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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    105

    Default Telescope.RightAscensionRate and Autoslew (ASA)

    Hi there,

    alright, it seems that I am damned to run into bugs of Autoslew. This one seem sto be pretty old, anyway:
    I am trying ACP and Sequencer on a system with an ASA DDM85 mount. All looks fine, but the final images are all completely unusable due to a drift. Looking at Autoslew (the ASA mount control software), the comet sign is on, which would mean that it activated the Comet tracking is on. The RA indicator is slowly going upwards (which it is not supposed to do, of course). Disabling the comet tracking by hand brings us back to good tracking.
    However, I wonder how I could, at least temporarily, set ACp in a way that it doesn't send Telescope.RightAscensionRate commands. Maybe I'd have to send a Telescope.RightAscensionRate = 0.0?

    Best regards
    Lukas

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Mesa, AZ
    Posts
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    Default

    ACP does send Telescope.RightAscensionRate = 0.0 commands! It does this at several points in the logic. Unless an observing plan contains #trackon and the target is a solar system object with a name/designation or orbital elements, though, the #trackon will not have any effect. If the plan does not contain #trackon, then the mount will never receive any Telescope.RightAscensionRate calls with non-zero values.

    I am unsure what to do. I am surprised that the mount is doing offset tracking. Is there perhaps some other software or setting that could be responsible?

    If you can't solve these things including the thing we talked about for unguided imaging, I would say that ACP might not be suitable for your application.
    -- Bob

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    105

    Default

    Hi Bob,

    Nah ACP is the right choice
    The problem seems again to be Autoslew. I am able now to take 10 minute unguided exposures without modifying anything in ACP, so this works. I have to do some bughunting regarding two Autoslew problems:
    - the comet tracking thing
    - the Park problem. Somehow this isnt working completely right...

    I will give it a go with Poth logging and see...

    Anyway one of the currently two test systems was imaging perfectly once i disabled the offset tracking.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    105

    Default

    Ok, small update from my side:
    The unguided imaging is working well as hell! I did not need to modify the UserActions as we discussed to execute an external app, in fact. I set up Scheduler and ACP and tried to let them loose, and it worked well.

    The only flaw is Autoslew doing wrong things when told Telescope.RightAscensionRate = 0.1. What happens is that it stays there - even sending a 0.0 afterwards doesn't change this. I wrote a little script to test this:

    Console.PrintLine "Sending RightAscensionRate of 0.1" Util.ScriptTelescope.RightAscensionRate = 0.1
    Util.WaitForMilliseconds(2000)
    Console.PrintLine "RightAscensionRate from driver: " & Util.ScriptTelescope.RightAscensionRate
    Console.PrintLine "Sending RightAscensionRate of 0.0"
    Util.ScriptTelescope.RightAscensionRate = 0
    Console.PrintLine "RightAscensionRate from driver: " & Util.ScriptTelescope.RightAscensionRate

    Console.PrintLine "Done."


    This is what the POTH Diaghnostic pipe shows me:
    RightAscensionRate: -> 0.1 (done)Slewing: False Tracking: True
    SideOfPier: West
    RightAscensionRate: 0.1
    RightAscensionRate: -> 0 (done)
    RightAscensionRate: 0.1

    RightAscension: 09:58:59


    So, what do we learn? It's definitively an error of Autoslew!

    In my search for a solution I found that, if you set tracking to false, wait a bit (200ms) and then back to true, it tracks normally again.

    I informed Philipp keller (the author of the driver) of this, maybe he can fix it. This behaviour of Autoslew seems to be relatively old..

    In the meantime, I added the following workaround in AquireSupport.wsc, line 1813, right after
    Telescope.DeclinationRate = 0.0:
    If Telescope.Tracking = true Then Telescope.Tracking = False
    Util.WaitForMilliseconds 500
    Telescope.Tracking = True
    End If

    Last edited by Lukas Demetz; Oct 28, 2015 at 11:56. Reason: Further investigations

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    Mesa, AZ
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    Ok Lukas. Thank you for letting me know. I hope you can make the system work the way you want it.
    -- Bob

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Posts
    105

    Default

    Hi Bob,

    just received an answer from Philipp, he was able to confirm the Bug, he'll fix it with the next version. So yes, I am truly happy with the setup right now. Let November arrive and I'll buy ACP Expert for one of the systems (still have to decide which one ).


    Thanks
    Lukas

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    Ok thanks again!! Why not get ACP for both systems? Ha ha..
    -- Bob

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    Default

    Hehe
    Actually the systems would be up to 4
    Make me an offer I can't refuse. He He

  9. #9
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    For four systems bought at once we would discount. Email me with a proposal.
    -- Bob

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    Alright, with the help op Philipp we are tackling down the problem. The workaround I made works in the meantime, and damnit, I got a 30 minutes unguided frame with perfect stars!

    As for the multiple systems, I'll wrte you as soon as we know how many of them we'd equip with ACP. I will for sure pull the trigger for my local system for now, and then we will add the others as time progresses. Scheduler and ACP are for sure a killer combination

 

 

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