Mount failed to flip based on its reported pier side info. Wrong Alt/Az reported pos

[Steve Reilly]

I've switch ota's back to the FSQ-106 and am using my STL-11000 camera. It's been piggybacked on the RC, I just moved the camera over to the FSQ. I've set ACP settings to reflect these changes and the images plate solve just fine. Last night was the first run in a good while and after some challenges I finally thought I had things worked out and went to bed with a plan running. It didn't take any images at that point. I've attached the last log which indicates a mount/driver issue which is something I've not seen before.

I also ran across an issue, or I think it is, of when I park the mount I don't get the proper readout of the mount's position. Regardless of how long I wait it remains the same. If I then unpark and slew to another target the mount essentially gets lost. If I correct this by parking the mount again and manually move the mount to the proper position I'm back in business as ACP does report the proper mount position. I've uploaded two screen shots showing this. The way around this I've found is to park the mount, check the Alt/Az reported position, if wrong but mount parked properly, disconnect mount in ACP and then reconnect. This shows the proper mount park position. I've noticed this on several occasions. ACP-Wrong-JustParked shows the mount several minutes after being parked. It is correctly parked at AP's Park 1 position but the Alt/Az is wrong. ACP-Wrongafterreconnect shows the mount after only disconnecting the mount from ACP without power cycling the mount. It's a simple Telescope|Disconnect and Telescope|Connect in ACP. Now it shows the proper mount Alt/Az. Any ideas where this is coming from. I am running an AP 1200w/CP3 with ASCOM AP driver V2 5.05.00. ACP version is 6 with Hotfix 4.

It seems that these may be two separate issues but I think maybe not. If the position is being reported wrong then it would also affect pier side reports. It just depends when this is actually happening. Any ideas? Anyone else seeing this?

Thanks,

[Steve Reilly]

It just dawned on me that I did not check to see what the driver was actually reading. Guess I need to be a bit shaper on that next time. Maybe it's in the driver log.

[Jim McMillan]

Hi Steve,

It seems that these may be two separate issues but I think maybe not. If the position is being reported wrong then it would also affect pier side reports.

I'd be almost 100% sure that you're right about this. The root issue is the park position.

I've still got the old v2 controller. I don't think I've ever seen this error myself, but once in a while my mount will get lost for no apparent reason, so I'm not 100% sure it hasn't happened to me. I'll keep a closer eye out on this.

I'd suggest contacting Ray Gralak (driver author) and see what he thinks.

Jim

[Steve Reilly]

Hey Jim,

Ray has the logs to work with and hopefully will find something. I'll post back with his suggestions and results.

Thanks,

[Steve Reilly]

I got a reply from Ray and it's pasted below.


Steve,

I got your logs. The ASCOM log file shows the mount parked ok:

009395 2012-06-26 22:21:53.862: Driver: Info : CommandBlindTX=':KA#'
009396 2012-06-26 22:21:53.885: Telescope: Info : Park completed...

I don't see anything unusual after that or at 22:22:22.


I got your logs. The ASCOM log file shows the mount parked ok:

009395 2012-06-26 22:21:53.862: Driver: Info : CommandBlind TX=':KA#'
009396 2012-06-26 22:21:53.885: Telescope: Info : Park completed...

I don't see anything unusual after that or at 22:22:22.

[Steve Reilly]

Ray's response is copied below.............

Steve,

I got your logs. The ASCOM log file shows the mount parked ok:

009395 2012-06-26 22:21:53.862: Driver: Info : CommandBlind TX=':KA#'
009396 2012-06-26 22:21:53.885: Telescope: Info : Park completed...

I don't see anything unusual after that or at 22:22:22.