v3.3.0.0

MLAstroRPA v3.3.0.0

Auto polar alignment over the NINA message broker: the MLAstro controller becomes an alignment system of TPPA, and the operator keeps a confirmation dialog in front of every take-over.

Requires the MLAstro device firmware 1.2.0 or newer. The broker features need a TPPA build that contains the bridge (the current PR build).

Republished 2026-10-22: same plugin code, fresh build of 3.3.0.0 — the package now ships NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll 2.2.8.0, built from the TPPA master that contains the merged bridge work, so the MSI and the TPPA plugin are on the same version again. The MSI build also stages both dlls itself now, so the package can no longer carry a stale or Debug copy (see the previous republish note of 2026-10-14 for the three fixes that came in earlier).

✨ Highlights

• Auto polar alignment over the broker: TPPA hands the correction over to the MLAstro controller, which drives the axes with its own strategy while TPPA keeps measuring (no computer at the telescope needed once the run is going).
• The controller is chosen by the operator: it appears in TPPA's alignment system list and nothing is connected on its own; one controller owns a run, and later announcements can no longer take it over.
• The controller and its hardware have to be ready before TPPA captures the three reference frames, and a run that never gets there ends with one clear error instead of frames that cannot be trusted.
• "Auto pause TPPA after solved three point" (SOFTWARE SETTING, on by default): the run is held right before the first correction move and a toast says that RESUME starts the correction, so the measured result and the setup can be checked before the motors start; a result that is already inside the tolerance is finished by TPPA without any pause.
• Taking the axes over asks first: the confirmation dialog shows the live controller state (STATUS, link, both axis angles in degrees), offers Stop the axes and continue / Skip, and closes itself when the travel ends by itself or its readiness window is over.
• Switching the broker off says goodbye, so TPPA drops the controller from its list at once instead of after the timeout.

🔧 Fixed

• A firmware link that is lost while TPPA is still measuring its three reference frames cancels the run instead of being ignored: the plugin remembers a link that came up inside the broker's connection ladder, so the first loss no longer makes the next one look like a link that never existed.
• A firmware link that is lost after the axes were handed over ends the run with a fault instead of answering measurements from a dead link, so a pulled cable or a closed connection cancels the run instead of leaving it waiting until the operator stops it by hand.
• A broker message that TPPA addresses to another controller is dropped, so two MLAstro builds (this plugin and a test build, each with its own GUID) can listen on the same topic while only the selected one drives its own hardware.
• A pause that arrived while the controller was answering no longer leaves the run waiting for a resume only the controller could send.
• Every measurement waits for its own answer, so the correction no longer captures on with the first answer of the run.
• A run publishes its session id when it opens, so a controller no longer ignores the readiness of the new run.
• Readiness reports the real state of the axes, so a travel that finished while the operator was deciding is handed over as ready at once.
• A failed readiness gate reports a single error instead of two, and the Debug build no longer closes NINA.

⚠️ Notes

• Windows 10/11 with NINA 3.x; install the MSI over the previous version, settings and profiles are kept.
• Without the TPPA bridge build the plugin works exactly as before (manual control, assist, hardware settings); the automatic mode simply cannot be selected.
• The MLAstro firmware link (COM or Wi-Fi) must be up before an automatic run starts; the dialog and the readiness check take care of the rest.
• With the hold on, the correction waits for RESUME in TPPA; turn it off when a run has to correct without stopping.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.3.0.0.msi — installer for NINA (SHA256: 4ECA7B11494F4F7631D0311EA0394BA5590D0F6F4432CBB7C772109B87A1A7B0)
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — manual update of the plugin dll (3.3.0.0)
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — the TPPA bridge dll that goes with this plugin (2.2.8.0)

Details: Changelog.md, section ## 3.3.0.0.

v3.2.0.0

MLAstroRPA plugin 3.2.0.0

N.I.N.A. plugin for the MLAstro Robotic Polar Alignment hardware controller.

✨ Highlights

• mDNS Name in NETWORK CONFIG — a new group box renames the controller (the .local tail follows the typed name). The name is sent to the device on SAVE ALL & REBOOT over Serial (MDns:) and over the wireless link (mdns_name) and read back from the telemetry, so the plugin can rename the device exactly like the Web UI does.
• Hide polling telemetry on terminal — the CONNECTION tab can drop the ? poll and the telemetry line it answers with; the real commands and their replies stay visible.
• The terminal logs whole lines — a telemetry frame longer than one COM read is shown as one complete line instead of two cut chunks.

