Yannick’s thread reminded me of something else that seems counter-intuitive for an automation program. Why do I need to manually connect all the equipment and then after it’s connected, manually unpark my scope? Shouldn’t that all be automatic. Just press play and the equipment that is needed is connected (possibly just in order of use, so equipment that isn’t used doesn’t have to connect) and then the sequence proceeds. I can’t count how often I’ve started a center on target that failed because the mount was still parked.
This is not true in general. My mount is a Paramount MEII and when I click RUN, it connects all my equipment automatically, unparks the mount, and then starts the sequence, assuming the start time has been reached.
You may be able to get yours to work the same way with appropriate configuration changes.
So I’d really like to know how you accomplish that, as there are no sequence options to do so and it just gives an error if the equipment isn’t connected. There are pre- and post-event PARK commands, but no unpark, which I can’t fathom. Why would you want to part prior to an event (other than perhaps for flats)? It would make much more sense to have an unpark command instead of or in addition to a park command.
Thanks Jared. Will the dialog time out and the scope unpark automatically if there’s no dialog interaction, or will it just wait forever?
I’d like to be able to just simply click “run sequence” at noon for example, and just have the right thing happen without intervention at my start time.
@TriplaneDave When you press “Run Sequence” well before dark for a target that starts in the future, SGPro will either start waiting immediately OR it will ask you questions immediately. Once this is done, there is no further need to get user input. Although you are not actively integrating, the sequence is, for all intents and purposes, running. This means that safety monitors are in place and can perform shutdown if required.
In my case, I think I’m up against a combination of issues reported elsewhere, largely related to focusing of an SCT. It’s not possible to align to a target without focusing first and it’s not possible to focus without moving to a target (away from park). It’s also often not possible to successfully focus (at least not well) on the first try due to temperature drift since the last session. Thus, because the sequence can’t be set to handle this process more flexibly, manual intervention is required and thus manual startup is also required. Why hitting the focus or the manual targeting functions won’t automatically connect the required equipment is beyond me. If I hit the button/menu item, I need the software and equipment to make it happen, not fail and make me go hit another menu item to say, “yes, I want to use my equipment” first.
Note on the topic of dialogs, SGP still won’t automatically shut down a sequence. I always get the “do you want to disable the camera cooler?” dialog hanging up the completion, usually until the next morning if I tried to run fully automated.
