Anyone know how to get Scheduler to connect to a Planewave L-mount and enable each axis? Seems to be no ASCOM option.
Thanks, Tom
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Anyone know how to get Scheduler to connect to a Planewave L-mount and enable each axis? Seems to be no ASCOM option.
Thanks, Tom
I’m unsure what you mean by enabling each axis. There are multiple people using the L-series mounts with ACP and other software through the Planewave ASCOM driver. Can you be a bit more specific about the issue you have?
Hi Bob,
In PWI4, you have to click "Connect", then "Enable" each axis. During Scheduler startup ACP will connect to the mount but it is connected in the park position and unusable until I physically click "Connect" and "Enable" each axis. There is no option in PWI4 to do this automatically. There is no options for the ASCOM driver either. Unless there is a way to get the startup script to do this some other way, I don't think it will work. Once this is done manually ACP/Scheduler work as usual. I would like to figure out how to get the startup script to do this, otherwise it will require nightly intervention.
Thanks, Tom
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Ok, thanks. It’s the first time I’ve been asked. Planewave is here at the conference so I asked them. They said to be sure you have the current version of the PWI software, but these guys aren’t really technical. Let me do some more research. I do know that setting up ACP for single-sync is all thats needed to get the Planewave scopes running at their highest accuracy. No need to use their initialization process. That part is documented in the Telescope Mount Specifics section of ACP Help.
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This is a delicate one... I retrieved the StartupObs from the Great Basin Observatory and grabbed the PWI startup scripting, but it appears to be for the CDK700 and PWI2. I could ask PlaneWave for startup instructions, but it would have far more more impact if you asked them since you are their customer. I have to assume that others have done this and that's the reason I haven't heard anything. Great Basin was the first 100% hands-off 24/7 observatory for PlaneWave and I recall there being some teething pains, but that was in 2017. Maybe this startup code is an old fossil that should be updated to match the current capabilities of PWI. I just don't know.
I spent some time chatting with PlaneWave president Rick Hedrick last week after I wrote my previous response here. It was on a different topic and I didn't think it would be proper or productive to pop a tech support question to him. I will be talking with the PWI software developer hopefully soon and I can follow up and ask for general guidance. Still a pointed request from a PlaneWave customer will help them realize that it is an issue, and you'll likely get your answer much more quickly then waiting for me to get an appointment set up with their developer (it's for ASCOM Alpaca).
I hope you understand....
Update: I exchanged emails with Planewave's PWI developer. He says that they have not completed the logic for scripted startup in PWI 4 which is used for the L-Series and the CDK 1000. The CDK 700 logic I got from Great Basin is for PWI 2, and also out of date and not applicable to the CDK 1000 or L Series. He will let me know when scripted startup is supported for the L-Series. I hope it's soon. I wish I had better news.
Ok thanks Bob. I've reached out to Planewave as well. Hopefully there will be a fix soon. Until then, not much use for Scheduler. I was surprised by this as I thought there were at least a fair number of people out there successfully using the L-mounts with ACP Pro.
Thanks, Tom
I think they are just leaving the mount powered up and having the shutdown script just park it. If your environmental conditions (e.g.hellish desert heat) prevents this then you would still benefit from Scheduler by manually starting up PWI in the late afternoon and shutting it down in the morning before it gets too hot. It would still be able to pause during unsafe weather and resume later when the weather again becomes safe. The L-Series electronics and mechanicals are designed for observatory type environmental extremes. All electronics lasts longer by keeping power on, avoiding thermal cycles, and when parked the motors are in low-power state.
There has been some back-channel traffic between me and PlaneWave. Apparently they are in contact with you and working this out -- completing the PWI4 software so it can be scripted for startup. I'll close this ticket here since it's not really an ACP Expert issue.