🔧 Changes

• The handshake timeout is fixed at 300 ms (the input box is gone) and a failed handshake is reported as Handshake: TIME OUT.
• The connection / handshake status lines are coloured by what they say: green for connected or handshake OK, orange for disconnected, red for a connect failure or a handshake time out.
• HARDWARE SETTING: one title size for every section and sub-section, the sub-sections (AZ/ALT Limits, AZ/ALT Motor, mDNS Name, Access Point, Station Mode) are group boxes, and the Configuration Management buttons sit on one row at their natural width.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.2.0.0.msi — installer: the plugin 3.2.0.0 plus the bundled TPPA DLL
  SHA256: 1887CF819E99055167CC8D132FA6FFC0A4F76BB20EEFBBBB24C0D54F0DACBDF6
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — plugin 3.2.0.0 only
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — the TPPA build bundled with this release

🛠 Install

• Close N.I.N.A., run the MSI (it installs the plugin and its TPPA companion), or copy the DLLs into
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\Plugins\3.0.0\MLAstroRPA\ and ...\Three Point Polar Alignment\.

⚠️ Notes

• The mDNS name needs firmware 1.11.0 or newer over Serial (MDns:) and 1.10.0 or newer over Wireless (mdns_name).
• The bundled TPPA DLL still reports version 2.2.8.0 (same number as the previous build).

v3.1.3.0

MLAstroRPA plugin 3.1.3.0

N.I.N.A. plugin for the MLAstro Robotic Polar Alignment hardware controller.

✨ Highlights

• Vector link icons with a live signal grade — the AP and STA icons in the header bar are drawn as vector shapes in the web UI style instead of emoji, and the STA bars follow the real RSSI over Wireless or over a Serial cable.
• The dock arrow buttons stay locked while a step is travelling — a relative move started from the dock holds the four buttons until the firmware reports the motion ended; a step that never reports motion unlocks after a short grace, with a 10 minute safety net.
• The Connect button is locked while the address is resolved — Connect is disabled for the mDNS/DNS resolve window and released again as soon as the resolve succeeds or fails, so a second click cannot start another attempt on top of it.
• SAVE / FALLBACK the aligned position from the dock — the Polar Alignment section gets the two buttons with the same names as the Web UI (one row with ALIGN ALL, same size): over Serial they send SvPA / FbPA, over the wireless link they are translated into saveAlignedPosition / fallbackAlignedPosition.

🔧 Fixes

• The System log panel no longer stays frozen at the lines of the first load: switching tabs dropped the collection handler without clearing the already-bound marker, so new lines and Clear had no visible effect.
• The wireless RSSI reaches the dock as the WRs token and a missing reading is told apart from 0 dBm, so the signal bars grade the same over Wireless and Serial.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.1.3.0.msi — installer: the plugin 3.1.3.0 plus the bundled TPPA DLL rebuilt from the current TPPA sources
  SHA256: 3A04266AD4321028ED0D812AB4176265AD460C6CCA27C49B5D317E472FD64932
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — plugin 3.1.3.0 only
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — the TPPA build from the current TPPA sources

🛠 Install

• Close N.I.N.A., run the MSI (it installs the plugin and its TPPA companion), or copy the DLLs into
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\Plugins\3.0.0\MLAstroRPA\ and ...\Three Point Polar Alignment\.

⚠️ Notes

• The signal bars need firmware 1.9.0 or newer (it is the release that reports the RSSI); on older firmware the bars simply stay unknown.
• The bundled TPPA DLL still reports version 2.2.8.0 (same number as the previous build) but is rebuilt from the current TPPA sources.
• No firmware update is required for the rest of this release.

v3.1.2.0

MLAstroRPA plugin 3.1.2.0

N.I.N.A. plugin for the MLAstro Robotic Polar Alignment hardware controller.

✨ Highlights

• The settle time is now waited on the TPPA side — the automated-adjustment settle time is sent along with the measurement request, so the wait shows up in the TPPA status bar as "Settling" exactly like the adjustment systems TPPA drives on its own, instead of a text this plugin's own status line could not keep.
• A confirmed axis is no longer cancelled as a wrong direction — an error that keeps growing on the reference side only warns while the correction goes on, and the session is stopped after three growing measurements in a row with a note that states what was measured; the wrong-direction verdict is left to an axis that is still probing its direction.
• A held axis is not judged on growth — an axis that the previous step did not command (kept inside the tolerance, or a verify-only measurement) can no longer be reported as a wrong correction direction when the error moves with the sky, the mount or the tripod.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.1.2.0.msi — installer: the plugin 3.1.2.0 plus the bundled TPPA DLL rebuilt from the current TPPA sources (it honours the settle time the controller asks for)
  SHA256: 1DD7839A01EB426CBF1EFC3B891423FD6B1A2BD5363E79AD7BF8AAF5F1E950B2
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — plugin 3.1.2.0 only
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — the TPPA build that waits the requested settle time before capturing

🛠 Install

• Close N.I.N.A., run the MSI (it installs the plugin and its TPPA companion), or copy the DLLs into
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\Plugins\3.0.0\MLAstroRPA\ and ...\Three Point Polar Alignment\.

