Session failed with" Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow"

Sequence Generator
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3 objects with time constraints (NGC507 21:00-23:35, NGC1333 23:42-03:29, IC2118 03:32-06:00). In the morning i found the dome still opened and the GM2000 HPS II mount frozen in the position it slewed to for IC2118. The images for IC2118 are made (But showing only the star trails ) The mount failed to park.(No meridian flip was defined nor needed) The reported error line(s) show “[CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object”

Seems like a program bug?Version 2.5.1.17 Here is a log file section:
[4-10-2016 17:44:33] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Focuser reports Max Increment as: 60000
[4-10-2016 17:44:33] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Focuser reports max steps as: 60000
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope Dispatch loop: Received SGM_TELESCOPE_CONNECT…
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope can slewing supported…
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Does not implement MoveAxis…
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: CanSetSideOfPier returned True
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: CanPark returned True
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope equatorial system is J2000…
[4-10-2016 17:44:36] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SGM_TELESCOPE_CONNECT complete…
[4-10-2016 17:44:40] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Connecting camera in main thread…
[4-10-2016 17:44:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon: Connect to camera Canon EOS 6D
[4-10-2016 17:44:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon: Connected to port \?\usb#vid_04a9&pid_3250#5&32338354&0&6#{6ac27878-a6fa-4155-ba85-f98f491d4f33}
[4-10-2016 17:44:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon: Populating Shutter Speeds
[4-10-2016 17:44:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon: PropertyEventHandler: event 101, property 406, parameter 0,
[4-10-2016 17:44:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon: PropertyEventHandler: event 101, property 405, parameter 0,
[4-10-2016 17:44:41] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Canon: PropertyEventHandler: event 101, property 402, parameter 0,
[4-10-2016 17:45:43] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] PopulateDataModel: Transferring view to the data model…
[4-10-2016 17:45:43] [DEBUG] [MF Update Thread] Performing serialize…
[4-10-2016 20:23:35] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()
[4-10-2016 20:23:39] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()
[4-10-2016 20:23:49] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()
[4-10-2016 20:23:52] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] PopulateDataModel: Transferring view to the data model…
[4-10-2016 20:23:52] [DEBUG] [MF Update Thread] Performing serialize…
[4-10-2016 20:23:59] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()
[4-10-2016 20:24:09] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()
[4-10-2016 20:24:19] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()
[4-10-2016 20:24:29] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Caught exception in CanPierFlipNow : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at fp.gy()

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Include the entire logs please.

3

“Sorry, the file you are trying to upload is too big (maximum size is 1024KB).” My log file is 1.4 mb, why do you have this limit?

4

sg_logfile_20161004132152.txt.zip (85.3 KB)

I have zipped it…

5

You can use a file sharing service like Dropbox and post a link to the log
file. Dropbox makes this very easy.

1 Like
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The zip file is simpeler though.

7

Perhaps, but in my case even my zipped logs will be larger than the forum
limit. I find Dropbox to be stupid simple. To each their own!

8

Now that we are done with the log file let’s hope for a solution. The problem is not reproduceable, i ran dry sessions today with daytime coordinates at the same sky locations and everything worked fine.

9

We try to actively deter users from using disk space on our forum. It is expensive for us to host all these files and there is a whole slew of free cloud storage software available.

I’m not 100% certain what you are reporting. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely see the error to which you are referring, but it seems like it was well outside the context of any sequence. We might just be having a vocabulary issue and you may mean something different when using “Session”.

The connection to the telescope was successful at 17:44. Then, external to SGPro, at 20:23, the mount seems to have disconnected (cable unplugged, hub disconnected, mount lost power… any number of things). At 21:04, you corrected this issue by reconnecting (or the sequence start auto connected) and started the sequence.

Seems like everything worked fairly normally…

As for why end of sequence actions did not run:

5-10-2016 5:56:56] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Park message received.
[5-10-2016 5:56:56] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Dome slave set to park mount first, parking mount.
[5-10-2016 5:56:57] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Sending park…
[5-10-2016 6:01:57] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Mount failed to report that it was parked!
[5-10-2016 6:01:57] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Error parking scope, aborting observatory options, cannot verify scope position…

Looks like the scope failed to report it was parked. To ensure that we do not starting banging scopes and domes together, we do not execute dome park since the scope position cannot be verified. We sent the message to park. As to why the mount did not park, we would need to have a look at the corresponding mount ASCOM logs for that same timer period to see what was going on.

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Thank you very much Ken for the detailed analysis! So the conclusion is that the mount somehow caused the issue. That makes sense for the events that happened right after pointing to target 3 (IC2118) but i don’t understand all the lines at the beginning of the session with the canpierflipnow exceptions. (The log file shows that i prepared the session around 17:44 and started it at 20:23.)
And i looked for the mount log file…but logging was not enabeled for the GM2000 ASCOM driver (oops). Have that enabled now.

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Nothing too complex going on here. The UI is apparently querying this every second (it doesn’t need to and we can clean that up since I think that value is static). When the scope disconnects, SGPro can no longer query that value.