Hi Ken. I spent a few hours trying to nail down the sequence start up a bit further this morning: I was using PHD 2.4.1b. I could not get it to reproduce the exact same error - the sequence always woke up at the allotted time, even though I had 5 repeat fails last night. This was the first occasion I let SGP do the guider startup and calibration and so I have not seen this before in any version. However, my trials this morning had repeated issues with PHD2 communications:
I did find some clues:
If I disable auto slew and center, when I run the timed sequence, I get the request message:
“The autoguider is not running or the connection is lost… Would you like to force guider calibration”? after a few seconds. (The server was running)
If autoslew and center are enabled, it does not ask the question and waits for the allotted time and starts the centering process … I’m guessing the connection status is the same regardless of the auto slew/center option and this may be why my system stalled - (the handling of a connection issue with the guider should be handled similarly regardless of the slew and center options?)
I tried to repeat your trial, with PHD2 2.4.1a and did a normal sequence. I got the Guider startup message asking me if I want to force guider calibration again. I reinstalled SGP beta 3/2 and PHD - no change. I enabled the PHD2 debug log - nothing obvious there - it did not see any instruction to loop or calibrate. I’m using Win7 64-bit and the latest updates for .NET ASCOM etc.
I have hundreds of hours of reliable comms between PHD2 and SGP over the last 6 months.
On the initial focus setting - should SGP move the focuser to the stored focus position for that filter when the sequence starts? The help file suggest it should and then move delta’s afterwards between filters.
Just got this note from the Andy Galasso from the PHD forum, which may offer further insight:
Chris,
I think what happened was that SGP tried to connect to PHD2 at 20:07 before you had started PHD2. It made two attempts (20:07:29 and 20:07:30) and then gave up on phd2.
Right after that you started PHD2 and connected your equipment.
When your 20:10 start time arrived, SGP got tangled up with an error not having a phd2 connection and got stuck:
[10/01/2015 20:10:00] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Checking for start delay…
[10/01/2015 20:10:00] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] DoEventGroupChange: Stopping Autoguider
[10/01/2015 20:10:00] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Attempting to stop PHD2 guiding…
[10/01/2015 20:10:00] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] PHD2 GetPhdStatus - Pre-Wait : BadConnection
It probably would have worked if you had started phd2 first.
Perhaps in this scenario SG should attempt to re-connecting to PHD2 when the sequence starts?
Andy