That would be great, thanks for the update buzz.
Rowland
The restart on unsafe is pretty close. Likely coming out in a beta in a couple of weeks. Just need to get some clear nights for testing.
Thanks,
Jared
4 Likes
While stopping and restarting when safe is the ultimate dream. I’d be much happier to simple have SGP close the shutter when the (light in the lower right corner of SGP) turns from green to red.
For some ODD reason RED/UNSAFE only seems to matter during a sequence run. If it’s waiting for a sequence to start (time) or not in a sequence for any other reason. (say you’re remove and you’re doing frame and focus shots and it starts raining or clouds move in… SGP doesn’t close the shutter.
It’s as easy to do as when you turn the light in the corner from green to red you simply send a obsey close command. As it is now I have to run other software to close after SGP’s little green light turns red. !?!? I asked this before and got pelted.
This has existed in the beta for a few months now.
It’s not really that odd. SGP controls your equipment when you’re in a sequence and leaves things alone when you’re not, this is pretty much true across the board. It will shutdown when you’re waiting on a sequence after you’ve clicked the “Run Sequence” button. But we assume that if you manually open the shutter, through SGP or otherwise, that you know what you’re doing.
This would be like placing a DSLR in Manual mode, taking a picture and then being upset that the exposure wasn’t automatically adjusted. When you’re not in a sequence, SGP is effectively in “Manual” mode.
Thanks,
Jared
Maybe it could be an option that could be set in SGP whether it closes always when it turns red or only during a sequence?
It would be a great safety improvement in my opinion.
Something else i would love to see is an option for SGP to open the roof/shutter a while before the sequence starts to help in cooling the gear, 30-60min before the sequence starts and it would of course only happen if the weather monitor is green.
ODDLY there is a GREEN or RED light in the lower right corner (no matter what) I say if it knows it’s unsafe it should close up no matter what. But I’m just a simple customer.
Are you running the sequence, or not?
If you are running the sequence, then you will get the behavior you are asking for.
If you are NOT running the sequence, why would you expect SGP to do anything?
Because of safety? (it’s a safety monitor isn’t it?)
Why do you even have the program loaded if you are not running a sequence?
Just start the sequence running. You will then have your safety monitor working.
There’s several reasons to keep SGP running without having started the sequence, for me personally the main reasons are to open the observatory for cooldown before the sequence is started while i also setup the nights sequence, another is to run a model for my mount (capturing is done by SGP via API) running a model takes 45-55min…if it starts raining SGP won’t close the observatory.
I’m not suggesting that a safety monitor that monitors conditions and closes the observatory when conditions are unsafe is not needed but I am not convinced that SGP is the place for it. SGP is complex enough already, I think it should stick closer to its primary purpose of collecting data.
I would have a separate application that only monitored the safety and closed up if it was unsafe.This could run continuously in the background independently of what application was running and keep the observatory safe.
I think some dome/roof control drivers will do this (independently close based on safety input)? My Foster Systems control unit has this - direct wired input which I connect to an RG-11 rain sensor, and it overrides everything else including my AAG Cloudwatcher/ASCOM safety monitor. Or, it would if the Foster Systems unit worked the way it’s supposed to! Unfortunately Fosters is not willing to support/fix (but I digress …).
Perhaps one problem with this Dome Control system safety override is that SGP will not know about it and may keep trying to proceed (with recovery, roof/doom re-opening etc.)?
DaveNL
I actually operate the way Chris has suggested, with an independent Dome control program. I do not use SGP in any way to interface with my dome. My dome control program does everything related to the dome.
– Checks weather status
– Opens dome when status is Clear
– Closes dome if overcast or rain
– Opens dome on Clear condition
– Closes dome at end of session, powering off all powered equipment.
This works beautifully for me. Unattended operation night after night. I can choose when to start SGP. I also start by doing several manual focus runs just prior to Astro darkness to get the focus well set. The dome control software is doing its thing regardless of what I do with SGP.
Works a charm.
I can also choose to have it start SGP running when the weather clears, and completely restart SGP if it has had a problem recovering.
+1 - I do something similar. I have several layers of control. Since I am using a Paramount, I home and then park the mount and wait for sequence start with the roof open, to cool down. If there is bad weather and if SGP fails to close the roof, my observatory controller does with the first raindrop. If MS has decided to reboot my PC for an update or TSX/driver is playing up, the Arduino controller in the obsy takes over and closes the roof if it is safe to do so. Failing that, it gives out a big alarm, so I can launch out of bed in my jimjams and sort out things manually.