Will SGP run its unsafe routines if conditions become unsafe when a sequence isn’t running but equipment is connected?
I ask as I don’t think it does. However this would be useful so that if conditions become unsafe after I have opened the obsy but am in the cool down period before actually starting a sequence, the system would shut the roof etc.
It will. SGPro checks once every 10 seconds regardless of sequence state.
Keep in mind that the equipment still needs to be connected for SGP to query status and take action.
Thanks
Jared
Excellent - I will have more of a play with that then. Thanks for your swift replies.
Mmm, well, I’ve just had a play with trying to trigger a shutdown with an unsafe state before pressing ‘Run Sequence’ and it doesn’t do anything…
I have everything connected; camera, filter wheel, focuser, mount, dome and cloud watcher. I have unparked the mount, slewed to a target, slaved the dome and it is all whirring away, but I haven’t clicked ‘Run Sequence’. I then went back to the cloudwatcher and changed the ‘safe’ options to make it ‘unsafe’. That is registered in SGP - the little safety dot in bottom right turns from green to red, but nothing happens at all.
Here’s the log file: Dropbox - File Deleted
I look forward to hearing your opinions - thank you.
It just runs your “End of Sequence” options so youm have to have those set. Things like parking the mount/dome and cooling the camera on sequence end.
If you don’t have those options set then unsafe won’t actually do anything, ever. There is also a “worst case” delay of around 10 seconds for the end of sequence events to run after it has tirggered unsafe.
Thanks,
Jared
Hi Jared,
Absolutely - I have ‘end of sequence’ options set to warm the camera back up, close the shutter and park the mount and dome. All of which happen at the end of a normal sequence run or when an unsafe event occurs during a sequence.
If an unsafe event occurs when a sequence is not running, nothing happens (except for the safety indicator turning from green to red). I even left it for a good minute, just waiting to see if something might happen, but nothing.
So, are you suggesting that this is incorrect and the end of sequence options should run when an unsafe event occurs whether running a sequence or not?
If so, this could be a bug.
Thanks,
Gav.
@PhotoGav I don’t see any unsafe events in the log you provided. Can you help us to narrow down when the unsafe event should have occurred? Maybe ± 30 min?
Sure. It was unsafe at:
17:28:20 - 17:29:10
17:29:40 - 17:30:10
17:32:30 - 17:32:50
I would leave the cloud watcher settings as is, but spritz some water on the sensor… Give it a real world test.
A cloud sensor that uses the IR sky temperature can be fooled by holding your hand over the sensor. It won’t take much to raise the sky temperature enough to look like cloud.
Yep that’ll do it
From the help file…
Note: The safety monitor will not truly be active until the first frame from the first target begins. If there is a period where SGPro is idle prior to sequence start, SGPro will ignore any unsafe events until the first target’s start time passes.
So, it seems that unsafe IS ignored until the sequence is running!
Martin, well spotted. My experiments this evening have given me conclusive proof that that is indeed the case.
What a shame as it would be great to be monitoring for safety before a sequence starts, or at least have the opportunity to choose if it should react to unsafe events before a sequence starts.
One for the ‘future features’ perhaps.
Perhaps if you hit “pause” straight after “Run”???
Kind of. I reviewed the code more thoroughly and it looks like we did that because people were getting irritated when trying to setup and test gear in less than ideal conditions, BUT after the sequence has started, the monitor appears to be active even if the sequence is paused or ends normally. I’ll make sure this is correct and then update the help file to be a bit more helpful.
Ken & Martin, thank you for your responses. I await to hear from you Ken on how it definitely really works!
Martin - you might just have cracked it with the way it currently works. I am going to give the ‘instant pause’ method a go and will report back. My only worry is that I have various actions like ‘centre on target’ and ‘autofocus’ set to run on sequence start that it will try to do straight away. Hopefully I can just stop the first one easily with the pause button.
Yeah that is a problem, especially with the autofocus, I’ve paused during this and SGP doesnt like it, it sees it as an error and tries to run end of sequence actions.i