Anyone successfully using TheSkyX + ACP-controlled dome to drive a Paramount?

[Paul Luckas]

Hi all,

Just over a year ago I dragged poor Bob through a week of hell, trying to troubleshoot flip angle issues with my dome and Paramount. The culprit, all along, seems to have been using TheSkyX as the telescope driver. Reverting to TheSky6 cured everything, and I've been operating at 100% success rate since.

I'm curious to know if there are any other users of TheSky / Paramount / MaxDome who have successfully transitioned to TheSkyX to drive their Paramount under ACPS within an observatory dome.

While there's no particular need to upgrade from TheSky6 to TheSkyX for telescope control, I do wonder how long it will be before support for TheSky6 disappears completely. As such I'm tentatively thinking of testing the waters given a year's worth of daily builds since I last used TheSkyX to run the telescope - particularly as I intend to also upgrade to ACP7 and the latest ACPS within the coming weeks.

Paul

[Bob Denny]

Well, the real problem is that we couldn't predict the flip points of the Paramount so they could be entered into ACP's flip calculator. Oddly, no one else with a Paramount and a Dome has complained (except last fall see below). Scheduler has nothing to do with it at all. It is the dome slaving within ACP. Therefore I am going to move this to the ACP section and re-title it slightly. I'd be OK with giving it another shot.

Possibly the Bisques have fixed some oddities. I know for sure that one really huge one was fixed last Fall with Mike Miller and Jimmy Walker's Paramount flipping being completely whacked. It turned out that the sidereal time in TheSky X was frozen whenever it was minimized. That was an EPIC problem solving session, and the problem affected everyone not just ACP. Long story wrapping up with my capturing a video including webcam of the mount itself documenting the problem. I showed it to Steve Bisque in person as AIC last fall and he became a believer. It got IDed and fixed a few weeks thereafter.

So, if you want to give TSX a try again, go into Tools, Settings, Advanced tab, and set Sleep on Minimize OFF (unchecked). Start with the flip settings in ACP at 0 and 0 and set up the Paramount to flip at the meridian. It should work.

[Michael Miller]

I haven't had a single problem since I turned the sleep timer off. The sad thing was i had to go through with the Bisque's to get it resolved! Rumors about the TheSkyX at AIC are never a good thing!

[Paul Luckas]

Interesting - thanks. I'll give it another whirl. I'm absolutely sure I was running TheSkyX minimised last year (as a telescope driver only it doesn't need screen time), so that could well have been my problem too.

Time will tell.

Paul

[Marco Lorenzi]

Hi Lucas, after sever trials now I am successfully running my observatory based on TSX+ACP+Maxdome. Just follow the other suggestions here (have TSX not sleeping in minimize) and make sure to have their latest build installed. I had some pointing issues at a certain point but turned out to be a problem of wrong sync data stored in TSX, you need to see the instructions on how to clean them in their Paramount ME-II manual.
Touching wood now all is working in my set up (or at least quite ok, still other issues to fix but apparently related to my hardware).

I agree with you that there is no real point in upgrading unless you have to, like in my case where I am running all on a Win7-64 bit system and was unable to get thesky6 and paramount woring with that configuration..

Regards
Marco

[Bob Denny]

Thanks to Mike and Marco for giving Paul the confidence that he will be able to get going.

[Larry Simpson]

Bob

I dont think my previous posting was sent so I will repeat it.

I am upgrading my system and need some information. If I get a Technical Innovation Prodome, does ACP slave the dome or should I get t heir DomeWorks?
If I get a Paramount mount and use Sky X, can ACP interface properly?

Thanks.

Larry

[Michael Miller]

The skyx and acp have no issues as long as you turn off the sleep mode in theskyx

[Bob Denny]

Thanks Mike. Larry you need the Technical Innovations ASCOM driver. Don't try to use the DDW Control Program (which has some very very very old ACP functionality in it that never worked). Well you can use DDWCP by itself of course, and it is useful! Just nmot with ACP or any other ASCOM compatible software.

[Robert Capon]

Larry (& Paul):


My configuration is a Paramount ME, TheSkyX, ACP and a Technical Innovations PD-10 dome using Digital Dome Works. It’s a great configuration, and ACP will handle it nicely.

Digital DomeWorks (DDW) is a hardware solution that includes shutter and azimuth motors, sensors and control. It comes with a free software program called the Digital DomeWorks Control Program (DDWCP). DDWCP and ACP cannot access the COM port at the same time. Whenever DDWCP is open, it automatically connects to the COM port. ACP only connects when you select “Connect”. So ACP can be open on the desktop while DDWCP is open. But whenever you connect, DDWCP must be closed.

DDWCP is a handy little utility for opening and closing the observatory during the day when I’m servicing the observatory because you don’t need to connect the telescope to control the dome. So you’ll find that you use DDWCP for utility operation of the observatory, but not for observing. I also use the DDW ac control box, that enables me to turn four devices on and off. So, again, to turn on my cameras I would provide power remotely through DDWCP by turning on the devices, and would then close DDWCP. (The devices remain in the same power state, on or off, when you close DDWCP.)

Another handy utility is the POTH program, which is an ASCOM utility, also handy for controlling the dome when ACP is not connected. POTH and DDWCP are also useful for doing large TPoint runs, since timing features within ACP prevent dome operations if you’re slaving the dome every few seconds. When doing TPoint runs, I take 5 second images, and the dome slaves every 15 seconds. ACP could work if you put in a delay before every exposure, but a large TPoint run would take longer with the delay. I’ve made ACP work, but I have to deal with the timing safety features built into ACP.

Paul, I would definitely upgrade to SkyX. It offers a ton of great functionality over Sky6. (I wouldn’t know where to begin describing the great new features). The dreaded Sleep on Minimize problem has been fixed, so be sure to use the latest Daily Build when you install it. I’d also double check to make sure Sleep on Minimize is unchecked.

Also, Paul and Larry, if you’re using SkyX with the Paramount, I would do a very large TPoint model (300+ plate solves) calculate a “SuperModel”, and enable “ProTrack”. ProTrack has enabled me to do very long unguided imaging, and I posted photos on the Bisque Support Forum comparing 300 second unguided images with ProTrack turned on and off:

http://www.bisque.com/sc/forums/t/20383.aspx

My SkyX-Paramount-ACP-DDW configuration is working well now. So please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want me to further describe my settings and configuration.

Best,

Rob