AstroEQ for EQ mounts

[Gonzo]

Its a native Linux program which can be used to control Skywatcher mounts. I think Gonzo was asking whether it would be able to control an AstroEQ modded mount, to which the answer is yes it would. Any software which works with a skywatcher synscan mount should also work with AstroEQ.

Perfect, thank you

[Gonzo]

I'm going to try to get Stellarium Linux to work with it once I get my mount back.

[Quatermass]

I love it when a plan comes together really enjoying using Astroeq and EQmod but its frying my brain trying to understand everthing. Tryed out EQmosiac last night but could not figure out how to insure my 200p could get the correct frame and offset for each shot. Spent today trying to piece it all together but the frames where not covering the right amount of area. Any help much appreciated.

[chrisshillito]

It's to run it under Linux

Right, but you realise that the skywatcher api is very low level - relly just a motor controller api rather than a mount control api. To code up a 'true' mount control app rather than a simple demo you'd have to implement a pointing model / alignment method etc. i.e develop an EQMOD equivalent. Does such a thing already exists in the Linux community that you could build on?

Chris

[chrisshillito]

When AstroEQ receives a stop command (K), it calculates the current speed and a deceleration curve from that speed to 0. The trouble is that with the rate limiting, it appears that EQMOD sometimes sends the stop command twice. When the second stop command is received before the mount has actually slowed to a stop, there is a glitch in the AstroEQ firmware which causes the mount to stop dead (no deceleration).

I had come up with a possible fix whereby after the first stop command, AstroEQ ignores all stop commands until the mount has finished decelerating.

Yes I'm afraid there are probably quite a few conditions under which EQMOD (or its interface dll) can send multiple stop messages. That is the problem with modular code, I.e if one module stops the mount at the end of its function, and another stops the mount at the start of its function then if the two functuons happen to be combined in a particular control sequence then you get two stops. Doesn't sound too difficult for astroeq to handle though - a 'stopping' flag should do the trick.

Chris.

[JamesF]

Right, but you realise that the skywatcher api is very low level - relly just a motor controller api rather than a mount control api. To code up a 'true' mount control app rather than a simple demo you'd have to implement a pointing model / alignment method etc. i.e develop an EQMOD equivalent. Does such a thing already exists in the Linux community that you could build on?

Chris

Could a suitably committed person not just port EQMOD to Linux?  It is open source, after all.  At least, that's what it says on the web page.

James

[TCWORLD]

Yes I'm afraid there are probably quite a few conditions under which EQMOD (or its interface dll) can send multiple stop messages. That is the problem with modular code, I.e if one module stops the mount at the end of its function, and another stops the mount at the start of its function then if the two functuons happen to be combined in a particular control sequence then you get two stops. Doesn't sound too difficult for astroeq to handle though - a 'stopping' flag should do the trick.

Chris.

Thanks Chris, that's what I'd figured. I did think of adding a stopping flag, but in certain situations that resulted in EQMOD assuming the mount was stopped, but the mount not actually stopping. I just need to figure out why it did that (I will have missed something when coding it in).

[TCWORLD]

Ok, problem is solved. It had nothing to do with calculating deceleration at all! This situation just showed up what was happening more obviously than others (because of the second stop).

Basically if EQMOD tells the mount to move, AstroEQ calculates acceleration from a starting speed (usually the sidereal rate as it is nice and slow). The motor routines then ramp up to the target speed from this starting speed. If the mount is already running, AstroEQ is supposed to use the current speed as the starting speed, so if the current speed is faster, AstroEQ will decelerate to the target speed, or vice versa. However there was a glitch in this calculation which means that it will always start from the minimum speed and never the current. This is what causes the mount to stop suddenly.

AstroEQ version 6.3 cures this glitch. It will be uploaded soon. I will let you know when it is released, before then I need to check to make sure my changes aren't going to cause any problems.

[chrisshillito]

Could a suitably committed person not just port EQMOD to Linux? It is open source, after all. At least, that's what it says on the web page.

James

Yes, but suitably committed folks tend to be rather thin on the ground - most folks would much rather do astronomy in their spare time rather than be tied into software development and support.

Chris.

[Quatermass]

Question for Chris...

I do not understand the setting in EQmosaic regarding the Calcfov. I have a canon 350d attached to my sky watcher 200p and just want to put in the right setting for some basic mosaic work. I tryed it out the other night and it all worked fine but my ad hock settings where not covering enough area. I have no idea what Pixsize xy and Array size xy mean or how to find out the correct setting sorry but I cant get my head around it.

I think the correct setting are

6.42 for the Pixsize x and y

and 3456 and 2304 for the array size. Set RA overlap to 10%

with 1000 for my telescope focal length.

Being dyslexic is not fun at times.

[JamesF]

Yes, but suitably committed folks tend to be rather thin on the ground - most folks would much rather do astronomy in their spare time rather than be tied into software development and support.

Chris.

Everyone needs to do something when it's cloudy

The recent spell of rubbish weather has meant I've got quite a lot done on my Linux imaging application  There's a hint of a possibility of some clear sky on Friday.  If work doesn't interfere I may well get a chance to use it for the first time...

