373 replies to this topic

[amitshesh]

One last thing.

I have also found that the typical "restart and your problems go away" works here too. I don't actually restart the pi. If your mount starts missing targets after a while, I simply park it, then unpark and try the same target it missed earlier. Must be some error that accumulates, I don't know...

[Crist Rigotti]

One last thing.

I have also found that the typical "restart and your problems go away" works here too. I don't actually restart the pi. If your mount starts missing targets after a while, I simply park it, then unpark and try the same target it missed earlier. Must be some error that accumulates, I don't know...

Yes, that what I usually do.

[Mitchell M.]

I can't seem to get the changes made in alignment targeting (270 arcsecs error, 3-5 seconds exposure per Cuiv) and then hitting the 'floppy' to save. Next time I reboot the Pi4, the saved changes are gone and only have the default listed, whereas whenever I close out of the app and start the app, the changes are saved.

What gives?

To clarify, whenever I disconnect the power to the Pi4, the changes I've made are gone until I input the changes in again and save. The equipment profile seems to be saved tho.

[amitshesh]

@mitchellm I can confirm this behavior. It's not that it does not work ever, but it sometimes does not work. It's annoying.

For what it's worth, I have begun to use the setup from my windows desktop, instead of fully controlling from my phone (look at post 174 in this thread). It's not as portable, but most of the times when I am operating this from home, the advantages outweigh the loss of portability. Besides the bigger screen and better UI small things like not saving settings, fumbling with small screens and misclicks go away.

[Psionmark]

@mitchellm I can confirm this behavior. It's not that it does not work ever, but it sometimes does not work. It's annoying.

For what it's worth, I have begun to use the setup from my windows desktop, instead of fully controlling from my phone (look at post 174 in this thread). It's not as portable, but most of the times when I am operating this from home, the advantages outweigh the loss of portability. Besides the bigger screen and better UI small things like not saving settings, fumbling with small screens and misclicks go away.

That's interesting. I'd pretty much abandoned this project because of all the issues. From one of the comments above, I gave it another try with my Android tablet. Not the same problems, but different ones lol! This time, for some reason, even though the mount was still hard-wired as it was before from my previous experiments, Stellarmate just wouldn't connect to it.

 

After reading your comment about the desktop, I thought I'd try it out with my Mac laptop. Installed KStars and pointed it to my Stellarmate device. After a fairly steep learning curve (never used anything other than the Stellarmate iOS and Android apps prior to this), I had everything connected! Been cloudy here for more than 2 weeks, but I've a gut feeling (maybe wishful thinking?) that it's actually working! It's GoTo'ing stuff I'm selecting in KStars, EKOS all connected to the mount, camera and SkySafari.

 

Whilst waiting for the clouds to clear, I'll swat up on KStars on my Mac, but all seems good so far. Only issue (not related to this topic really) is I can't get my Mac SkySafari 6 to connect to it, but that's a different matter. (EKOS says its ready to connect and I've set SS to the mount type mentioned in EKOS and localhost with the correct port, but it just doesn't want to play).

 

Will report back once clear skies return.

[amitshesh]

That's good to hear! Kstars on the desktop is definitely a learning curve. I too was not familiar with anything else.

You can actually try everything inside until the clouds go away. I roughly polar aligned my mount by using a compass, then tried go-to and used skysafari on my phone. I held it right where the eyepiece goes to verify whether the telescope slewed to the target correctly.

I haven't tried using skysafari to control my mount. I actually like the Kstars interface. You should use the observation planner instead of the search button to find targets. Or the what's up tonight feature.

Sorry to hear about your android problems. I assume you made sure everything is powered up. I have, on several occasions not connected the mount to power waiting for stellarmate to boot, and then tried to start the configuration before powering the mount. Sorry if this sounds silly...it's just that I have done all of this and added to my frustration before getting things to work.

[Mitchell M.]

I've got a cable coming tomorrow to connect the az-gti directly to the pi4 to eliminate one wifi path. Is it simply plug&play or is there a config I would need to change?

Was playing around with the rig indoors the other day. Noticed that it would slew to a target, attempt alignment and declare failure fairly quick without hangups. Would do that no matter how many targets I go to or how long I played around with it. However, it seems once we get under the stars, things would bog down; multiple attempts at alignment, wifi bottleneck, notifications stacking up, etc. Seems once the camera comes into play, things go downhill.

[amitshesh]

I don't have that mount, but it was plug and play for me. Didn't have to change anything.

If you are indoors then alignment will fail, because the alignment uses camera images and the camera cannot capture stars while inside. Once you are outside set the alignment error to something like 250 and see if alignment succeeds. If it still does not, make sure that your mount is pointing north when you power it on. If the park position is not accurate then everything else is more likely to fail. Also make sure it is pointing to true north, not magnetic north. Another lesson learned the hard way for me. For my location true north is 14.3 degrees off magnetic north.

I use moon or a bright star to test slewing, so that it is obvious in the camera image whether slewing worked, in a short exposure image.

