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AAPA 0.9.0-beta.1

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@github-actions github-actions released this 29 Jul 04:01
v0.9.0-beta.1
bc7659c

⚠ Beta — read this first

This is a pre-release. The plugin and firmware have been verified offline
(compiler, four self-test suites, and OAPA protocol conformance against the
emulator) and the plugin has been exercised inside a live N.I.N.A., but the
on-sky bring-up is not finished.

Three of the plugin's four components command your mount and the AAPA
motors. Work through nina-plugin/TESTING.md
against the telescope/camera simulators and the OAPA emulator first, then the
stages in docs/bringup-runbook.md.
Supervise the first real run — keep a hand on the power.

Please report anything odd as a GitHub issue,
including your N.I.N.A. version and the AAPA log lines around the problem.

Downloads

Bundle What it is Install
AAPA-nina-plugin-v0.9.0-beta.1.zip N.I.N.A. plugin Unzip into %LOCALAPPDATA%\NINA\Plugins\3.0.0\, restart N.I.N.A., enable AAPA Polar Alignment.
AAPA-firmware-v0.9.0-beta.1.zip ESP32 firmware Both sketches (source) + flashing and wiring docs. Flash AAPA_for_software for OAPA/N.I.N.A.
AAPA-desktop-and-tools-v0.9.0-beta.1.zip Desktop app + tools Astro Commander, the OAPA emulator and the ATPPA tools. pip3 install -r software/requirements.txt

SHA256SUMS.txt covers all three. Verify with Get-FileHash <file> -Algorithm SHA256 (PowerShell) or sha256sum -c (Linux/macOS).

What's in it

First public beta. Pre-1.0 on purpose: everything below is verified offline and
in a live N.I.N.A., but the on-sky bring-up is not finished. 1.0.0 is reserved
for the first release that has actually aligned a mount.

Added

  • N.I.N.A. TPPA "OAPA" compatibility layer in the USB firmware
    (firmware/AAPA_for_software/AAPA_for_software.ino):
    the board now answers a GRBL-style subset (?, $J=G91G21…, $J=G53…,
    XC/YC/XH/YH) so TPPA can drive it automatically with no custom plugin.
    The native protocol and platedual.py are unaffected.

  • OAPA device emulator (tools/aapa_oapa_emulator.py)
    — a virtual AAPA board (with a built-in --selftest and fault-injection flags)
    for testing NINA/TPPA and platedual.py without hardware.

  • N.I.N.A. plugin (nina-plugin/, .NET 8 / WPF, assembly
    AapaVisualizer) exporting four components:

    • ATPPA: Auto Polar Align — an Advanced-Sequencer instruction running the
      full hands-off loop (plan safe targets → gated slew → plate-solve →
      circle-fit the polar error → correct via OAPA → iterate) under a safety
      supervisor. Works with the pole out of view; refuses to cross the
      meridian or go below an altitude floor. A Layer 0 pre-flight refuses to
      start at all unless the base is homed inside valid soft limits, the site
      latitude is set, and the mount is connected, unparked and reporting a known
      side of the meridian. Target planning honours the custom horizon from the
      NINA profile      , so it plans around your real skyline rather than a flat
      altitude floor — the horizon can only ever raise the floor, never lower it.
      Reverse alt / Reverse az settings handle an axis that moves the sky the
      opposite way (a negative Steps/° is rejected — it inverted the travel
      clamp). A Dry run mode drives the real motor from a simulated sky, with
      no camera or scope.
    • Auto Polar Align panel — the same loop outside a sequence, with a live
      error readout, phase tracker, and converging reticle.
    • AAPA Control panel — manual connect, :HOMEY/:RESETY re-homing, and
      alt/az jogging of the base.

    Both motor-driving panels pick the serial port from a dropdown of the ports
    currently present, and still accept a typed port (e.g. one end of a com0com pair).

    • AAPA Visualizer panel — read-only WebView2 visualizer (3D sphere,
      bullseye, error decay); in Live mode it tails TPPA's log.

  • ATPPA design + reference implementation: docs/atppa-design.md,
    tools/atppa_safety_core.py (--selftest 30/30) and
    tools/atppa_orchestrator.py (--selftest 37/37,
    driving the real emulator over OAPA with fault injection).

  • Test harness nina-plugin/AtppaCore.Tests
    (dependency-free, dotnet run → 56/56) plus the runtime test plan
    nina-plugin/TESTING.md and an offline interactive
    walkthrough at docs/live-test-walkthrough.html.

  • Dry run re-centres the base before starting, so repeated rehearsals no longer walk
    it into the travel limit, and the "travel exhausted" abort now says how to recover.

  • Polar error shown in degrees/arcminutes/arcseconds, as TPPA does, in the panel
    readout, the status bar, the log and the abort messages. Empty leading units are
    dropped, so a finished alignment reads 42.0″ rather than 0° 00′ 42″.

  • Wrong-way axis detection. A correction must move the measured error by the amount
    applied; if it moves the other way instead, the run aborts naming the reverse setting
    to change. Catches an inverted axis on the pass after the first real correction,
    instead of letting the loop diverge into the travel limit.

  • Progress in N.I.N.A.'s application status bar for the alignment loop, calibration
    and :HOMEY, so a run that takes minutes stays visible after switching tabs. One
    shared source, cleared on every exit path.

  • Panel settings persist in the active N.I.N.A. profile. COM port, Steps/° and
    the reverse flags are shared between both motor panels, so a calibration done in
    AAPA Control is immediately used by Auto Polar Align.

  • Per-axis Steps/° — altitude and azimuth are separate mechanisms and gear
    differently, so each is calibrated, stored and travel-clamped independently.

  • Offline plugin-wiring check (tools/check_plugin_wiring.py) — validates
    DataTemplate keys, {Binding} paths and XAML event handlers against the view
    models, catching first-load failures the compiler cannot see.

  • OAPA conformance tester (tools/aapa_oapa_emulator.py --conform COMx) — points
    TPPA's own client logic at real hardware and reports whether N.I.N.A. would detect
    and drive it: 300 ms scan-timeout detection, status framing, the two-line ? reply,
    stray chatter, jog completion and the stuck watchdog. --move adds motion. Works for
    any board adapting a mount to OAPA, not just AAPA.

  • Automatic Steps/° calibration in the AAPA Control panel — probes an axis in
    machine microsteps, correlates the travel against TPPA's reported alignment error,
    and fits the gear ratio and axis direction by least squares. TPPA's own learned
    response is private and not persisted, so it cannot be reused; this measures the
    same thing from the outside.

  • Bring-up runbook (docs/bringup-runbook.md) — the
    bench-to-calibrated-base procedure, including measuring axis direction and the
    gear ratio without needing sky.

  • Tagged releases — pushing a vX.Y.Z[-beta.N] tag runs every suite, builds
    the plugin, packages three download bundles (plugin / firmware / desktop+tools)
    with checksums, and publishes a GitHub Release, marked pre-release when the
    tag has a suffix (.github/workflows/release.yml,
    procedure in docs/releasing.md). The plugin's assembly
    version is stamped from the tag, so no version-bump commits.

  • Documentation set under docs/ and this changelog.

Changed

  • Reorganized the repository into firmware/, software/, tools/, and docs/.
    Firmware sketches now live in folders matching their .ino name (Arduino IDE
    requirement). requirements.txt moved to software/.

Documentation

Created by Astrophilos — https://www.youtube.com/@Astro-philos. The mechanical design (CAD) is available from the maker at https://astrophiloslab.com/aapa. MIT licensed.

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