SGP control of AP mount through Skyalert program

Sequence Generator
1

Hi everyone,
I have a Skyalert weather station and software that is using boltwood drivers to communicate with SGP. SGP sees it and responds to the station when it needs to close the roof. (Skyroof system)

However, I need to have SGP park the telescope first, before it closes the roof. The only slaving options that I can find under the observatory/roll off roof tab are: Slave on Sequence start, Park Observatory with mount, Mount unpark opens roof, Mount Park closes roof. I currently have “Park Observatory with mount” checked, but SGP is not able to park my mount when a close signal is coming from the weather station. Once I park the mount myself, the roof closes automatically. I am not able to see how to get the mount to park first.

Does anyone have any thoughts about how to approach this? Thank you!
Kent

2

Sorry, I should mention that the Astro Physics 1600 mount uses the Astro Physics Control Center software and the ASCOM V2 driver. Thanks

3

@kvwood:
What version of SGP are you on? Do you see the “Park Mount First” (below “Mount Park Closes Roof/Shutter”)?

I don’t have AP or Skyalert. And perhaps I’m not fully understanding the question :grinning:

DaveNL

4

Hi Dave,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am using the latest non beta version 2.6.0.23. Admittedly, I am new to SGP.
Yes, I have tried the “Park Mount First”, but that is not triggering the parking of the mount when a close roof command is given from SkyAlert. I probably need to check the log to see if a park command is actually being given to the mount.

Thanks Dave,
Kent

5

Shot in the dark here … perhaps the “Park Mount First” only triggered on a “Park Mount” command, not on a close roof command. Could Skyalert be programmed to send a Park Mount instead of a Close Roof command, when it detects bad weather?

DaveNL

6

Great idea. I will reach out to the developer of the program and see if that is a possibility.

Thanks!

7

If you are sending commands to the dome independently of SGP then there’s no way it will know this. What you need to do is have SGP controlling the dome and have SkyAlert providing a signal to SGP that it’s time to shut everything down. Your Boltwood connection from SkyAlert to SGP should do that.