Beta 362 feedback

Sequence Generator
1

Hi

This is my first try at the new focusing routine.

It works well, much better than before, even when starting from a very defocused position.

Improvements I would suggest:

  1. It takes too much time to execute compared to focusing routines of other programs. I can nail it down to the download time of every image. When binning 2x2, the download time should be 2 times faster than for image frames - this is how the camera driver and SGP are configured for my setup (Moravian G2 8300 Mark II). Apparently this is not what I observe here.

  2. If PHD2 is already guiding, I almost systematically face a racing condition at sequence start: recovery mode is immediately engaged but systematically fails. Had to resort to killing both PHD2 and SGP. Launching SGP alone, hence letting SGP launch PHD2 by itself and driving it, does work well though. Never faced that issue before.

Hope both can be solved.

Anyway, except for these minor issues, as it stands, the current version looks stable for me.
Looking forward to the next version!

Rodolphe

2

You will need to discuss this with the author of the ASCOM driver. SGPro has no control over how or when the image is downloaded from the camera.

We will need logs to help with this. I am unable to reproduce this and PHD2 works in all 4 permutations of startup.

3

Dear Ken,
I have the same problem with PHD2 and SGP as describe above. All begins well: autofocus, platesolve. When SGP starts PHD2, the calibration begins, but a few seconds before the end of calibration, the sequence is aborded. The calibration works well with no error.
The only solution is to dissociate PHD2 from SGP and all is ok.
I haven’t this problem with the version 3.0.3.169. I tested at least 5 times and the behavior is perfectly reproductible …

Hope to help you !

Romuald (France)

4

Do you have any logs that show this? These timing issues are very difficult to find.

5

sg_logfile_20191112211313.txt (276.3 KB) PHD2_GuideLog_2019-11-12_210628.txt (295.0 KB)

Dear Ken,

here my log files. I put the PHD2 logs and the SGP logs to be complete.

Hope to help you. Regarding the logs, it looks to be a timemout error because PHD2 works fine, calibration is a success, guiding is ok.

Romuald

6

Hi Ken
Testing 363.
I don’t know what changed BUT the download time is incredibly faster now!!!
This is the fist time I see so fast image downloads in SGP.
Will try to confirm the PHD2 racing issue.
Thanks

7

Maybe something with drivers? SGPro has not had any changes to camera code recently.

I have not made any attempt at resolving this issue yet… still trying to reproduce it

8

@Romuald_Ballet

In your case, PHD2 was asked to start guiding and recalibrate. It received this message, but did not finish calibrating within a 10 minute period so SGPro timed out. You did not include the PHD2 debug log so I am not sure what it was doing.

That said, is there a particular reason you have “recalibrate after auto center” option turned on? Having this option on uses a lot of valuable time and is typically only used when PHD2 is connected to ST4. When connected to ASCOM PHD2 will handle its own adjustments for mount movement. Also look into saving and restoring calibrations in PHD2.