⚠️ Notes

• The bundled TPPA DLL reports version 2.2.8.0 (same number as the previous build) but is rebuilt from the
  current TPPA sources, so it includes the SettleSeconds support the plugin now relies on.
• No firmware update is required for this release.

v3.1.1.0

MLAstroRPA v3.1.1.0

Makes the Three Point Polar Alignment correction safer and more predictable: the controller reports its hardware readiness before TPPA hands the run over, cancels the session when the firmware reports a fault (with the manual recovery steps when a soft limit is the only problem), holds an axis that is already inside the tolerance, and decides a wrong correction direction from the sign of the error. The installer still sets up MLAstroRPA 3.1.1.0 and Three Point Polar Alignment 2.2.8.0 side by side.

No firmware update required — works with the current MLAstro RPA controller firmware, over the cable or the WebSocket link.

✨ Highlights

• Readiness before the hand-over — the controller announces on every ControllerReady whether the hardware link is up and whether the axes are idle, so TPPA only takes the run over when the controller can really drive it: a controller that is merely busy pauses the run, one that cannot connect stops it with the reason it reported.
• A firmware fault cancels the run — a driver error or warning during a TPPA session now publishes Cancel with every code of the same incident in one note (the codes are collected for ~1 s), instead of letting TPPA keep measuring on hardware that reported a problem.
• Soft-limit recovery steps in the note — when a soft limit is the only active problem, the note TPPA shows carries the manual procedure: press RETURN TO HOME, turn the tripod base by hand while PA keeps measuring, then assign MLAstro again.
• An axis inside the tolerance is held — the correction no longer nudges an axis that has already reached the tolerance: it is commanded with a zero magnitude (its stored error stays untouched) while the other axis keeps correcting, and the move is always sent as ONE dual-axis ALIGN command.
• Wrong-direction verdict by sign — the verdict now reads the sign of the error against the same reference the reference sweep produced, instead of the measurement before it: a move that crosses the target comes back with the opposite sign and confirms the direction, while a move that runs the wrong way keeps the sweep sign and grows on that side; a single noisy sample can no longer flip or cancel a direction that is improving.
• STOP before the hand-over is ignored — STOP / FORCE STOP on the dock no longer cancels a TPPA run while the three reference points are still being measured (nothing has been handed over yet); from the hand-over on, cancelling works as before.
• Automated adjustment settle time — new SOFTWARE SETTING: the bridge waits N s after every correction move before it asks TPPA for the next measurement (0 = measure straight away), for axes that still settle after the firmware reports the move as completed.
• Auto-connect after the sweep — when TPPA reports the reference points finished while the hardware link is down, the controller tries the selected transport and the other one once as a fallback, then reports readiness or a fault.

🔧 Fixed

• A TPPA session is no longer cancelled as "firmware link lost" when the link was never up: the abort needs a real connected-to-lost transition.
• The hardware link is looked for once per session, so a failed connect no longer restarts the COM-port scan on every heartbeat.

⚠️ Notes

• Requires N.I.N.A. 3.1.2.9001 or newer; the package installs both plugins per-user, so close N.I.N.A. before installing.
• The installer ships Three Point Polar Alignment 2.2.8.0, unchanged from v3.1.0.0.
• Manual update: copy NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll into ...\3.0.0\MLAstroRPA\ and NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll into ...\3.0.0\Three Point Polar Alignment\. Do not put them into the MLAstroRPA+TPPA folder.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.1.1.0.msi — installer that sets up both plugins (SHA256: 31051df050b6880dd9722f51fb8b41cdc269ab16c4337b539b9ba23e0123831c)
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — MLAstroRPA plugin v3.1.1.0, manual update (SHA256: 672085d57f1fb401fdd89299d9f83e4bb91bddeeb94132ae726874f43053eec7)
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — Three Point Polar Alignment plugin v2.2.8.0, manual update (SHA256: 0459e11c8c3f2a0ff6527e84c59315c71c7ac8eacf457d389d1c4ae7cfbf3623)

Details: Changelog.md, section ## 3.1.1.0.

v3.1.0.0

MLAstroRPA v3.1.0.0

Adds COM-port auto scanning to the CONNECTION tab, so the MLAstro controller is found and connected with one button instead of picking a port by hand. The installer still sets up MLAstroRPA 3.1.0.0 and Three Point Polar Alignment 2.2.8.0 side by side.

No firmware update required — works with the current MLAstro RPA controller firmware, over the cable or the WebSocket link.

