Spurious error: Property write Tracking is not implemented in this driver

[Russell Croman]

Occasionally, seemingly randomly, I am seeing this error when Scheduler tries to initiate the first autofocus of the night. It causes a dead scheduler, so I have to really watch at the beginning of the night to make sure observing starts as planned.

If I disconnect the telescope in ACP and then go to the ASCOM configuration (TheSky driver), the "can set tracking" box is checked. Simply reconnecting the telescope to ACP and then enabling Scheduler again results in autofocus and observing starting normally, having changed nothing in the driver setup.

I searched other threads, and there were suggestions that running a TPoint model would cause this error on a subsequent Scheduler run. I've not run a TPoint model in months. This was on a "fresh" start of all apps (ACP 8.3.0.1, Scheduler 8.3.2, TheSkyX 10.5.0, MaxIm 6.23, and FocusMax 4.1.0.100), i.e., these apps weren't left running from the previous night.

I'm not sure if this is a Scheduler, ACP, or ASCOM bug, but it's a bug. I haven't spotted the pattern yet of when this bug will occur vs. when it will not. I'm sure there's a deterministic cause, but it seems completely random at the moment.

Log attached.

-Russ

[Bob Denny]

Occasionally, seemingly randomly, I am seeing this error when Scheduler tries to initiate the first autofocus of the night. It causes a dead scheduler, so I have to really watch at the beginning of the night to make sure observing starts as planned.

Yes, this is a serious hardware error, and the Scheduler will stop because it tried to send an autofocus job (the AutoFocusScheduler script) to ACP. If ACP can't control tracking the system is unable to observe. You should get an Operator Intervention state.

I'm not sure if this is a Scheduler, ACP, or ASCOM bug, but it's a bug.

It's none of the above. It is TheSky (via the Bisque-supplied ASCOM driver) telling me that it can't change the state of sidereal tracking, and I expect it to be able to. The message is coming from within the Bisque driver itself in response to my trying to turn on sidereal tracking.

01:53:32 Source: ASCOM.SoftwareBisque.Telescope
01:53:32 Message: Property write Tracking is not implemented in this driver.


As you can see in the traceback, the message is a result of ACP trying to set the tracking of the mount on or off. It sets it to off when it starts up or ends a run, and on at the beginning of a run, and in this case it is turning tracking on before starting FocusMax/AcquireStar (tracking must be on before calling FocusMax for that)

Scheduler has no clue about any of this... it just sends observing requests to ACP, which is responsible for executing the instructions in the request. ASCOM is a set of universal interface specifications. The ASCOM Platform is a set of libraries and tools used primarily by driver writers, and some are included in various drivers (the interface assemblies, etc). All of the work to convert from the device internal logic to the universal standard ASCOM functions/methods and variables/properties is the responsibility of the driver. In this case the driver is the ASCOM 2X Mount Adaptor. It might be good to check that you have the latest version and that your copy of TheSKy is up to date (I had to say this, worry :-(( ).

I wish I could offer clues, but in the past (as you noted), this happened when T-Point models were run, but in those cases that "can set tracking" checkbox had been turned off by TheSky for some reason.

[Colin Haig]

This was on a "fresh" start of all apps (ACP 8.3.0.1, Scheduler 8.3.2, TheSkyX 10.5.0, MaxIm 6.23, and FocusMax 4.1.0.100), i.e., these apps weren't left running from the previous night.

Do you know the Daily Build number for TheSky X ? eg version 10.5.0 daily build 12545 ?

[Bob Denny]

Do you know the Daily Build number for TheSky X ? eg version 10.5.0 daily build 12545 ?

That's what I have. I looked and it appears that they have not released a subsequent one, but of course SB is the definitive source. They are also the definitive source on why the system is reporting that it can control tracking (Telescope.CanSetTracking) yet it reports that it cannot when you actually try (Telescope.Tracking = xxx).