Stellarmate 1.6.2 (with kstars 3.5.7)

[Andy01]

Yay for dev team 1.6.2!



Everything, and I do mean everything - ran perfectly unattended all night for the first time in ages, for two consecutive nights!


Plate solve, align, focus, guiding, capture, flip, realign, guide, capture, change filters, refocus, more captures & park at dawn with no hassles - I have great data and round stars, amazing!



Now I know that's what it's supposed to do, and maybe it was just my gear/config but until recently I always had to go into SM & adjust/reboot something, which was a pain - so much so I recently purchased a NUC to load and run with Voyager.



Guess now I'll have the luxury of comparing both SM & Voyager :lol:

[AdamJL]

Chuck NINA into the mix there too, Andy ;)

[pmrid]

Hey Andy, that’s encouraging. I’ve just installed 1.6.2 on a Pi4 booting off a SSD. Clean install with no issues.

I’m interested in pursuing the Stellarmate route because it allows me to use my SBIG CCD and ST-i guide cam (something that ASiair Plus won’t do) Again, no issues with the install.

It took a while but I have now stumbled on the thing that has been troubling me - getting my integrated filter wheel to be recognised. It was there all along. I just didn't see it.

So now I have an option I didn't have before - to use wifi to do the whole thing. I thought ZWO was my only choice. I was wrong, I am glad to say and can't wait to fire it up and learn it properly.


Peter

[AdamJL]

Hi Andy

How did you go with the comparisons?

I'm thinking about getting a Stellarmate this year.

[Andy01]

Well done Peter - it's a learning curve, but manageable - I'll be keen to see how you go! :)





Hey Adam,
Ran into a mechanical/tech glitch where the aging ascom Tak mount driver appeared to misbehaving with Voyager, resulting in blue screens on the NUC.



However, it may actually be my original Keyspan RS 232 serial to usb converter (that serves the mount) is the culprit. Planning another test tonight with a different unit, will keep you posted.


Meanwhile the pi/SM 1.6.2 combo with my Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox is running perfectly night after night, gathering useful data and doing exactly what it's supposed to do with no issues whatsoever! :lol:

[Rocket]

I am trying to do a polar alignment, and not having any success. I am running a Raspberry Pi with the current version of Stellarmate (updated a week or so ago), remotely via kStars/Ekos on my laptop (kStars/Ekos updated yesterday). I have an AZ-GTi in equatorial mode, a ZWO 120 guide camera with 50/200mm guide scope, and a WO70 main scope.
I run through the sequence of three images and two mount rotations, and get an alignment error. I then tick the "Update PA Error" box and hit refresh. The system takes images and updates the guide camera image, but doesnt update the error in the three "Updated Err" boxes below the "Measured Err" box, they just stay blank.
An example tonight was an initial error of 3 degrees Az and 1 degree Alt. Is this too big a starting error? The display I get after the initial 3 images is two coloured lines meeting at a point, not a triangle, although I try and zoom the image in and out. Is this a clue?
I can post a screen shot if that offers any clues.
The Stellarmate/RPi seems a nice idea, but going back to a NUC running APT and Sharpcap is looking tempting right about now.
Any thoughts appreciated,
Cheers,
Ed

[Rocket]

My problems mainly stemmed from the small FOV of the guide camera, and the need for a pretty accurate initial alignment. A discussion on Cloudy Nights helped me make progress - https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/824559-problem-polar-aligning-with-ekos-on-stellarmate/