Pegasus Ultimate Power Box Support (ASCOM SWITCHES)

Sequence Generator Feature Requests
1

I am putting this in feature request but if SGP already does this, let me know. I have a Pegasus Ultimate Power Box that supports ASCOM switches.

Is that supported to turn on/off these switches?

If not, make this a request.

UPB

2

I have same box.
I follow, thanks

3

Same Here, i already asked for same features on Intelli Power Box (the old version) + same minor requests to fix on software…

They said they was developing the new ascom interface together with my requests… but this was about 1 year ago.

[EDIT]
Didn’t noticed the update of 1 month ago… but switches not present and update just fixed minor glitches, no features was added for IntelliPowerBox… Instead i found some features i requested on the new version for UPB software.

It’s quite clear they are pushing forward the new product and leave the old…

4

I guess the basic question is whether SGP supports ASCOM switches. Apparently the answer is that it does not.

5

Currently SGP does not. We’ve been trying to figure out how switches fit into SGP for about a year, if not more. Obviously people want to turn things on and off but the “when” and “how” can be a little tricky. For better or worse the ASCOM switch interface is pretty broad and makes any sort of “non-generic” implementation somewhat difficult. However I will say I’m actively looking into it and working to procure some hardware for the implementation. I know MoonLite is about to release a new switch and we’d also like to support the Eagle which has switching built in. And naturally other hardware as well. We may make an initial attempt at it sometime soon.

Having an idea about what/when you’d like to toggle switches would be highly useful. At least initially we’d be looking at switches with only an On and Off state…not analog switches.

Thanks,
Jared

6

I can’t speak for others but in my case just being able to turn things off after a session is complete (and cameras have warmed up and been disconnected) would be very useful - I would probably prefer to turn things on manually since I have found it best to also check to be sure other stuff is all working anyway so will be hands-on during startup anyway.

Thanks!

7

I agree with @CCDMan. I would llike to have things power down at the end of the night, after the mount is parked, flats are done and the camera warms up. Turning things on I’d still like to do that manually as I like checking things as they are powered up. The computer is not a issue, I prefer to keep that powered up and power that down manually. but for the other equipment Focuser, Rotator, Dew Heaters, Imaging Camera, Mount, I’d like to see these power down at the end of the sequence once the mount is parked and the camera has warmed up.

Thanks,
Mark

8

That would be a great feature. I currently have a TI 4-switch box that interfaces through the RoboFocus Control Program or Digital Dome Works Control Program. From a remote location, I switch things on manually using the RoboFocus control program and back off when the sequence is done. Usually, though, I’m asleep when it’s done so things stay powered up until the morning.

After my mount, the dome and the camera are switched on, I have to exit the RoboFocus program in order to use ASCOM in SGP then after disconnecting in SGP, bring up the control program again to turn things off. It hasn’t been a problem but would be much better if the switching could be done automatically. I am not aware of an ASCOM interface to the RoboFocus switch box, just the focus control.

9

I would love to see this integrated into SGPro. In the meantime, has anyone written a script that turns the four circuits on or off on the Pegasus Ultimate Power Box? I’d love to see how this is done.

10

Hi,
I fully support this request (see my post below) and concur with the suggestion above about the timing (camera warmed up and telescope parked)
cheers
Luigi

11

I also have the Pegasus Powerbox V2 with power output ports 12v/USB. I would like to use them to power a USB powered light box that I want to use as a Flat field panel. This would be a simple on and off setting when using the flat image routine as a trigger. Just like what the Alnitak solution does now but instead I want it to power on a specific port on the Pegasys PB or a relay board of some kind.

3 Likes
12

Hi. I was also have a Pegasus Astro UPBV2 and would really like to control it through SGP. Specifically, I would like to be able to turn off the Camera after it has completed its warm up period. Currently I schedule power to turn off via Pegasus’s own control software about 30 mins after an imaging session is schedule to complete. This is done to make sure that mount has parked, camera warmed up, etc. However, it would be really handy to be able to send the power off command from SGP to the UPBV2 for a specific ports. I understand that SGP currently does not support this, but I am wondering if it could be accomplished using a script that is run from SGP. The UPBV2 has UDP Server Command Language and Serial Command Language scripting. Could either of these be used in a Script that is called from SGP?

13

Yes, you could create a script that runs on End of Sequence. The tricky thing here is that SGP will wait for your script to complete before it finishes up some tasks. So you’d actually need to have your script spawn another script that would wait for a couple of minutes and then shut down things.

We will have actual support for ASCOM Switches in SGP4 which will are working to complete at the moment.

Jared

2 Likes