(I do understand what you mean though.  I'm spending most of my days writing code at the moment and the enthusiasm for spending a few hours each evening doing the same sort of thing takes a fair while to acquire

James

[chrisshillito]

Question for Chris...

I do not understand the setting in EQmosaic regarding the Calcfov. I have a canon 350d attached to my sky watcher 200p and just want to put in the right setting for some basic mosaic work. I tryed it out the other night and it all worked fine but my ad hock settings where not covering enough area. I have no idea what Pixsize xy and Array size xy mean or how to find out the correct setting sorry but I cant get my head around it.

Array x is the number of pixels along the x axis of you're sensor (image width). Array y is the number of pixels along the y axis (image height).

Pixel x is the width of each sensor pixel (in microns). Pixel y is the height of each sensor pixel.

All the calcfov does is calculate the field of view of your image so that eqmosaic knows how far to move between mosaic panes.

As this is well of topic pehaps we should move this to a separate thread if you need to discuss this further?

Chris

[Quatermass]

Thank you Chris sorry to go off topic, I think I've got it now though cheers

cloud cloud go away come again another day

[TCWORLD]

AstroEQ V6.3 Released! https://github.com/TCWORLD/AstroEQ

Firmware Changes:

Cured glitch with rate limiting, this can now be used safely.

Cured glitch with deceleration of mount being skipped in certain situations

Configuration Utility Changes:

Added button the check for new firmware version. Rather than having to re download the configuration utility each time there is a firmware update, you can click the button on the start screen to get the config utility to check for a new firmware and download it for you. 

[Quatermass]

Thanks Tom 

[Gina]

I think I must be getting even more stupid in my old age - I can't seem to find how you download from GitHub

[JamesF]

It's not always obvious, GIna.  Let me have a quick look.

James

[JamesF]

Ok, starting from https://github.com/TCWORLD/AstroEQ there's a button on the right hand side of the screen labelled "Download ZIP" (it's the last item I see on the right hand side column).  I think that should sort you out.

James

[Gina]

Thank you James - seems to be downloading now

[Gina]

Download successful and I've been looking at the files

[JamesF]

Download successful and I've been looking at the files

Excellent.  I've been caught by that problem a few times myself, especially when using a smaller screen.

James

[TCWORLD]

You just need the configuration utility.

On the github page linked earlier, there is a folder labelled 'Downloads'

In that folder there is a file called 'AstroEQ6-ConfigUtility.zip'. Go to that file (or click the link here).

You will see a page which shows the following message:

View Raw

(Sorry about that, but we can't show files that are this big right now.)

Click where it says "View Raw" to start the download.

[TCWORLD]

If you are using AstroBin to store your images, you can add AstroEQ to your gear.

I've added mine under the 'Accessories'. If you add an item, enter the make as 'DIY' and the model as 'AstroEQ Goto Controller'. 

[Gonzo]

TL;DR: Running on Linux under Wine.

I've spent a fair chunk of today on my Raspberry PI trying to get Skysafari to work, it did connect to my PI but couldn't connect to the AstroEQ, I was getting nowhere so decided to contact Tom. To be told that Skyfi will not work....

In his own words:

However... you can't use Skysafari with AstroEQ - Skysafari talks to the handset of the Skywatcher mounts and not the motor board. It is a completely different protocol to what EQMOD talks.

 

So moving on...

Tried to install Windows XP in VirtualBox, something I've done quite a few time with no issues, however somehow I couldn't get any network interface to appear....

Was about to shrink my Linux partition to install a full XP in dual boot, when I thought about a link regarding someone running an old Ascom on Linux under Wine.

Something I did attempt on my previous installed of Debian (running Wheezy at the time) but failed and gave up as I couldn't installed dotnet35.

So today, armed with the latest Debian (Jessie), I've installed PlayOnLinux (with Wine 1.5.21 and dotnet35sp1 (it did automatically install all the other version of dotnet from 2.0.... took quite some time).

To my surprise, the install was successful without a single glitch. woohoo.

Moved on to Ascom 6SP3, installed with two minor errors that had no impact on the full installation.

Then onto EQASCOM and again that was a success.

Plugged in my AstroEQ and got the following in dmesg:

[11324.636102] usb 2-2: new full-speed USB device number 2 using uhci_hcd[11324.838202] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=04d8, idProduct=000a[11324.838223] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0[11324.838238] usb 2-2: Product: CDC RS-232 Emulation Port[11324.838251] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: Microchip Technology Inc.[11324.916003] cdc_acm 2-2:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.[11324.916279] cdc_acm 2-2:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device[11324.921578] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_acm[11324.921588] cdc_acm: USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters

From the PlayOnLinux tool, I started "eqascom_run" and boom, my AstroEQ is connected with the 'Status' led blinking away....

I'm now off to install Stellarium Windows under Wine

There is however one thing that I haven't been able to do:

Install Java under Wine, as this is necessary to run the AstroEQ config tool

The Java install crashes, I'm googling like nuts to find the trick.

Regards

Stephane

[Quatermass]

You might find CDC a little bit better then stellarium I tried it for a bit but CDC is not such a memory hog

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