPI down, or maybe just when I shut INDI down they all seem to revert back to what they were and I have to set them all over again.

Also PHD 2 keeps crashing and I have to restart, all in all a bit of a pain.

Tried a few unguided images wit main camera and all that side seems fine.

I may try  different guide camera.

Steve

Steve

On 06/05/2020 at 03:03, Jkulin said:

Thanks All, was worth asking.

Btw if a seller states their full address is in the UK then I have successfully been awarded against the seller and to not to bother returning if something goes wrong and I get a full refund. It’s happened a few times.

So that part never worries me, I was more interesting in the quality

That's good to know, but still would be a hassle if customs want their bit .

steve

On 05/05/2020 at 15:30, Jkulin said:

Yes James, but the seller is in Stoke: -

mohammad yaser

19 Josiah Wedgwood Street

Stoke-on-Trent

Staffordshire

ST1 4DG

 

So no customs issues to worry about as eBay will be on your side.

The add also says they ship direct to customer from China.

In actual fact it probably is a pretty decent printer, after all most arts of any other printer comes out of China originally. 

But not much good for a first printer when they state:

But, it is a pricey item and unlikely to get past customs without them charging duty and also post office then charge their bit for some paperwork. At the end of it you have a reasonable printer but probably no after sales service, no chance of returning without a great deal of hassle and after the customs get their bit not that much cheaper than a genuine Prusa with excellent after sales.

Many good printers out there for similar price without buying direct from China, Creality also great printers but many others.

Steve

The belt mod will do nothing for backlash in the worm. When I did the mod this is what took me the longest to get right. To get minimal backlash in the worm you have to tread very carefully when adjusting, too much clearance and there is too much backlash, too little and it binds and stalls the stepper. Also unless you are real lucky and have a real good set of well manufactured worm and mating gear you will not totally eliminate backlash at all I don't think. Certainly in mine there was quite a bit of cyclic error which meant once per rev of either the worm or the mating gear (can't remember now which it was) it binds more than when at 180 degrees different and so at this binding point you can remove backlash almost altogether but the as it revolves the backlash will increase as the clearance increases and you will probably see this cyclic error in the guide logs.

I do not know if FLO adjust the worm gears to get backlash as good as possible or not when they belt mod it or whether they assume it is already optimal.

Steve

Wow, thats looks stunning.

Steve

Nice image, some good detail and colour 🙂

I certainly would be more than happy with it.

Was the data taken recently as well ? If so really good effort considering the short nights, although I guess the lack of moon helps an awful lot.

Steve

Hi Matteo,

No not Italian, but have worked there many times and love the country.

I actually thought it was Spanish (which it may well be as well I guess). Again not Spanish either but lived close to Valencia for around 18 months again working and my first Son was born there as well so I have a great love of Spain as well.

Born and bred in Yorkshire UK.  A lovely part of the British Isles but not too great for astrophotography due to weather 😞 

Many thanks for the time you have taken to answer my question I am most grateful and will look through all the links on your PM.

I also feel it is a steep learning curve for me moving from APT (which is wonderful software and really like it) but like you say the ability to have all the software on the mount in a very lightweight computer that only cost around 50 Euros is just unbelievable. I tried for a long while running all the software indoors with cables going to mount but USB cables over around 3M just ask for trouble so I think the only sound solution is to have the computer at the mount then remote desktop somehow to is wirelessly. Then once the sequence has started if the ling drops out for a while the computer carries on regardless and nothing is lost. So for past 18 months I have had a rather expensive fanless windows pc on the mount running APT, Stellarium, PHD2 etc and to be honest it works great. But I want to try Ekos / KStars as so many use it it must be good and if I can sell the expensive windows I7 rather bigger PC on and do the same with a cheap very light RPi then that is a bonus. Also incidentally I have also managed with same setu to still use APT to connect to the INDI server and so can actually revert to how I used to run without changing anything at the mount. APT is still in its early days with INDI but I am sure this will be greatly improved in future releases. So if I get it to work will have many options with this setup.

