Focuser position is stale

Sequence Generator
1

Since some time I get problems with the focuser going stale. It sometimes corrects by itself but every now and then SGP will abort the focus procedure and move to imaging with a completely unfocused scope.

Yesterday I setup a test sequence with focusing once every frame and also activated the ASCOM trace in the focuser driver. It seems that the ASCOM logging function exacerbated the problem. Anyway, this is the SGP log:

sg_logfile_20160509215621.zip (56.4 KB)

And these are the USB-Focus logs. There are more of them, as I had to stop the sequence, disconnected and reconnected the focuser, then continue the sequence:

USB_Focus_logs.zip (71.7 KB)

I had a look through some SGP logs I saved lately. This behavior shows itself first in the 2.5.1.5 version (but I moved to it from 2.5.0.23). I am not quite sure if this is an SGP or USB_Focus issue but I might have to move back to the 2.5.0.23.

Regards,
Horia

2

You should definitely be running the latest beta version 2.5.1.10. It makes major improvements in the focusing quality. Likely your issues will go away with this release.

3

Yes sure. I should have been more specific. I am actually at 2.5.1.10. My update history: 2.5.0.23 → 2.5.1.5 → 2.5.1.10.

Regards,
Horia

4

Can you give us an idea of when or at what focuser position you noted this issue? Correlating 2 fairly large logs it’s super fun :confused:

Thanks,
Jared

5

Horia, you are a USB_Focus user, correct?
Are you using the latest (v2.63) ASCOM driver?
With earlier versions (around 2.60) I had a lot of problems since the driver was reporting wrong focuser positions (missing one digit of the position…)

6

Hi Jared.

These are two occurrences where SGP aborted focus:

[09.05.2016 22:46:13] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Auto focus HFR calculated at: 1,24
[09.05.2016 22:46:14] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Moving focuser to next position (4960)…
[09.05.2016 22:46:14] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] Focuser moving to 4960
[09.05.2016 22:46:14] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] Focuser move call complete
[09.05.2016 22:46:24] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] MoveFocuserAbsBlocking: Focuser position is stale for 10 seconds, retrying…
[09.05.2016 22:46:24] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] Focuser moving to 4960
[09.05.2016 22:51:14] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Focuser move timeout! Aborting move attempt.
[09.05.2016 22:51:37] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon Camera: Indicates it is shutting down in 30 seconds, sending keep-alive message…
[09.05.2016 22:52:15] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Error in auto focus! Focuser failed to move to the requested position (4960). Focuser reports it is at 5060.
[09.05.2016 22:52:15] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Adding sequence level notification: Error in auto focus! Focuser failed to move to the requested position (4960).
Focuser reports it is at 5060.
[09.05.2016 22:52:21] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Auto focus (finally): closing dialog…
[09.05.2016 22:52:21] [DEBUG] [AfChartThread] AF chart dialog is closed…
[09.05.2016 22:52:27] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Adding sequence level notification: Auto focus failed!
[09.05.2016 22:52:27] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Auto focus complete…
[09.05.2016 22:52:27] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_FOCUSER_AUTO_FOCUS complete…

And later:

[09.05.2016 23:10:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Calculating HFR with sample size: 4
[09.05.2016 23:10:42] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Auto focus HFR calculated at: 2,17
[09.05.2016 23:10:43] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Moving focuser to next position (5160)…
[09.05.2016 23:10:43] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] Focuser moving to 5160
[09.05.2016 23:10:43] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] Focuser move call complete
[09.05.2016 23:10:53] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] MoveFocuserAbsBlocking: Focuser position is stale for 10 seconds, retrying…
[09.05.2016 23:10:53] [DEBUG] [Focuser Move Thread] Focuser moving to 5160
[09.05.2016 23:15:43] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Focuser move timeout! Aborting move attempt.
[09.05.2016 23:16:06] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon Camera: Indicates it is shutting down in 30 seconds, sending keep-alive message…
[09.05.2016 23:16:43] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Error in auto focus! Focuser failed to move to the requested position (5160). Focuser reports it is at 5260.
[09.05.2016 23:16:43] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Adding sequence level notification: Error in auto focus! Focuser failed to move to the requested position (5160).
Focuser reports it is at 5260.
[09.05.2016 23:16:50] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Auto focus (finally): closing dialog…
[09.05.2016 23:16:50] [DEBUG] [AfChartThread] AF chart dialog is closed…
[09.05.2016 23:16:56] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Adding sequence level notification: Auto focus failed!
[09.05.2016 23:16:56] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Auto focus complete…
[09.05.2016 23:16:56] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_FOCUSER_AUTO_FOCUS complete…

Regards,
Horia

7

Hi Thorsten,

I am using the 2.63 driver. Looking at the USB-Focus logs, there are lots of errors when the driver gets the position from the hardware, like this:

PID140---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PID140 09.05.2016 22:01:42 GetPosition #try0 Pos:P=04998
##, P:0\r\n7length:9 PID140 good formatPID140, good value :4998
PID141---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PID141 09.05.2016 22:01:43 GetPosition #try0 Pos:P=0998
##, P:0\r\n6length:8 PID141, ER1, retry
PID141 09.05.2016 22:01:43 GetPosition #try1 Pos:P=0498
##, P:0\r\n6length:8 PID141, ER1, retry
PID141 09.05.2016 22:01:43 GetPosition #try2 Pos:P=04998
##, P:0\r\n7length:9 PID141 good formatPID141, good value :4998
PID142---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PID142 09.05.2016 22:01:44 GetPosition #try0 Pos:P=04998
##, P:0\r\n7length:9 PID142 good formatPID142, good value :4998

Fortunately, the driver retries and, most of the time, gets a good value.

Regards,
Horia