[ReneF]

I am in the process of setting up Cuiv's concept as well.  I will be using Astroberry however. I am awaiting some parts to get back focus right on a new WO GT 71 which is new, and will be used here.  However, everything in terms of running the mount, and camera seems fine so far, however early on I abandoned linking to the mount by way of WiFi, as that was hit and miss.  I did NOT want to run Ethernet cable outside either. What finally worked best was using a mesh based router, in my case the ASUS AiMesh system which was already setup on three big routers around my house. I purchased a fourth for the telescope. In my front or back yard, this fourth router easily joins the mesh with the same SSID all of them use. It is powered by the batteries I have for the whole system. Everything is then linked together. I plug the RaspberryPi into a port on the fourth router, and USB from it to the mount, and no more dropouts.  Rock solid connection while I learn the software, and I can leave it on for days, and everything is still running when I drop back in to the system.  AND I abandoned any use of a small screen such as a smart phone to run things, as it was too hard to read, and too hard to type things.  Astroberry works well with any browser on any computer using the http://astroberry.local URL.  In my case I use a Chromebook which lasts a whole day on battery as the preferred client.  So far so good, but when the parts I ordered come in, I will move things outside to see if I have the problems the rest of you are having.  BUT, since Astroberry works well with many other users systems, at the end of the day, we all should have success.  Getting rid of WiFii was a plus for me.

[Joey44]

I've got a cable coming tomorrow to connect the az-gti directly to the pi4 to eliminate one wifi path. Is it simply plug&play or is there a config I would need to change?

 

Assuming you are in alt/az mode and using a Synscan USB cable or equivalent, just plug it in. You will then need to start your profile in the app, go to port selector, and be sure that serial port mode is selected. You should also probably be using the Skywatcher Alt/az mount in your profile instead of the AZ-GTI Wifi setting. You will notice that in about 15 minutes the blinking red light on the mount will turn solid red. This means that the mount wifi has turned itself off.

Some folks are connecting to this mount in Equatorial mode with a different cable; it is not clear to me whether this is working for them. For those who are reporting success in working through this process more specifics will be helpful to us all.

[Mitchell M.]

amitshesh,

I understand the alignment failing while using indoors. What caught my attenrion was how quick it was to declare failure. Once it reaches target, within a few seconds. Take it outdoors, sometimes, not often, it's quick, more often it's minutes and sometimes it never reaches success/failure. I do the config as ciuv lays out. When I set up the scope North, I red dot Polaris and then bring the scope down to level so scope is within a degree of TrueNorth. Slews just fine to target but after that,... Even when it declares failure to align, go to camera, take a picture and, lo and behold, target is centered.

It works but it doesn't.

Going the cable route should allow me to set the wifi between the pi4 and android phone to 5G. As things are now, it's all set to 2.4G (the SkyWatcher Az-Gti wifi is 2.4 G only). My understanding, at 5G, wifi is much more stable. Reading back here and elsewhere, seems a lot of rigs break down at the wifi point.

[Psionmark]

Oh well, I had about as much success with the Mac as I had with my iPad and Android devices, e. g. virtually none at all!

 

I think I'll now call it quits on this experiment. It's had it's moments, but it's mostly frustration with very little by way of results.

 

 Back to visual for me for now.

[Mitchell M.]

If I can't get it to work with the cable, I'll probably shelf the project too. Appears most folks that have taken on this project has too, even cuiv.

Doesn't kill my interest in eaa tho, I'll just wait for the Vespera.

[acrh2]

Oh well, I had about as much success with the Mac as I had with my iPad and Android devices, e. g. virtually none at all!

 

I think I'll now call it quits on this experiment. It's had it's moments, but it's mostly frustration with very little by way of results.

 

 Back to visual for me for now.

You have the equipment already. Just run it from a laptop with Sharpcap and Stellarium.

[amitshesh]

@mitchellm: if the image looks ok, but it is declares alignment failure, then the plate solving on the image is failing. That is most often because it cannot detect enough stars. If the camera is focused, I would try to bump up the gain to see if it can detect more stars. I don't know how much light pollution you have I have a considerable amount, so I have to raise the gain slowly. I have a player one Neptune c (imx 178), and I use a gain of 100 in some directions where the light pollution is more.

[Psionmark]

You have the equipment already. Just run it from a laptop with Sharpcap and Stellarium.

Yes, that would probably work, but is reintroducing cables and laptops which is what I was trying to avoid.

 

Honestly, it just feels like too much work for zero return at this stage lol. I'll remember my happy and successful first run and move on for now I think 

[Joey44]

From Stellermate Facebook post yesterday:

 

Available now is #StellarMate OS v1.7.0 Beta 64Bit!

This version is suitable for all StellarMates but is recommended for 4/8GB variants as you can now fully utilize the available memory with 64bit address space. You can download it now from stellarmate.com and it should be used for testing purposes only (not for production).

 

Worth a shot? Who knows. The current version isn't ready for production when using the app, so maybe progress?

[Crist Rigotti]

Downloading OS v1.7.0 now.  I'll let you know how it goes.

