Paramount MYT doesn't GOTO from ASIAIR Pro

rreed

I can't get the Air GOTO to control my MYT mount. The mount is connected in the Air's telescope settings. The mount is homed in The SkyX. But nothing happens when I issue a goto. The manual tap to center image doesn't work either. Perhaps I don't have it cabled correctly to the MYT mount, even though the Air is seeing the mount. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

PMTeam@ZWO

rreed Plz check this link https://www.indilib.org/telescopes/bisque-paramount.html

rreed

actually the GoTo does work but air won't validate that it is centered. Not sure what I need to change since I'm not using indi to control the mount. Please advise.

w7ay

rreed actually the GoTo does work but air won't validate that it is centered

To be able to center, ASIAIR needs to take an image and perform a plate solve.

You might want to manually check if the ASIAIR can actually succeed to plate solve, by using the same exposure time that you have told it to use for centering.

Once you turn on Auto-Center in the Telescope Settings window, you should also see a "Center EXP Time" setting in the Telescope Setup window. That is the exposure time that the ASIAIR uses when plate solving to center a star.

Chen

rreed

Hi Chen, Yes, plate solving without centering works (it's successful when clicking the plate solve icon after an image is made). What exposure is it using when it does that kind of plate solve? Thanks, Rick

rreed

Chen, I'm thinking it's a bug; that it's not sending back centering adjustments to the MYT mount.

rreed

Okay, so, no go on Paramount / SkyX and ASIAir Pro. I cannot get the ASIAir Pro software to move the mount reliably using GOTO. There are long delays before moving IF it moves at all (often not). The arrows to move the scope manually don't work either. HOME button often does work but only after a 7 or more second delay.

The mount does connect to SkyX using the procedure described in the NINA doc. And on the surface all seems well until GOTO is tried.

Perhaps I'm still doing something wrong, but at this stage, I'm pretty sure I'm not.

Here's my setup.

Paramount's USB cable is attached to USB3 hub (I've tried different hubs too) at the mount running Sky X. USB3 hub is attached to Windows 10 computer.
ASIAir Pro is attached to same hub.
Windows 10 computer is connected via Ethernet to Lynksys SE2500 Gigabit switch
SkyX sees the ASIAir using via the TCPServer connection.
ASIAir Pro is connected to the same Lynksys SE2500 Gigabit switch using Ethernet.
Switch is connected via long ethernet cable to router indoors which is connected to my home network.
ASIAir Pro connects to the mount using the Paramount / SkyX selection
Control of ASIAir Pro is via ethernet connection to above Lynksys switch and then ethernet to my indoor router. This enables me to use my iPad indoors to control the mount/software.
Mount is homed using Windows 10 computer.
GOTO is tried and fails. Weirdly, occasionally, but not not always, 30 secs to a minute later the mount will move to an object.
Another GOTO then issued, but nothing happens.

These problems occur regardless of me being at the scope and connecting my iPad to the Air hardware via wireless or inside connecting via ethernet.

Happy to continue trying other things. Otherwise please fix or remove the mount as an option in the software and on website.

Thanks!
Rick

chroot

Hey Paramount + ASIAir users!

I'm having the same problems -- unreliable slews and bizarre behavior.

Generally, the very first GoTo command works correctly, but further commands are delayed or ignored.

My ASIAir Plus is running firmware 2.0 (10.46).
I'm running TheSkyX 10.5.0 Build 13479 for Linux (64-bit) on a separate PC.

I wrote a simple "Paramount simulator" in Python, and watched the network traffic sent to TheSkyX from ASIAir Plus.

I think I may have found the problem. The ASIAir Plus sends a "GetRaDec()" question once every three seconds. Here's an example with timestamps:

### At time 13/01/2023 12:01:23
received b"/* Java Script */var Out;sky6RASCOMTele.GetRaDec();Out = String(sky6RASCOMTele.dRa) + ',' + String(sky6RASCOMTele.dDec);"
sending canned response b'0.673056,41.5956|No error. Error = 0.'
### At time 13/01/2023 12:01:26
received b"/* Java Script */var Out;sky6RASCOMTele.GetRaDec();Out = String(sky6RASCOMTele.dRa) + ',' + String(sky6RASCOMTele.dDec);"
sending canned response b'0.673056,41.5956|No error. Error = 0.'
### At time 13/01/2023 12:01:29
received b"/* Java Script */var Out;sky6RASCOMTele.GetRaDec();Out = String(sky6RASCOMTele.dRa) + ',' + String(sky6RASCOMTele.dDec);"
sending canned response b'0.673056,41.5956|No error. Error = 0.'
### At time 13/01/2023 12:01:32
received b"/* Java Script */var Out;sky6RASCOMTele.GetRaDec();Out = String(sky6RASCOMTele.dRa) + ',' + String(sky6RASCOMTele.dDec);"
sending canned response b'0.673056,41.5956|No error. Error = 0.'

ASIAir Plus seconds messages to the mount only once every three seconds. All commands, GetRaDec(), SlewToRaDec(), etc. are forced into this timing. This is very slow! I would have expected the ASIAir Plus to poll the mount's GetRaDec() function 10x faster than this.

It appears that there is a queue that stores messages that are waiting to be sent to TheSkyX. This queue becomes packed full of GetRaDec() requests, which are probably inserted once a second or faster. But messages are leaving the queue only once every three seconds. The queue becomes packed full of the delayed GetRaDec() requests, and slews and other commands may not be delivered for minutes after they're put into the queue. And, if the queue is full, the commands may be ignored entirely.

I assume this is a simple driver configuration problem? If you can significantly decrease the current three second wait between messages, this problem would most likely be resolved.

I'm absolutely happy to help in any way I can. Thank you!

chroot

Because the ASIAir uses the INDI driver to control TheSkyX, I assume that this bug is the same one experienced here:

https://github.com/indilib/indi/pull/1458

The polling interval of 3 seconds is sort of a dead giveaway.

Is it possible that the ASIAir firmware just needs an upgrade of the Paramount INDI driver to include this fix?

navyguy

was this ever resolved? Does thing support this mount or not? I am reading it does, but if this is how, this is bull sh. and misleading.

Tech@ZWO

navyguy Do you still have this problem? if so, could you upload the log in the ASIAIR app-About-bug report to help us further analysis?
Thank you.