✨ Highlights

• Auto scan COM port — new toggle on the CONNECTION tab: with it ON the COM-port list is replaced by a Start button that probes every COM port for the controller (same [MLAstroRPA-TC] handshake Three Point Polar Alignment uses), picks the port that answers and connects to it; the button turns into Disconnect once the session is up.
• Reset ESP32 only while connected — the button stays hidden until the plugin is really talking to the device, on Serial or Wireless.
• One installer, two plugins — MLAstroRPA 3.1.0.0 and Three Point Polar Alignment 2.2.8.0 are installed side by side under %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\Plugins\3.0.0\.

⚠️ Notes

• Requires N.I.N.A. 3.1.2.9001 or newer; the package installs both plugins per-user, so close N.I.N.A. before installing.
• The auto-scan toggle is remembered in the profile. Turn it off to pick a COM port by hand, for example when the controller is on a virtual or Bluetooth port that must not be probed.
• Manual update: copy NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll into ...\3.0.0\MLAstroRPA\ and NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll into ...\3.0.0\Three Point Polar Alignment\.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.1.0.0.msi — installer that sets up both plugins (SHA256: 79f99ebb0ed13ce6f77e88a2370607e7bc196d400e15c10fb53d51f4a229cdd1)
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — MLAstroRPA plugin v3.1.0.0, manual update (SHA256: 0a5735a21871fa506f2b39c7b66a5f01b7138e636ac47c3eda9ea31420f23b25)
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — Three Point Polar Alignment plugin v2.2.8.0, manual update (SHA256: 0459e11c8c3f2a0ff6527e84c59315c71c7ac8eacf457d389d1c4ae7cfbf3623)

Details: Changelog.md, section ## 3.1.0.0.

v3.0.0.0

MLAstroRPA v3.0.0.0

First standalone release of the MLAstroRPA plugin: it controls the MLAstro Robotic Polar Alignment hardware from N.I.N.A. over USB serial or Wi-Fi, and the same installer also sets up the Three Point Polar Alignment plugin that drives the correction over the NINA message broker.

No firmware update required — works with the current MLAstro RPA controller firmware, over the cable or the WebSocket link.

✨ Highlights

• One installer, two plugins — sets up MLAstroRPA 3.0.0.0 and Three Point Polar Alignment 2.2.8.0 side by side under %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\Plugins\3.0.0\.
• Runs the correction for Three Point Polar Alignment — measurements, axis moves, capture windows, pause, stop and cancel all go through the message broker.
• Installs next to MLAstroRPA+TPPA — own PluginId, MSI UpgradeCode, namespaces and resource keys, so the MLAstroRPA plugin and the merged MLAstroRPA+TPPA plugin can be installed at the same time without one overriding the other's pages.
• Options tabs are now CONTROL / HARDWARE SETTING / SOFTWARE SETTING / CONNECTION.
• Broker log carries a direction — RPA -> TPPA (sent) or TPPA -> RPA (received), with a colour legend.

🔧 Fixed

• STOP / FORCE STOP stops the axes before the session is cancelled, exactly once, and the aborted move is no longer reported as a hardware fault.
• A pause no longer lets a planned move start.
• Losing the firmware link (serial or wireless) cancels the TPPA session instead of leaving it waiting.
• Polled telemetry no longer overwrites the azimuth/altitude inputs while they are being edited.
• Commands dropped because the link is not connected are logged instead of failing silently.

⚠️ Notes

• Requires N.I.N.A. 3.1.2.9001 or newer; the package installs both plugins per-user, so close N.I.N.A. before installing.
• Settings start from defaults: the plugin has a new identity, so the COM port, the correction options and the TPPA assignment have to be set again after the upgrade.
• If the merged MLAstroRPA+TPPA plugin is installed, remove it first - the TPPA wizard would otherwise be installed twice.
• Manual update: copy NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll into ...\3.0.0\MLAstroRPA\ and NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll into ...\3.0.0\Three Point Polar Alignment\. Do not put them into the MLAstroRPA+TPPA folder.

📦 Assets

• MLAstroRPA_Plugin_3.0.0.0.msi — installer that sets up both plugins (SHA256: 3153d172c158192ccdfc8d4ae7c3bb423c5595b51e47a2c4bd0f39641eae0c3a)
• NINA.Plugins.MLAstroRPA.dll — MLAstroRPA plugin v3.0.0.0, manual update (SHA256: 4e0f9c62bd6cd2e7150c0bcf39d7e5a363b1a08d4de422a812ee2a26ba032594)
• NINA.Plugins.PolarAlignment.dll — Three Point Polar Alignment plugin v2.2.8.0, manual update (SHA256: 0459e11c8c3f2a0ff6527e84c59315c71c7ac8eacf457d389d1c4ae7cfbf3623)

Details: Changelog.md, section ## 3.0.0.0.