VNC and remote control issues

[toryglen-boy]

Howdy

I have a HP6220 laptop that runs EQMOD, PHD, and Canon software etc. and i VNC onto this from the comfort of my lounge using a HP DV7 laptop, i know how to setup VNC (i use it everyday, but then again, doesnt everyone in the IT industry?) and its fine, i can remote control PHD and exposure etc just fine, when i start up Stellarium on it to use with EDMOD, the tihng comes to a grinding halt, i know there are IT bods here, and people who use this type of setup, and was wondering if you have the same issue?

The first thing i did was the usual, switch off all the eye candy, and kill the bit depth of the colours etc, wire frame window when dragging etc, but the lag is shockingly bad, and its no worse or better, from 8bit to true colour, if i minimize Stellarium to the task bar, then it flies again, i guess it must have a hard time updating the pulsing square and updating co-ordinates on Stellarium, what do you use with EQDIR and what performance do you get, if you VNC or RDP onto it from another box?

thanks

:thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

My initial thoughts are maybe check what ports EQMOD and/or ASCOM uses, and make sure they aren't the ones that VNC uses? IIRC VNC uses 5800, 5900? Not sure if it uses any others. You can tell it to use others to avoid clashes.

[toryglen-boy]

Hi Troy

Thanks for your input mate, but i am convinced its not that, even when not connected to the scope, it just crawls along, i tried VNC'ing onto the laptop after i put The Sky 6, and Red Shift on it, and it flies along, so i am pretty convinced its the eye candy on Stellarium, or maybe its just not coded very well.

more replies are welcome

;)

[troypiggo]

Aah, I see. I thought you were having trouble with EQMOD, but you mean Stellarium is sluggish? Pretty sure Stellarium uses OpenGL and some pretty serious graphics processing that won't translate well over VNC. Reckon you'll need to use some other planetarium program like Cartes du Ciel. Much less GPU hungry. I'd try CdC v3 first, but if no luck there try the 2.76 version.

[toryglen-boy]

Yeah mate, thats what i meant, the eyecand on Stellarium is bringing it down, like i said, The Sky, and Red Shift flew along.

;)

[wysiwyg]

Hi,

I have been using VNC successfully as well but not with Stellarium. I'm pretty sure I have read somewhere that you can reduce the refresh rate of stellarium in the back end. From memory it was a .ini file or something similar where you can make that change.

Being also a user of EQMOD I found stellarium very inconsistent, it would seize up and do all sorts of strange things, however these issues may have been resolved with the newer versions.

I then switched to Cartez, its free and easy to use. Not as flashy as Stellarium but worked well with EQMOD and was very consistent.

I now use The Sky 6 Pro and it works very well when using VNC, its a little sluggish but manageable. The Sky 6 allows you to control the refresh rate, so its easier to customise.

Cheers
Mark

[pmrid]

DUncan, are you using VNC across the internet or across a LAN? My Observatory is a bit too far from the house for a normal wireless connection to make it. So I'm looking a setting up a local ad-hoc and interface through a couple of VHF TV antennae. That is if VNC can work across such a setup.
Peter

[CoolhandJo]

Slightly unrelated, but the only issue I have had with VNC is when I decided to use photoshop from inside the house and fired it up on the iamging laptop outside. It works really good unti lyou want to use the "alt" key. For some reason the VNC transfer doeasnt recognise the function in the target Laptop!

[Matty P]

Hi Duncan,

I had similar problems using RDP from my laptop to the desktop in the observatory. Everything would be working flawlessly. I would have TheSky6 with EQMOD, PHD and Canon software all running and as soon as I would connect remotely. EQMOD and the bluetooth connection to the mount would disconnect instantly. I couldn't really find a fix for this so I ended up installing UltraVNC.

Using UltraVNC, I can now successfully connect and control everything inside the obs. Doesn't slow down any of the processes and is very reliable. I'm going from Vista to XP as well.

Hope this can help. :)

:thumbsup:

[toryglen-boy]

Hi Matty

Using RDP, some of your functions would have dropped out as its like logging off, and signing in as a new user, RDP from Vista to XP is a nightmare, specially with XP SP3 as it introduces another security layer to overcome, leaving wierd side effects such as the password working on the client, then connecting, then the password not working again when reconnecting! its because RDP looks for a fully qualified domain, or NetBios name, and has trouble without it, there are certain fixes, like a registry key to disable authentication, or editing the DEFAULT.RDP file to never ask for authentication and connect anyway, but these methods are cumbersome, and not without security holes, Windows XP uses an IPv4 standard IP address for XP, and Vista uses the newer IPv6 standard, which again is only there to mess people around.

I use VNCUltra 4.5, and it works great, but the problem is Stellarium, even when the two laptops are 18 inches apart, and 3 feet away from the router (we had an argument in work today, i say "rooter" and people in work say "row-ter" and then i tell them the most famous "rowt" in the world is "route 66" that usually end the discussion) , anyway, turns out Stellarium is a real resource hog, and when it runs on my main laptop (17" with a Penryn Quad CPU at 2.66 and 4GB DDR II) it still consumes vast amounts of CPU cycles, while i love it, i get the impression it could be coded alot better. When i use anything else, and i have tried The Sky 6, Red Shift and Starry Night, it runs as sweet as a nut, even with PHD and the Canon software suite to, which is a shame, as i am very familiar with Stellarium, but it appears i will need to use something else, i ahve heard good things about Cartes Du Ceil so i will give that a bash, the only thing is that i am not familiar with the software, so thats another thing to learn! if anyone can recommend a good planitarium package that works well with EQDIR, then chime in!!





Hi Peter, using it across a LAN, with nothing else running on it, regarding your issue, why dont you just setup a remote wireless point, or do as i did, and get a 9db gain wirless antenna? my range has went from being my house, to the adjacent blocks, and over to the next few suburbs! alternatively, get a pringles tube, a coathanger etc, and you should be able to build something on the cheap

:thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

Stellarium can be absolute dog without hardware accelerated OpenGL.

Have you tried using RDP? It may work better than VNC because it does screen updates differently.

[toryglen-boy]

LOL

read the above post

;)

[Gama]

You may want to give RDP another go. RDP will accept XP as long as you set it. There is an option for remote XP client.
I have used it on an XP, and no probs.
Plus my current setup is a Vista64 machine as my desktop, and a vista32 machine as the client (Remote PC).
I can run everything i have and have no probs.
Even WWT runs fine along with MaximDL, PHD, The Sky, and other software all running together. It totally controls my telescope and CCD cameras without a hitch, and refresh is 300ms in 1920x1080 resolution.
I tried everything else, but its just not as quick or as easy.
I took a screen shot some time ago showing some functions, and the image is the remote PC on my Desktop.

Theo

[tlgerdes]

Hi Duncan,

Yo9u have to drop your frame refresh rate in Stellarium, by default it will be running at about 30-40fps, this is going to have issues with VNC, you can set min and max frame rates in the config.ini file. drop it to 1 and 2

[toryglen-boy]

Hi Theo

TBH, i would expect what you have to work no problems. Vista 32 and 64 use the same security layer, and i would expect no problems, the issue only arises when going from Vista to XP, and i am not not alone, search google, there are quite literally thousands of hits on it, but this isnt really aimed at RDP.

So, i tried Cartes Du Ceil, and its running as sweet as as nut, all sorted.

I might mess around with Stellarium Scope in the future, but teh next few nights will be spent getting used to EQDIR and to learning the new software

;)