[jkelly]

It definitely feels more zippy! All I need is a clear sky on the East Coast!

[Crist Rigotti]

It definitely feels more zippy! All I need is a clear sky on the East Coast!

Did you have to do the complete set up again?

[jkelly]

I tried to use the updater on the desktop of 1.6 but it didn’t recognize the 1.7 beta so I basically did a full complete reinstall. 
Maybe someone else has figured out a way to update 1.6 or save the configuration files.

Since it is now a 64-bit OS I would imagine there isnt a way to update.

Edited by jkelly, 07 January 2022 - 02:14 PM.

[Crist Rigotti]

I tried to use the updater on the desktop of 1.6 but it didn’t recognize the 1.7 beta so I basically did a full complete reinstall. 
Maybe someone else has figured out a way to update 1.6 or save the configuration files.

Since it is now a 64-bit OS I would imagine there isnt a way to update.

OK. Thanks.

 

BTW, you're not using wifi for the mount control are you?

[rahuljp]

Warning, long post coming through.TL;DR - I had some success, but I need a lot more practice and I'm willing to give it some more time with stellarmate and learn it and fix some of the issues by reading through this helpful thread

I've been on the hunt for a portable plop and go setup for EAA for a while and its been on the backburner due to kids and what not. Cuiv's video finally inspired me to get started. 
My equipment
Orion ST-80 (existing)
AZ-GTi (existing)
ASI385 (used, bought about a month back from CN classifieds, inspired by the video)
RPI4 for stellarmate controlled via Android phone
 
Obviously, since I got the camera its been cloudy forever in Germany, but last night I was finally able to take it out. Prior to this, I had setup Stellarmate exactly as Cuiv mentioned and I had pretty good success indoors. I saw a lot of the issues that folks had that were mentioned on this thread, so I was a bit worried, but I pushed on without making many changes. I would call it a moderately successful night!
 
Issues on my side:
1. I had focused during the day, but i guess due to temperate drop or whatever, it was still quite terrible, so I had to focus again in the dark
2. I'm on the first floor of a building complex with buildings on either side, lights and a narrow patch of sky, so not the best conditions 
3. Again since the scope is on the ground floor and I've up top, I expected some wifi issues
4. I wonder if my mount has tracking issues (see pic later)
 
Having said all this, I was able to maintain a relatively stable stellarmate connection from my window. It slewed to targets pretty well, I was able to capture a few stacks and even got to jump around a see Andromeda (attached a terrible image I took with my phone) and Pleiades, but then there were some stellarmate issues which brought down what would have been an enjoyable night
 

stellarmate issues
1. capture and solve was hit or miss. Somtimes it worked really well, other times it constantly said astrometry alignment failed. I saw that someone else had a similar issue here. Could be the buildings and lights, could be the softare
2. No pictures would save. I gave permission for storage, but it kept coming up with a message saying folder could not be created
3. I was taking exposures in the 2-5 sec range for the most part, however, after a few stacks, I would see the image completely messed up. Like everything shifted to the right and doubled the stars (see pic)
4. few app crashes, also could be due to wifi range

 

Some issues I plan to fix

I have a cable on order to connect the mount to the RPI directly, hopefully then I can put the stellarmate on my mesh network and make things simpler

I was having some significant star trailing even with short exposures. Could be because I'm aiming higher it gets worse? Maybe I need to check the mount?

I used astronomy.tools to check the FOV for the ST-80 before I bought it, but I also checked a bunch of other cams, but ultimately even though its not perfect, for the price, this worked. Orion (the goal for all beginners) doesnt fit well, but maybe once I get the software part down, I can buy another scope later. 

 

Image 1: M31

Image 2: Pleiades (I had a few targets that a similar issue and didn't keep track of each issue. I believe this was Pleiades)

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by rahuljp, 08 January 2022 - 09:23 AM.

[acrh2]

 

I was having some significant star trailing even with short exposures. Could be because I'm aiming higher it gets worse? 

 

To eliminate the possibility of star trailing due to field rotation, here's a handy plot of exposure time vs azimuth and altitude. Exposure below these times should be free of field rotation. The x axis is either azimuth or altitude, and the inset legend is for the complimentary altitude or azimuth.

 

https://drive.google...ew?usp=drivesdk

 

This is based on someone else's data.

https://telescopemou...-great-results/

 

The graphs are for 30-50 degree latitude. In Germany at 50 degrees, you would need to add about 25% to the numbers.

Edited by acrh2, 07 January 2022 - 08:44 PM.

[jkelly]

I tried 1.7 Beta with an iPad last night. All the normal features worked fine.

Had no trouble slewing to and plate solving targets.

 

The trouble I had all night was the app kept freezing up.

I was using Stellarmate hotspot for connectivity.

This happened whether I was 3 feet or 15 feet away from the RPI4.

The buttons stopped working so I lost complete control.

A restart of the app easily brought it all back until it froze again.

I "Forget this network" to all my usual networks.

So close yet so far,,,

Any one else try it?