I recently got a new laptop to control SGP and associated hardware. The new laptop has windows 11 installed on it and required an update to the Prolific USB drivers.
The setup worked more or less flawlessly for the first few nights with maybe a few issues with meridian flips etc.
But then it started having problems with target centering etc. Last night it went completely wrong!
First start “Cannot synch to telescope”. So I re-start everything. I’m blaming the prolific driver.
Second start Solve and synch worked in seconds, to to slew to the first target (M44) and it ends up pointing off in to the trees somewhere.
Third start Solve and synch worked in seconds, it centered the target this time and was able to start the sequence. Around 10:00 pm where a meridian flip would be required It kind of stopped tracking and I got the dreaded “Something terrible has happened” prompting a recovery from which it never recovered.
The mount is a Celestron CGX-L and is connected through the hand controller via the Prolific USB to serial driver connected to the hand controller.
I have been using this mount with another laptop for several years without major issues. And like I said the first couple of nights went fine. Just now all of a sudden I cant even get past the first target.
I really did not change anything in that time except for maybe the targets and sequence.
Been through all the settings for the telescope control, Ascom drivers, Celestron drivers etc and double checked that they are configured and up to date.
The mount is a Celestron CGX-L
I really have no idea what to do next to fix this frustrating snafu.
Had a little problems getting things to connect but did get it running.
Did a center target and that resolved on the second try. Not bad. Started the sequence cooled the cam, autofocus went fine. slew and synch went fine and resolved on the first try, and it started acquiring images.
I sat and watched and everything was chugging along just fine. Several 180 second images came in looked fine and guiding was pretty good. I was waiting on a Meridian flip at around 10:00 pm.
But around 9:40 or so all ofr a sudden got a ‘Lost guide star’ notification and it started to try to recover. I looked at the plate solve image and long star trails! Somehow plate solve 2 was able to resolve but failed by the same amount each time. Obviously the mount had stopped tracking / moving.
Got mad and ended the sequence and the scope parked and warmed. Unfortunately I later realized I should have gone and looked at the mount to see what position it was in. But too late now.
Anyhow here is a like to the log file. Please have a look at it as I dont know what it all means and totally lost as to how to fix this!
Ya… stuff like this can make you want to quit for sure.
I looked through the logs prior to the star lost just as a sanity check and, as expected, there is no indication that SGPro issues any kind of command to the mount. In addition to this, SGPro communicates with the mount (a lot) and there is absolutely no sign of any communication problem at all prior to the star lost event.
Maybe? Typically (but not always) it’s because the mount has been placed into a mode where it disallows external sync because it wants to maintain its own pointing model. I don’t have familiarity with your mount and mount software and I’m not sure if this is even a possibility.
This could also indicate issues with your mount not allowing sync. You can check if you can disable it or you can also change the sync method in the telescope tab.
For this second “new” problem, I would ensure that ASCOM log trace is enabled so that we can see if a request to stop tracking came into the driver from an external source or if the mount decided to do this on its own.
Your post got me to thinking! I think I may have found what might have been the issue.
I got a little confused about RA limits for the mount (set via hand controller). I had set it for +5 instead of -5 so it would stop tracking 5 degrees before Meridian. I ‘think’ this may have been the issue this time as I had SGP’s flip set for up to 2 minutes past meridian. So pretty good chance it came up to the mount’s set slew limits before the limits set in SGP.
A question about ‘disable synch’. I leave the mount in place and typically start it with either a “Last alignment” or “Quick Alignment” option. Then slew off to a random piece of sky and do a solve and synch to refine the pointing model. It usually works in fact in the past it worked quite well. If synch is disabled (which it can) that method may not work? It’s odd though I never had these issues prior to changing the laptop.
I have started a seperate thread as I am a little confused about which has authority over meridian flips, the mount or SGP.
Next time I will enable the ASCOM trace. But as usual it will probably several days before I will have clear skys again.
You mean disable sync in terms of an option on the mount or preventing SGPro from attempting to sync? If the former, I would allow the mount to receive syncs from external sources (SGPro).
Correct. What will happen is that the mount may or may not ever converge on the target’s location. This will depend on the accuracy of the last alignment. If it has drifted, the centering process could cause the mount to chase the target until it fails.
Most folks want the mount to receive syncs from SGPro. The only time you wouldn’t want this is if you are keep a pointing model to your mount outside of SGPro. In this case, you’d want to use one of the offset sync strategies instead of the normal sync.