Last night a merdian flip was needed and I actually went out to watch the processes. Everything seemed to be fine. Plate solve in original position worked, Telescope slewed and then it just sat there. It finally came up with the message that it had failed and went to abort. I unchecked run end of sequence and aborted.
RE-started the sequence and it ran just fine from its postion centering on the second try.
In looking at the log file tonight I found this passage ??
[10/17/17 21:27:19.122][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!
How can that be? Anything I can change to avoid this in the future?
I have the wait for flip checked and time to flip set for zero. Mount is a CGX-L
I have attached the log file and the fail starts at 21:22:18.197
As before I sat and watched the flip ‘try’ initial plate solve resolved it initated the slew all the way over to the other side and just sat at ‘slewing’ for like 5 minutes. I finally gave up and intervened.
In looking at the log file it seems like it had the side of pier backwards. As it is said “Side of pier west” when it was on the east side. Don’t know of many flips that go from west to east.
Yes and no. We don’t show the actual pier side in the UI anywhere but you can infer it in the Telescope Tab of the control panel. Essentially there will be a “Time to Meridian” or “Time to Pier Flip” depending on your options when your scope is on west side of the pier (looking east)
10-17 log indicates flip didn’t happen for some reason. Looks like we asked the mount to flip and it stayed put:
[10/17/17 21:27:19.122][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!
[10/17/17 21:27:19.641][DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Telescope command to meridian flip has completed
[10/17/17 21:27:19.641][DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Telescope failed to perform meridian flip
[10/17/17 21:27:24.114][DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Procedure complete
[10/17/17 21:27:41.889][DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Blocking Pier Flip: Failed to meridian flip, aborting sequence (False)
[10/17/17 21:27:41.890][DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Adding sequence level notification: Failed to meridian flip, aborting se
10-19 log indicates PHD lost the guide star after the flip:
[10/19/17 21:27:09.502][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] PHD2 GetPhdStatus - Post-Wait: Stopped
[10/19/17 21:27:17.792][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] Error: Guide star reported as lost!
[10/19/17 21:27:17.793][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] Adding sequence level notification: Guide star lost!
[10/19/17 21:27:17.817][DEBUG] [Guider Camera Thread] Frame restart: Guide star was lost.
[10/19/17 21:29:43.405][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Meridian flip was user aborted...
That’s just it, it did actually at least physically flip I sat there and watched it! Also it was fairly close as after I aborted the sequence and re-started it the object centered straight away.
starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!
As I said I sat and watched it and this is simply not true.
I have noticed when it is on the east side of the pier it reports time to flip, when it is on the west side it reports NA. It almost makes sense cause once it is on the west side there is no where to flip to?
Another odd thing is that later last night on another target the flip worked fine. Nothing like a moving target!
I know that originally the celestron ASCOM drivers were not reporting the side of pier at all for these mounts. Chris R. fixed it straight away but evidently it still has some issues.
The second log ditto I sat and watched it flip over and it just stuck on ‘slewing’ for like 5 minutes. It never did the center routine. Again I intervened.
I have noticed when it is on the east side of the pier it reports time to flip, when it is on the west side it reports NA. It almost makes sense cause once it is on the west side there is no where to flip to?
Another odd thing is that later last night on another target the flip worked fine. Nothing like a moving target!
I know that originally the celestron ASCOM drivers were not reporting the side of pier at all for these mounts. Chris R. fixed it straight away but evidently it still has some issues.
Thanks Chris, I do know that the original ASCOM drivers would not report side of pier at all. I was the ‘first’ to determine this. I believe you may remember that. It was resolved around July of last year thanks for that.
No I have not contacted Celestron although I did submit for the beta group (team celestron) and have not heard back from them yet.
I don’t even know how to contact Celestron directly and figured the ‘team’ would be a good way to go.
SGP reported prior to the flip that the “Telescope is on the west side of the pier”. Which is not true it was oriented with the weights on the east side and the ota on the west side pointing south. (what I thought was “East” according to the mount) yet it was reporting West? Also the time to flip was counting down which as I understand it means the pier orientation was East.
The plate solve ran and solved then I sat and watched as the mount slewed and physically flipped to the weights on the west side of the pier and the OTA on the east side (what I thought was “West” according to the mount).
Then the flip dialog box just sat at the “Slewing” for like 10 minutes and finally came up and stated that the flip had failed.
In looking at the log file it states “Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!” Which I assure you it was not!
Also I believe some targets later that night called for a flip and it was successful?
Here is a link to an excerpt from the log so you don’t have to slog through some 10 hours of data to find the relevant section.