The thing stopped during the night...

[Per Frejvall]

God Morning (at least on this side of the ocean).

I am currently in the "pre-purchase" phase and have my new observatory control center running with a full compliment of ACP stuff. I use the ASCOM simulators for scope, camera and focuser, and the ACP weather simulator to get myself and my stuff in order. A two-foot startup script and a dito shutdown one have been added to the schedulaer and I have submitted three observations.

At around 17:00 yesterday the scheduler started acquiring images (59°N, dark comes early) and when I went to bed all looked fine. This morning I find that an overflow has occured in one of the ACP-supplied scripts when a CInt operation was attempted. Looking at the code:

    Console.PrintLine "    [flip check: " & _ 
        " Tn=" & CInt(timeNeeded) & "s" & _ 
        " HAc=" & CInt(Util.HourAngle12(Telescope.RightAscension) * 3600) & "s" & _  
        " GW=" & gw & _ 
        " HAz=" &  CInt(Util.HourAngle12(z) * 3600) & "s" & _ 
        " DWz=" & dwz & _ 
        " WF=" & wfs & "]"

And the log section:

27-nov-2012 23:19:46.1: Dispatcher cycle time: 0.2180125 sec.
27-nov-2012 23:19:46.1: Acquire data for Observation NGC 7380...
27-nov-2012 23:19:46.1:   (belongs to Project NGC 7380, Plan NGC 7380-B (1-20))
27-nov-2012 23:19:46.2: Send Observation NGC 7380 to ACP Sequencer
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.1: Acquisition time: 3887.9433777 sec.
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.1: Data for Observation NGC 7380 acquired successfully.
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.2: Image Efficiency: 92.6%
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.2: Cycle Efficiency: 100.0%
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.5: Dispatcher cycle time: 0.1840106 sec.
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.5: Acquire data for Observation NGC 7380...
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.5:   (belongs to Project NGC 7380, Plan NGC 7380-G (1-20))
28-nov-2012 00:24:34.5: Send Observation NGC 7380 to ACP Sequencer
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.1: Acquisition time: 3840.5746683 sec.
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.1: Data for Observation NGC 7380 acquired successfully.
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.2: Image Efficiency: 93.7%
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.2: Cycle Efficiency: 100.0%
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.4: Dispatcher cycle time: 0.1010057 sec.
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.4: Acquire data for Observation NGC 7380...
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.4:   (belongs to Project NGC 7380, Plan NGC 7380-R (1-20))
28-nov-2012 01:28:35.5: Send Observation NGC 7380 to ACP Sequencer
28-nov-2012 02:03:56.5: ** Sequencer script "AcquireScheduler" failed:
28-nov-2012 02:03:56.5: **Script Error (Tracking has been stopped)**
Source:  Microsoft VBScript runtime error
Message: Overflow: 'CInt' at line 1801 column 5.


28-nov-2012 02:03:59.5: ACP ERROR: Run failed due to script error (see ACP run log)
28-nov-2012 02:03:59.5: ACP data acquisition failed for Observation NGC 7380.
28-nov-2012 02:03:59.5:   (Observation NGC 7380 interrupted by acquisition process failure.)
28-nov-2012 03:40:01.5: Dispatcher cycle time: 1.3090749 sec.
28-nov-2012 03:40:01.5: Acquire data for Observation M 81...
28-nov-2012 03:40:01.5:   (belongs to Project M 81, Plan M 81-R (37-48))
28-nov-2012 03:40:01.5: Send Observation M 81 to ACP Sequencer
28-nov-2012 04:52:28.9: Acquisition time: 4347.415658 sec.
28-nov-2012 04:52:28.9: Data for Observation M 81 acquired successfully.
28-nov-2012 04:52:29.0: Image Efficiency: 82.8%
28-nov-2012 04:52:29.0: Cycle Efficiency: 100.0%
28-nov-2012 04:52:29.9: Dispatcher cycle time: 0.7840449 sec.
28-nov-2012 04:52:29.9: Acquire data for Observation M 81...
28-nov-2012 04:52:29.9:   (belongs to Project M 81, Plan M 81-B (1-12))
28-nov-2012 04:52:30.0: Send Observation M 81 to ACP Sequencer
28-nov-2012 05:55:10.7: Acquisition time: 3760.7531028 sec.
28-nov-2012 05:55:10.7: Data for Observation M 81 acquired successfully.

So, one of the three CInts in that multi-line statement is going past the 32767 mark. Which can it be?

Luckily, the system recovered from this and continued with M 81, and I have verified that there were actual images.

Let me know what further information is needed in order to find it (complete log attached)!

This is my very first run of ACP and I am truly impressed so far!


All the best,

Per Frejvall