Ken,
I have the same issue as Uri. Can you please indicate what the issue might be or settings that need to be tweaked.
Regards,
Stephen
I’ve spent some time looking at the log and things seem to go wrong at about 02:58. There are messages from PHD saying that it is having trouble guiding -
“Your Max RA Duration setting is preventing PHD from making adequate corrections to keep the guide star locked. Increasing the Max RA Duration setting will allow PHD2 to make the needed corrections.”
This is an indication that tracking has stopped. PHD is trying to compensate by issuing ever larger guide corrections.
The mount is just past the meridian.
Could there be a limit in the mount on how far it can track past the meridian? If it tracks too far it stops tracking.
SGP knows nothing of this so when it issues a sync command it fails because the mount is not tracking.
Does this make sense? If so the solution is to allow the mount to track further past the meridian.
Chris
The other event if you hit the EQMOD meridian limit is that the plate solve fails because the stars show drift, then SGP goes into recovery mode, but never takes a frame which can be plate solved and eventually aborts the sequence. You can check if this occurred by looking for the plate solve frames which are stored in user/appdata/local/sequencegenerator/temp after your SGP session. (Note these files are deleted each time you run SGP). If the plates show drift, that’s probably what happened.
Scott
Thanks very much Chris,
Here is the screenshot of PHD log viewr which indeed indicates aproblem has occured at that time. I think you may be right, Interestingly, I have done several indoor test and never had a problem.
I use Synscan 3.36 on AZEQ6 mount. in the setup I see ‘Auto flipping’ set to 'Auto flip. I’m not sure whether this may be a problem, I use EQmod so aren’t all mount settings ignored ?
Abd BTW, is there any Ascom or EQmod Log ?
Thanks Uri
You need to check with the EQMOD people about what logs they produce.
That PHD graph is interesting, the run away in Ra is pretty obvious. The way it starts and is so uniform indicates that it is the mount has stopped tracking.
A short plate solve exposure might still be able to solve and in this case it is solving.
You should remove the synscan altogether and connect the PC directly to the mount using an EQDirect cable - this is how EQMOD is designed to be used and provides the most robust setup, particularly for unattended operaton of the mount. The mount and its communication protocol are not designed to server two masters and where persistant communications errors arise EQMOD will do its best to emergency stop the mount (if its not in complete control then it isn’t in control!).
EQMOD provides both an ASCOM trace window (click on the ascom logo) and a diagnostic message center (one of the main diplay options) - the output of both can be optionally loged to file Log files get put in the %appdata%/EQMOD folder (%appdata%EQMOD_SIM folder if using the simulator).
Chris.
Thanks Chris,
I am using the Bluetooth connection to the mount, works well. You can ignore my idea of changing settings on the hand controller…I wasn’t thinking straight.
Last night I tested the flip. I changed the limits to defaults and tested on several targets and I had no issues. Will do more tests.
Thanks for the info re Ascom trace window and the log capture
Uri
Hello everyone,
I have this problem that seems to be common to many other users here on the forum, but I haven’t been able to find a solution, or perhaps it has escaped me.
Below, I attach the errors that SGP returns in its log at the time of the FLIP attempt.
[11/16/23 01:47:22.213][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;MF;] Meridian Flip: Sending Telescope command to execute meridian flip
[11/16/23 01:47:22.244][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: Pier side is West
[11/16/23 01:47:22.244][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: attempting pier flip using slew
[11/16/23 01:47:22.258][INFO][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Telescope: Using “OFFSET” sync option, updating slew cooridnates with offsets:
[11/16/23 01:47:22.258][INFO][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] RA: 0,343477764022079 hours
[11/16/23 01:47:22.258][INFO][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] DEC: 32,4174382485529 degrees
[11/16/23 01:47:22.258][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Telescope: Slewing to J2000 RA: 5,15216646033119 (05h09m07,80s) Dec: 32,4174382485529 (32°25’02,78")
[11/16/23 01:47:36.039][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Scope reports it is done with synchronous slew, verifying…
[11/16/23 01:47:36.041][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Telescope: Slewing has completed
[11/16/23 01:47:36.542][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!
[11/16/23 01:47:36.543][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Telescope thread is IDLE…
[11/16/23 01:47:36.559][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;MF;] Meridian Flip: Telescope command to meridian flip has completed
[11/16/23 01:47:36.559][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;MF;] Meridian Flip: Telescope failed to perform meridian flip
[11/16/23 01:48:06.424][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] Adding sequence level notification: Failed to complete automatic meridian flip, aborting sequence!
[11/16/23 01:48:06.458][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Sending Notification: Error - Failed to complete automatic meridian flip, aborting sequence!
Eqmod and SGP settings are set following all the suggestions I have found, except for a parameter called “allow sideofpier write,” for which I can’t find anything at all.
thanks for your time and have great skies
Franco