ACP behaving strangely

[Johan Warell]

Hi,

I'm running v822 which is not behaving as I expected.

Prevously I had a very strange Run-time error which appeared after object centering and plate solve which caused ACP to crash, but which was not appearing after each solve. I checked and cleaned contacts and cables etc and I think I fixed this problem, perhaps it was due to unreliable RS232 connection to my LX200. Will keep eyes open if this happens again.

I know that for error solving you'd like me to switch on "Pop up message window on AcquireSupport errors" in the Debugging tab. When I do this, an error message box pops up: "Run-time error 70. Permission denied". Whn I click OK, ACP crashes. It can be restarted without problems.

My main problem is that my palns are not executing as I expect. I'm attaching a short test plan and run log. I would like to take 5 images of each target before switching. There are several strange things happening during execution. Pointing, plate solve and centering works well.

* ACP takes only one image of each target, then slews to the next target. The run log reports that 5 images should be taken of each target. I have tested with both #COUNT 5 and #REPEAT 5. Both commands takes only 1 image of each target, not 5, before switching target.
* The acquisition image shown on screen in MDL 6.20 is minute, not the 2x2 bin that is expected. The image displayed is only 128x96 pix and it has the corrrect name that ACP assigns. Attached (where I have addded the MINUTE suffix). When making a manual save of htis image, the directory C:\Users\Captain Picard\Documents\ACP Astronomy\Images\20191005 is opened (this is where I ask images to be saved in settings)
* Then another image of the same field with 2x2 binning pops up. These images have strange names always starting with "rad", eg. radBFADC. Attached. When making a manual save of this image, the directory C:\Users\Captain Picard\AppData\Local\Temp is opened.
* However, in my Image directory the 2x2 bin image is also saved as it should, with the expected name. Attached.
* There is also some kind of file saving error which is appearing regularly, the error message is:

"**Imaging error: Could Not Save File 'C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control\WebDocs\images\pvimage.png'
Could not create file %s"

I'm confused. Can you help me out?

Many thanks,

Johan

[Bob Denny]

Hello --

Don't worry about the flashing mages and the temporary names you see on MaxIm. It is part of the "cloud drive friendly" process where the image is created in a temporary file, then the plate is solved, other items are added to FITS, then it is closed, and renamed into its final place and name.

Each target is being abandoned before completion because the preview file couldn't be saved. It cannot be saved because it is being saved to the old (long ago abandoned) file location for web documents C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control\WebDocs\. How is this possible? You just installed 8.2.2 right? Or was this a re-install? But if you re-installed over a very old version, it would have remembered the free trial date from way back then and you would not be able to use it. Or did you change this setting yourself? THe highlighted field is the correct standard path. In any case Program Files is not right.

Snap1.jpg

I'm mystified.

This is the first mystery we need to solve because the repeat of 5 is failing due to the file mis-configuration.

[Johan Warell]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for helping me create this support account.

We had an email conversation which I attach as a text file and hope it will help to recap. I originally installed ACP 8.2.2. on a user account, but found out when trying to run it that it had to be installed on an admin account. So I uninstalled, reainstalled in the admin account. Then tehre was a registry problem you helped me fix. I also did a repair install at some point if I remember correctly. Perhaps something went wrong somewhere in the installation process.

I have not made any settings changes myself except for thise available in the ACP Preferences window. I can see the WebDocs directory so this directory exists with subdirs and files and all.

Can I change the directory link to the correct standard path, and if so how?

Best,

Johan

Hello --

Don't worry about the flashing mages and the temporary names you see on MaxIm. It is part of the "cloud drive friendly" process where the image is created in a temporary file, then the plate is solved, other items are added to FITS, then it is closed, and renamed into its final place and name.

Each target is being abandoned before completion because the preview file couldn't be saved. It cannot be saved because it is being saved to the old (long ago abandoned) file location for web documents C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control\WebDocs\. How is this possible? You just installed 8.2.2 right? Or was this a re-install? But if you re-installed over a very old version, it would have remembered the free trial date from way back then and you would not be able to use it. Or did you change this setting yourself? THe highlighted field is the correct standard path. In any case Program Files is not right.

Snap1.jpg

I'm mystified.

This is the first mystery we need to solve because the repeat of 5 is failing due to the file mis-configuration.

[Bob Denny]

Johan — The path you put into the web docs is protected by the operating system. So ACP cannot store files there. Use the screen shot I provided to put back the original path and try again. Also check the About menu to see if you actually did install 8.2.2. As far as I know there is nowhere in 8.2.2 that the path you have exists.

Can you tell me why you changed the path there? What are you trying to accomplish? Perhaps I can help.

Another thing — The Administrator versus User account is different from running software “as Administrator” versus not. ACP. Did you maybe try to run the installer “as administrator”? It always runs in this mode as an installer. ACP will refuse to run “as Administrator”, instead popping up a message and immediately exiting.

I suspect we are having a communication problem.

[Johan Warell]

Hi Bob,

Thanks Bob, I changed the paths and will try it out the next clear night. Honestly I don't remember if I tried to first install it "as Administrator" in my user account or not. I know that installation only worked in the Admin account. I did fiddle around a bit and my have caused these problems myself.

Attaching a pic of the About box. I have now acquired the Expert licence as I'm sure we'll get this to work.

[edit - unrelated topics moved to new thread ACP Functional Questions]

Best regards,

Johan

[Bob Denny]

Yes, I saw you acquired the license, thank you very much!!