Lesve Dome Closing - Dome did not close and error message

[Bob Denny]

When I open or close the shutter using "ACP Dome control", it all works fine. I can just click "close" in any azimuth position, the dome homes and the shutter is closed. No errors are displayed.

The Dome Control panel simply calls Dome.Park and doesn't look at the status indications coming back from the controller.

You would not want to repeatedly call FindHome() like that. If you handle dome closing in your ACP Weather script like that, instead of using the built in "close and home when scope is parked by Script" (which should be OFF in this case), you could just call Dome.CloseShutter() which just calls the driver (if you have a "safe" roof/dome). I believe Lesve will home first to get power then close. Then the unusual status indications would be ignored. ALso you know for your observatory that Scope CLears Closed Dome (!!), so your ACP Weather script could be as simple as:

Sub Main()
    Dome.CloseShutter
    Telescope.Park
End Sub

The only thing is that you won't know if the dome really closed because you would be ignoring the ShutterStatus due to the erroneous info. But what would you do if it failed to close anyway?

[Albert van Duin]

Thanks Bob,
Your'e right, a simple script is best.

Sub Main()    Console.PrintLine "Weather Alert... script initiated"
    Console.PrintLine "Closing roof/shutter."
    Dome.CloseShutter
    If Telescope.Connected Then
        Console.PrintLine "...scope is connected, parking now"
        Telescope.Park     ' Default setting in ACP, this parks and closes the dome/roof in that order
        Console.PrintLine "...scope is parked"
    End If
    Console.PrintLine "Weather Safety...script completed successfully"
End Sub

When I use the above script I get:

Weather Alert... script initiated
Closing roof/shutter.
...scope is connected, parking now
...scope is parked
Weather Safety...script completed successfully

I think that's the best I can ask for now. Thanks again.

Since there is no readable limit switch, I can never be absolutely shure the shutter is really closed, I will have to trust the system or make an independent alarm.
Maybe something with a retro reflector on the shutter and a photo-electric sensor that checks if the shutter is closed.

[Bob Denny]

Ah excellent!! Another dome control issue solved :-) :-)

[Colin Haig]

Bob, how much work is it to write something like an ASCOM dome / ROR driver? Like days or weeks? Am wondering if I should tackle a bunch of ASCOM development.

[Bob Denny]

I don't know how to answer that. It depends so heavily on the electronics (control "board") and the electromechanical design (sensors, motors), not to mention the communication which IMO should never be USB but instead Ethernet/WiFi ha ha ha. Start here at the ASCOM Developer's Page for driver dev info.

[Albert van Duin]

Hi Colin,

I asked Pierre, who created LesveDome, and he gave the following advice:

Hi Albert,

While the dome is moving to Home position for closing the shutter, LesveDomeNet normally replies "shutterClosing" to the inquiry "Shutter Status Property".

I reviewed the code part for shutter closing and I don't see why it should reply in the way described by Bob Denny.
To untangle the problem, I suggest you to use POTH between ACP and LesveDomeNet. In POTH you connect to LesveDomeNet and in ACP you choose POTH as dome.
In POTH you have a button "Traffic" which opens a window showing the traffic received by POTH from other application.
Analyzing this traffic we could see what happening when ACP is closing the shutter.

I didn't have the time yet to try this myself, but I thought I'd let you know.

[Bob Denny]

OK, good news. Pierre is correct in what he says should happen (DomeClosing while closing) and ACP expects this. Let us know what's actually happening.