Question Controlling Polar Alignment Programmatically?

  • Samuel
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26 Nov 2023 19:12 #1239 by Samuel
Success!
I had a very brief clearing this evening and I took the opportunity to try it out. Seems to work very well already, I just need to tweak some parameters like backlash etc. a bit more.
First the program does a calibration by moving the altitude and azimuth motors a certain amount (much like PHD2 e.g.) and then it homes in towards the pole.

The conditions were quite bad though with high clouds etc. which caused the plate solved pole to jump around quite a bit.

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  • Stefano82
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27 Nov 2023 16:38 #1241 by Stefano82
Replied by Stefano82 on topic Controlling Polar Alignment Programmatically?
Hi Samuel
Thank you very much for your effort and congratulation for your outcome. Your software will be really useful and it can be a great step forward for the Astrophotography. We'll share this news with the Avalon community to help other user.

Stefano
Avalon Instruments Team
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30 Nov 2023 11:06 - 30 Nov 2023 11:30 #1246 by Samuel
That came a bit surprising as the program wasn't really ready yet for general use (except for people who know how to compile it ).
I've uploaded a binary now though so others can try it out already! However, it's still just a prototype and may not yet work well for other setups.
Last edit: 30 Nov 2023 11:30 by Samuel.

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15 Dec 2023 23:19 #1275 by Samuel
I've worked some more on this tool and it is now much more reliable and accurate. It also automatically determines and adjusts the amount of backlash now.

During my testing tonight it always reliably got to below 0.5 arcmin alignment (w.r.t. what iPolar reports).



Once I've sorted out the configuration I'll create a first actual release build.
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30 Apr 2024 15:36 #1296 by mzaslove
Replied by mzaslove on topic Controlling Polar Alignment Programmatically?
Fantastic! I've been waiting for a piece of software like this FOREVER! Will it work with the Universal Polar Alignment System Avalon has come out with?

Thanks

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  • Samuel
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02 May 2024 15:00 #1298 by Samuel
No, probably not.
I'm assuming the Universal Polar Alignment System has a different ASCOM driver (if any at all) and/or communication protocol with the hardware.
But I'm sure it could be done if Avalon documents the communication protocol or provides an API in their driver/program through which the device can be controlled from another program.

If anybody has that device and wants to try implementing it, all that's required is implementing this interface github.com/TheCyberBrick/AutoPolarAlign/...larAlignmentMount.cs and then replace "StarGoMount" here github.com/TheCyberBrick/AutoPolarAlign/...ram.cs#L33C32-L33C43 with the new implementation.

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