But I was about to push the buy button on a ZWO ASI120MM-Mini  for guiding. I currently use a Altair Astro GP-130M mono which worked fine for my previous setup. I have actually now just got it working with Ekos but it took some doing and is a bit flakey, maybe my doing not sure.

Anyway sorry to keep rambling on and hijacking your thread, I may well take you up with help on Astroberry in future if that's okay  🙂

Good luck with your purchases anyway and hope all goes well

Stay safe

Thanks

Steve

16 hours ago, endlessky said:

I have also read of a lot of people having troubles with some versions of the 120MM (the Mini or the -S, I am not really sure) and Linux/Raspberry.

Hi Matteo,

Sorry I cannot help you with your question  as I do not have the experience but your comment here is of great interest to me as I already have a ZWO main ccd camera and also trying to change my setup to use Astroberry / KStars on a RPi 4B and also was just about to order another ZWO camera for guiding. Can you direct me to any of the threads or other forums discussing this issue. 

Many thanks if you can

Steve

9 minutes ago, carastro said:

I never have a problem with my speakers, can hear all the You tube stuff, and if any-one Skypes me can hear them, but I do have a problem with microphone since I bought this desktop, as they can't hear me, and I have tried 2 different webcams.  I am not sure if it could be connected.  I looked in the settings and the audio output was selected and working and I bet I will hear the recording when it is posted up.

Carole 

I hope you have better luck next time. I really enjoyed it, as @x6gas says I don't think there would be much you did not already know. As much as anything it was just good in the current lockdown to listen and chat with others live. Looking forward to next week so much better than trying to find anything good to watch on TV 🙂 

Steve

17 hours ago, TerryMcK said:

Have you tried the camera in 8bit Steve? I know my ZWO ASO120MM works ok on 8bit in Windoze PHD2 but sometimes times out in 16Bit. Might be worth a punt in INDI!

Ah well maybe my previous reply was a bit premature.

If I am honest I really do not understand the entire workings of INDI.

When I started KStars and then Ekos when I looked under the tab in Ekos at the Altair then indeed it was set to RAW  and 8 bit 

But if in PHD2 I clicked on the camera settings the settings were different so it tlooks like I was setting the Altair camera settings in the wrong place (in the INDI settings in KStars) but I needed to set them in the INDI settings in PHD2 instead.

After doing this I have managed to create a dark library in PHD2 which I could not do before.

Steve

16 hours ago, TerryMcK said:

Have you tried the camera in 8bit Steve? I know my ZWO ASO120MM works ok on 8bit in Windoze PHD2 but sometimes times out in 16Bit. Might be worth a punt in INDI!

Yes even in 8 bit and bin 4x4 it will not work in PHD2 or even the Ekos internal guider, yet if I select the camera in Ekos and take some images it works flawlessly, even 16 bit.

Has me really confused. If the camera just did not work then I could sort of understand it was maybe just a driver or was not compatible with Ekos but it works just not as a guide camera.

Steve

On 13/05/2019 at 18:27, upahill said:

My problems / questions are:

• The Altair GPCAM im using for guiding is recognised, but will only show an image if binned 4x4, this is leaving me with very pixelated shots where noise and stars are almost indecernible. I was using the EKOS guiding module, did try PHD but didnt get anything from the camera at all. Does anyone else use the GPCAM on INDI?

I know this is from a year ago but I am just starting the same struggle with astroberry and Ri4 and my main issue is also not being able to guide with Altair GP130 Mcamera.

If I try to use it just through Ekos then it works fine as a camera but whether I use PHD2 or the Ekos guiding it just times out and does not take an image.

Apart from binning did you get this to work ?

Steve

1 minute ago, Helen said:

FLO are kindly covering to cost of a proper zoom licence, so no time constraints 👍

How brilliant is that, makes me feel like I had better reciprocate and buy some new kit 🙂 

Steve

How long will each session last ?

