Alnitak not working correctly

Description

SGP is not handling the Alnitak Flat panel correctly.

First off, a bit of history. I have an Alnitak Flip Flat and also also a Flatman-L. They use the same software from Optec and in the past I have used the FlipFlat with SGP and had no issues.

When using the Flatman L at a new dark site location, SGP is not honoring the settings. I can use the Optec software to connect, disconnect and adjust brightness manually without any problems. When I use SGP to connect to the panel, I am unable to set a brightness unless I go to the control Panel. In order to set the brightness, I must be connected to the panel in a sequence or the settings are greyed out. (First Odd item). If I connect to the device in a sequence, the settings become active and if I set the brightness to any number, the panel turns on immediately and illuminates (Second odd item, before it turned on when the Flats were being captured and then off when done, not when setting the parameters in the control panel)

Third odd item - When I disconnect the panel from the sequence, the light stays on. I have to manually open up the Optec software, connect and then turn the panel off from there. Obviously all of this defeats the purpose of automation.

I also noticed that once I disconnect the panel from the Sequence, in control panel, the settings are locked out again and the illumination drops back to zero so effectively, no settings are stored.

I did try to create a quick dark and flat capture sequence to test. It did start the flat captures, but did not ever illuminate the flat panel when connected. I’m certain this is because the control panel was set again back to zero from the last disconnect.

Aprox time of issue: Any time.

Link to Logs

Useful Info
I’m on latest version of SGP

OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Ver: 3.1.0.457
.NET: 4.8

This is by design. The slider in the control panel adjusts the immediate brightness. Also we do not have the concept of “Set brightness and then turn panel on” like Optec does. Setting the brightness > 0 means on. This is made for controlling the immediate state of the flat panel and not what should be used for automated flats. For that you’ll want to use the brightness settings per filter:

Third odd item - When I disconnect the panel from the sequence, the light stays on. I have to manually open up the Optec software, connect and then turn the panel off from there. Obviously all of this defeats the purpose of automation.

This is also by design. Disconnecting equipment shouldn’t have some second hand affects. Disconnecting your mount shouldn’t park it, disconnecting your focuser shouldn’t set the position to 0, etc. For the automation case you shouldn’t be disconnecting your flat panel. That means you’re at the scope and not letting the automation work. The panel should turn off when either a non-flat frame is requested or when the sequence completes.

No, this is because the Filter Setup likely has all 0s for the flats and the flat box brightness. I would recommend finding what brightness works well for each filter, filling in those values in the Filter Setup and then running the Flats Calibration Wizard to get your exposure time for each filter…then saving this with your profile or sequence, whichever makes sense for your current situation.

Thank you,
Jared

I don’t remember having to do any of this with the Flip Flat, and it would turn off and on during the routine and not by control panel.

Regardless, I checked the settings and I was able to perform a flat panel calibration run last night after I manually setup the brightness in the control panel.

It saved the settings for the exposure times to the profile but did not save the brightness? What is the reason that it wouldn’t save that detail?

Hi Jared, setting per filter seems to have fixed it.

Thanks