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Synscan Pro App (Android), annoying me

Beagleboy

By Beagleboy
in Discussions - Software

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Beagleboy

Beagleboy

Posted
Posted

Hello!

Haven't been here for a while. Anything exciting happen while I was away? 

Please forgive me if this is a forehead slapping, stupid question. I dragged my Skywatcher Star Discovery 150p out into the back garden last night for a lovely evening of planetary observation. I used my Pixel 7 phone, running Android 14 to connect to the scope's WiFi Alt-Az mount via the latest version of Synscan Pro. All went well and I had the scope aligned in no time. I then tried to connect to the scope through Sky Safari (with Synscan in the background). This didn't go so well with Sky Safari not seeming to recognise where it was pointing. It was too cold to be fannying around last night, so I just decided to control the scope through Synscan Pro instead. The app worked flawlessly, taking me straight to each target centred nicely in the eyepiece. However, as soon as I picked a target on my phone, the screen flipped from dark, eye-friendly red, to a glaring white screen as the scope traversed, only swapping back to dark mode once it had stopped and was centred.

I couldn't find an option to stop this. Is there one? It's definitely a new thing since my app was last updated on the 17th Nov. 

Cheers for any help / advice

Craig

 

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Zermelo

Zermelo

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Posted (edited)

(1)  I've had an issue running Sky Safari on my Android tablet ever since it updated to V13.  It gives an error whenever it waits a long time to respond, and from then on it repeats in a loop until you kill it.  Several others have reported the same thing, and devs have been working on it for weeks.

(2)  I do sometimes get a glitch where, on first attempting to connect from Sky Safari after alignment, the star chart points to a "home" position (on the horizon) rather than the actual scope direction as known to Synscan.  This is very easy to deal with, though - if I disconnect and reconnect in Sky Safari, it always picks up the correct position on the second attempt.

(3)  On Synscan, I've never had the screen brightening last for the duration of a goto, but I do see a brief flash of light when I switch apps. This is a problem at the Android level, apparently iOS gives you the option of a system-wide red screen.  Which version of Sysncan are you running? As you say, it sounds like a bug in the latest update.

Edited by Zermelo
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Gfamily

Gfamily

Posted
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7 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I've just tested SynScan Pro 2.4.10 on my Android 11 phone, and I too get the bright screen during goto. Clearly a bug.

Same here - but I also find I can't enter the catalog number for Deep Sky Objects such as Messier 32. Is it the same on your phone? 

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Zermelo

Zermelo

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57 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Same here - but I also find I can't enter the catalog number for Deep Sky Objects such as Messier 32. Is it the same on your phone? 

Oh yes, I see what you mean. When you choose a deep sky object and hit goto, it counts down to zero but it never gives you the screen to confirm.

I don't know how this release made it through regression testing. I've not used it in anger yet, I'm just trying this out on emulator mode. I haven't done any observing since I upgraded, and in any case I use sky safari for most things during sessions.

Edited by Zermelo
Typo
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Gfamily

Gfamily

Posted
Posted
On 30/11/2023 at 09:15, Zermelo said:

I've found them to be responsive to feedback in the past.

Got a same day reply 

Quote

This could be a known issue. We have forwarded this to the app developers to look into it.
We will have the app updated as soon as possible. Thank you.

🤞

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Gfamily

Gfamily

Posted
Posted
On 30/11/2023 at 09:49, happy-kat said:

My gripe is with skysafari 7 plus not finding the mount to connect too 

I've held off from updating from SS6+ to SS7 - there doesn't seem to be much gain, and I read a lot of significant complaints with 7 when it first came out. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Gfamily

Gfamily

Posted
Posted
On 30/11/2023 at 09:13, Gfamily said:

Skywatcher say on their Support pages...

Feedbacks are appreciated: app@skywatchertelescope.net

Looks like it's time to send Skywatcher some feedback 

Just after midnight today, they sent an email request to try a couple of tests, and also asking for Android version etc, as they couldn't replicate it on their devices. 

Then, about 3 hours later they sent another email to say they've identified that it has a problem with the Android GBoard keyboard app and they advised that I should download the MS SwiftKey keyboard app.  

I've asked them when the fixed version will be available from Google Play

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Zermelo

Zermelo

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Just after midnight today, they sent an email request to try a couple of tests, and also asking for Android version etc, as they couldn't replicate it on their devices. 

Then, about 3 hours later they sent another email to say they've identified that it has a problem with the Android GBoard keyboard app and they advised that I should download the MS SwiftKey keyboard app.  

I've asked them when the fixed version will be available from Google Play

That doesn't surprise me, I've had keyboard issues with other apps.

To be fair, it must be difficult for app devs with Android; as well as the different versions of the base OS, and the different flavours from the device manufacturers, they also have to deal with user-selectable keyboards.

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Gfamily

Gfamily

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10 hours ago, Gfamily said:

I've asked them when the fixed version will be available from Google Play

They say they hope to have an update next week. Given the weather we're having, I don't see any way I'd need an update any sooner.

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Neil H

Neil H

Posted
Posted

Hi I am having same problems it connected once but now will not so reverted to stellariaum mobile, another strange problem I had with sky safari  7 pro is that all the stars that are always above horizon it would say they were below the horizon and targets it would let you have when you hit goto the target circle would move on the screen but mount would just sit there ticking 

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Zermelo

Zermelo

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 14/12/2023 at 10:40, happy-kat said:

New synscan version in Google Play today 14th that was quick, super

Thanks.

2.4.11, no accompanying notes in Playstore, and the SW release notes page only goes to 2.4.8 at the moment.

But I just tested it in emulator mode, and it has fixed the "white screen on goto" bug.

[EDIT]

Release note page now updated for latest version:

## 2023-12-13  v2.4.11
Changes compared to v2.4.8
• Fix broken night mode.
• Android SDK to 33 (Android 13)

Edited by Zermelo
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