Am I correct thinking that with the free version of Zoom (never used this before all work is done via Teams) you only have 40 minutes when over 3 participants ?

Steve

21 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

When I went to pay with PayPal I put £50 In but it changed it to $58+ USD he refunded that then said pay by bank transfer, I am sure he manovered it this way so I would have no redress. 

It was not bought on SGL I have never had any problems buying items from here. 

I would agree why else would the seller refund the full amount, he would get the full £50 from Paypal into his account the same day so he would loose nothing apart from you having some protection. Although if like many of us do you ay as family and friends to get around any fees to Payal then there is no protection with Payal either.

Apart from my sympathy, which is of no use to yo at all in this situation, I cannot help much. Having similar experiences in the past I would just say try not to get too mad and enraged about it. Unfortunately, whilst it is infuriating, it is only yourself that suffers further. Also small claims, onbudsman, solicitor approach is really not worth the hassle, in my opinion, and again only serves to upset you more, and the outcome would probably not be changed.

I certainly hope any future buys have a much better outcome.

Steve

I think if I get this guiding sorted, which I may well do with the above help (many thanks).

One thing I noticed last night is I may have a bit of an issue with my network. I have auto reconnect enabled in astroberry and whilst searching online for things I noticed that astroberry kept dropping the connection and reconnecting every so often. It reconnected fine and may always have done this wit my old setup. But with the old setup that would not be an issue because everything ran off the computer at the mount, it would just be the remote desktop that stopped working for a while, but sequencing would continues fine and nothing lost, even if the connection dropped altogether.

And as I have it now with everything running on the RPi I guess the same would go for that.

But, if I only run the INDI server on the mount and then run astroberry / EKOS on the main computer would that not then run the possibility of loosing some images if the connection drops momentarily ?

Forgive my ignorance about how astroberry / INDI / and Ekos work together I still have not fully worked that one out 🙂 

Steve

2 hours ago, wornish said:

Here is a useful tutorial that shows you how to use PHD2 with EKOS.

Thanks, not had chance to look at it yet but will when I have time. 

Steve

10 hours ago, CedricTheBrave said:

i dont have mine set like that, I dont select a guide cam in the ekos settings just choose phd guiding.

i then use phd to connect to the camera and and the indi server for the mount

then select guide in ekos and it connects to phd and if needed does a calibration then starts guiding

does that make sense?

Cheers, maybe that is where I am going wrong using the guide camera directly to PHD may work as that is more like what it was before and never had issue then. Thanks for that I will give it a try.

Steve

10 hours ago, Doug64 said:

Just set mine up using the Flirc case and so far it's great.

A big learning curve for me but I've got time on my hands at the moment.

I'm sure you'll enjoy using the Rpi.

Doug

Doug,

Yup, definitely a good time to do a change like this with lots of time at home and with the short nights with lack of astronomical darkness there is not much lot in a session anyway. Best to get all bugs ironed out before the longer dark nights come back. Hope all goes well.

I have another thread going about this because I am struggling with guiding using the Pi at the moment. No doubt I have something setup incorrectly but not got that working at moment.

Steve

Thats a cracking image, so much detail, thanks for sharing 🙂 

Steve

I am slowly getting to grips with this but still cannot get the guide camera to work.

Well I say I cannot get it to work it is even odder. If I select the camera in the INDI control panel I can take images by pressing "Set" with no issues.

Also I can select the guide camera in Ekos and take an image again with no problems (ignore the fact that the capture is just noise the rig is in a dark garage while I test it)

But if I try a capture or click on loop with the Guide tab in Ekos selected then very occasionally it will capture an image but more often than not it times  out and displays an error "Exposure timeout".  And this is the exact same if I try it in PHD as well. Can't seem to make sense of it. The camera is obviously working so I guess I have some setting or parameter wrong somewhere.

If I try PHD2 then I get this fault everytime:

Or sometimes this fault in PHD2.

Steve