AstroHaven Control

[Dick Berg]

Hi Bob,


Anticipating that someday I'll be able to get my AstroHaven dome to respond automatically to weather events, in the meantime I've been running the ClarityII sensor and examining and comparing the BoltwoodFileTrace.log and corresponding BoltwoodFile.wsc code file (in your Weather Components folder), trying to tune the reported conditions to the actual conditions. I have a few questions and comments.


I've attached five images: the Clarity app view, an ACP console view alerting a Very Windy condition, a snippet of the BoltwoodFile.wsc code, a portion of the trace log, and the whole trace log file corresponding (at the end) to this same alert.


- Last, first. In the code file, I see at lines 635-638 the flags corresponding to clouds, wind, rain and daylight. These are parsed as bits(15-18). They are interpreted in the software correctly corrsponding to the Boltwood app. But up at line 605 the alert condition is bits(20) and not bits(19). Bits(19) would be the fifth number following the other four. This seems to be working correctly, too, so I'm don't know where my thinking has gone. I just wanted to point this out.


- Near the top of the BoltwoodFile.wsc file, not shown here, is it necessary to keep DIAG_TRACE set to True? This has been helpful for setting up the initial conditions to provide alerts matching the real world, but when that's all sync'd up, can this trace file be disabled?


- At line 206, in the SetupDialog(), the log file could be going to a Boltwood Systems folder in C/Program Files. In my setup the Boltwood software is installed in Program Files (x86). In any case wouldn't it be better for this to be in a location outside of the "system" folder structure (for example, in to DocRoots)? Just a thought.


- When you issue an upgrade to ACP, are the Weather Component files typically rewritten, even if they've not been changed? I want to remove the conversion from Farenheit to Celsius and mph to kts. Personal preference. Wouldn't every Clarity user (other sensors too) set up the speed and temperature units to suit themselves - why do any conversion in the code at all? There is the "kt" in the SystemStatus weather annunciator, though...


Thanks for considering all this. There's no big impact - I was just curious.

[Bob Denny]

Actually, if you have a newer Boltwood and the latest Boltwood Clarity software, the ACP weather server pays no attention to the weather/temperature info, it only looks at the last field, the alert bit. This makes it much more convenient. Whatever you have set up in Clarity is what determines weather safe/unsafe in ACP Expert. All of that code you see is for the old Boltwood I and earlier clarity which didn't include the "alert" as part of its telemetry. Believe it or not I still have customers with that old stuff.

[Dick Berg]

Yes, it's the alert that matters. Are you saying that the BoltwoodFile.wsc isn't used at all?

[Bob Denny]

No the BoltwoodFile is the preferred weather server for ACP. I think we have a communication problem. I will call....

[Bob Denny]

I tried the -3327 number. I did not leave voice mail. Sorry I missed you.

[Dick Berg]

Hi Bob, I have a new cell phone number with a 607 area code, and no land line anymore. -3327 is no longer mine. Did it ask to leave a voice mail? I sent you an email on April 24th, after NEAF, with the new number. I just resent that same one to you.

I'm not sure what we'll talk about. The real problem I'm trying to get around is that I have no working ASCOM driver for the AstroHaven dome. Do others who have these domes and use ACP have homebrew drivers? I can open and close the dome via a serial port and a "terminal" program, but not otherwise. So in ACP preferences when I enable, for example, Meunier's ASCOM driver for the dome, and then connect the telescope, the dome does nothing. (In preferences "Automatically open dome on first connect" is checked.) If I then open the Dome panel in the console, I can press "open" but nothing happens. I think it's clear that AstroHaven changed their protocol since the Meunier driver was written.

I just don't know how to get past this. I have to open and close the dome manually. And that's not a problem except I do want rely on the weather alerts to open and close the dome. Which is why I was poring over the Boltwood file!

Maybe I *am* very confused about how this is supposed to work.

[Bob Denny]

I got 'hold of you a bit ago and we'll talk next week I think!

I'm not sure what we'll talk about. The real problem I'm trying to get around is that I have no working ASCOM driver for the AstroHaven dome.

This is something I have no info on. I don't know anything about AstroHaven, and I don't know how people get them to work with ACP I'm sorry to say. However I do know the guy who set up the Great Basin Observatory and the College of the Desert, both of which have giant AstroHaven domes. I will contact him and see how he did it. Personally I think it's strange that you can't call AstroHaven and get an answer but I have beaten that one to death with the people there.

My reason to talk to you was relating to the Boltwood weather and how to set it up for safe/unsafe. Do you still need help with that?

[Dick Berg]

Bob, I am still planning to call you Monday morning your time. I would also like to talk with your contact(s) at GBO and College of the Desert, if you can put me in touch.

James McCormac is another person I'd like to talk to, based on his discussion in this thread beginning last July: http://forums.dc3.com/showthread.php...roblem&p=65451 He struggled with the ASCOM AstroHaven driver. He also talked at the end of the thread about his own design using an Arduino. I didn't get a response through the Comm Center.

This has strayed from the topic of "Weather," hasn't it.