dithering and AT

[ThatsMyCoffee]

I'm wondering if two long standing issues with my system are related to each other. And hoping for some advice.

The first problem is that AT often stops controlling the mount. No error or warning message, but when I try to slew or jog, it just doesn't work. If I restart AT, it connects again and works as it should. The 'good' part of this problem is that I polar align my (amazing) HEQ5 precisely and if I'm doing short subs, I'm often not even aware that the control has been lost, since it continues to track on it's own. On Catalina, AT often wouldn't exit and even a 'Force Quit' wouldn't work. I'd end up losing a 1/2 hour rebooting and then setting up everything over again. Big Sur seems to handle this a bit better.

The second problem is that dithering frequently just doesn't work. Without changing any settings, it seems to do as it pleases. If works, it keeps working all night. If it doesn't, the same...

Is there anything I can DO or CHECK while either of the things are happening, to get them working again? (I seem incapable of recording the logs, so please don't ask.)

[Peter Polakovic]

Hi, what driver do you use? NexStar or SynScan.

Dithering in 3.x is quite fragile, but it is completely redesigned in version 4.0+ and I believe it will be much better. Did you have a chance to try pre-release 4.0?

Regards, Peter

[ThatsMyCoffee]

Synscan with v_4

[Peter Polakovic]

OK, I'll try SynScan driver again.

In version 4 you have to select AstroTelescope as mount agent to make dithering work. Did you?

Peter

[ThatsMyCoffee]

Yes, in AI and in AT. Do I need to do it in both places?

[Peter Polakovic]

For dithering just in AI. The opposite direction is used to transfer the current coordinates as they are saved in FITS metadata. Peter

[iMustBcrazy]

The second problem is that dithering frequently just doesn't work. Without changing any settings, it seems to do as it pleases. If works, it keeps working all night. If it doesn't, the same...

For V3, dithering was fixed as of v3.15 - an initialization bug - but this is not what is in the App Store - only v3.14 is there.

[ThatsMyCoffee]

The latest update of the software (AG/AT/AI) seems to have done something. It's now dithering again. But there is no indication that it's happening in AI.

Was it V_3 that displayed a message when this was happening? Now I can see the dithering on the graph of AG, but in AI there is no indication that it is happening at all. Used to be a countdown timer or message. Is that gone for good? Or is there some option I can turn on?

[iMustBcrazy]

The latest update of the software (AG/AT/AI) seems to have done something. It's now dithering again. But there is no indication that it's happening in AI.

Was it V_3 that displayed a message when this was happening? Now I can see the dithering on the graph of AG, but in AI there is no indication that it is happening at all. Used to be a countdown timer or message. Is that gone for good? Or is there some option I can turn on?

Hi @ThatsMyCoffee,
Thanks for your post, it alerted me that v3 has been updated in the App Store and as I can see, my app was automatically updated with v3.15. So on this release from the App Store, dithering appears to be working for me - I'm trying using the simulators on AG. I see AI report "Dithering" at the end of each capture, and I see AG report "DITHER command received". Also, you see the count-down bar in AI.

You should find this new version working reliably as 3.15 has been working reliably for me since Peter created it.

[ThatsMyCoffee]

Except that i'm running V_4 now.

And it doesn't do those things (or it does and I don't know how to turn the options on, I'm not sure!)