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Beta testers needed - Episode 2 :)


Yoddha

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Hello,

Once again I need help to test a new feature of APT - Auto-Focusing with ASCOM compatible focusers. This feature will be available in the free version, so your tests will be direct contribution to our community :)

Detailed information about the beta can be found here - http://aptforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=180&p=807#p807

Many thanks in advance for your help!

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no luck i'm afraid :( was pointed at vega and focus aid just wouldn't show anything. there was a small circle in the window and i could see vega VERY faintly. tried to focus and it just said there was no star in the focus window :(

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yep, fwhm and the other one are 0.00 as well

This is very strange! With your scope it should be VERY well detected. Sorry for the stupid question, but are you sure that it was Vega, not other fainter start nearby?

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I've been watching these threads while waiting for my arduino, Finally got it all together so I'll be joining the beta group soon.  Now it's just a matter of finding the time between work and life.

Thank you!

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This is very strange! With your scope it should be VERY well detected. Sorry for the stupid question, but are you sure that it was Vega, not other fainter start nearby?

unless my eyes and astrotortilla were both having a major fit... yes, it was definitely vega, was bright enough to show diffraction spikes in liveview so no doubt there. if it's clear tonight i'll get a screenshot of the exact messages and whatnot but there seems to be a big 'orrible swirly thing out over the Atlantic coming this way :/

APT seemed to recognize tekkydaves ascom driver though which is a good sign at least.

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that's what was puzzling me... liveview was working without any problems, even easily showed epsilon lyrae split, but as soon as i moved the focus aid window over vega it just 'vanished'. even checked youtube videos just to make sure i hadn't forgot how to use focus aid :rolleyes:

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that's what was puzzling me... liveview was working without any problems, even easily showed epsilon lyrae split, but as soon as i moved the focus aid window over vega it just 'vanished'. even checked youtube videos just to make sure i hadn't forgot how to use focus aid :rolleyes:

I've been using tekkydaves focuser manually with APT. I'm sure you've worked it out but you need to wind back the focus with Dave's application before running APT.

I send it back 100 steps, then return to focus in APT. This allows travel in both directions.

I need to sit down and work out how to get the focuser to record a park position.

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unless my eyes and astrotortilla were both having a major fit... yes, it was definitely vega, was bright enough to show diffraction spikes in liveview so no doubt there. if it's clear tonight i'll get a screenshot of the exact messages and whatnot but there seems to be a big 'orrible swirly thing out over the Atlantic coming this way :/

APT seemed to recognize tekkydaves ascom driver though which is a good sign at least.

I tested my driver with APT and BYEOS with no issues. I'll try the auto-focusing when I get my mini-obsy sorted (dont hold your breath).

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I've been using tekkydaves focuser manually with APT. I'm sure you've worked it out but you need to wind back the focus with Dave's application before running APT.

I send it back 100 steps, then return to focus in APT. This allows travel in both directions.

I need to sit down and work out how to get the focuser to record a park position.

I need to sort out a solution to this. It seems that ASCOM is ok with negative position values as is the client. I built my driver and test client from the standard ASCOM 6.1 templates and negative positions just work. The problem is when a client or device is set up to only support positive positions and my driver initialized at position 0. I could have the Arduino initialize at a high positive position e.g. 1000 or 10000 or even put a selectable value in the driver config dialog. I'm open to suggestions.

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Dave,

Maybe it will help to use unsigned short? This gives 0-65535 range which should be enough for any setup.

ASCOM seems to use int everywhere so it's curious why a client application should restrict the position to positive values.

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The reason for the restriction is that there is no minimum or lower limit property for the position in the ASCOM standard. There is only maximum value, so it is expected 0 to be the lowest possible position.

From the client applications is expected to provide hardware safety...

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The reason for the restriction is that there is no minimum or lower limit property for the position in the ASCOM standard. There is only maximum value, so it is expected 0 to be the lowest possible position.

From the client applications is expected to provide hardware safety...

I can see that and it makes perfect sense. What I don't understand is why the Ascom writer(s) used a signed int for the focuser position.
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Maybe it is glitch in the design :icon_scratch:

Probably unintentional. My focuser is very simple and cannot retain the position on power off. I think the best option is to move the focus manually to the end of the travel before powering on.

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I need to sort out a solution to this. It seems that ASCOM is ok with negative position values as is the client. I built my driver and test client from the standard ASCOM 6.1 templates and negative positions just work. The problem is when a client or device is set up to only support positive positions and my driver initialized at position 0. I could have the Arduino initialize at a high positive position e.g. 1000 or 10000 or even put a selectable value in the driver config dialog. I'm open to suggestions.

This sounds an excellent solution to me. Initializing at 1000 would be plenty for me.

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