Meridian flip fails after years

So I had a computer failure that forced me to do a complete reinstall of all my software.

I was using SGP 3.1x + Sitech for years reliable. Now I have installed the 3.2 and also the latest Sitech software and automated flips fail miserable. Interestingly enough if I tried to restart a failed sequence it fails as it still tries to do it’s automated flip routine. If I reset the sequence, than the mount flips …

The error is:
Pier Flip failed when using side of pier: System.ArgumentException: Wrong number of arguments or invalid property assignment
[10/19/20 23:22:49.317][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;MF;] PopulateDataModel: Transferring view to the data model…
[10/19/20 23:22:49.325][DEBUG][MF Update Thread][SQ;MF;] Performing serialize…
[10/19/20 23:23:02.473][DEBUG][Centering Dialog Close Guard][SQ;MF;] Centering dialog is already closed…
[10/19/20 23:23:18.008][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!

So I thought well it’s not far enough past the meridian to flip, but even with a low meridian overlap in Sitech, no go …

So I’m at loss, I played with the different timings and meridian settings (same as 2 other setups that work with sitech and SGP (3.1) ) Nothing seems to work.
Also annoying it does not go into recovery it just fails … though it would not matter as it would stay in the flip routine that fails anyway.

/Yves

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What mount are you using? Anytime I have seen the message: ‘ASCOM Telescope: Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!’ It turned out related to the mounts safety limits vs. the automation software settings pertaining to tracking past the meridian. A few months back my Losmandy G11 started to lose its pointing accuracy due to the Gemini’s CMOS battery being low. I replaced the battery and did the usual configs and alignment routine. Some time later when I had an image that required a meridian flip, SGP would wait for the flip time as usual and when it started, an ASCOM error was immediately generated and the mount didn’t move. The logs showed the error above. After further troubleshooting, I realized I didn’t change my mounts safety limits from the defaults that were put back in place when the battery was changed. The default east and west limits were something like 122 degrees and my defined limits are 95 west and 96 east. This reduction takes into account the filter wheel size. SGP was set to flip 1 minute past meridian. Once I corrected my oversight and changed the mounts safety limits, SGP flips successfully all the time. Not sure if this is your cause, but checking the safety limits may be worthwhile. Hopefully this will help.

Mike

It’s the Mesu 200 with Sitech … it worked for years, and my friends Mesu works also and my other site does not exhibit the problem … So I’m a bit at loss. I’ve tightened the window a bit further … but I want to track at least one sub length past meridian as I do not want to loose to much best location due to waiting. So it’s a SGP 3.2 problem or a sitech driver problem or a number formatting error in windows or a combination of …

Just a thought - the error message is saying the flip cannot occur because the side of pier is wrong.

By chance, is there something with computer clock (time zone, DST) or clock in Sitech?

Does the ASCOM driver have a checkbox for Side of Pier (it is not implemented in all mounts)

Well I use the computer time, sky view shows that mount is over meridian and over goto limit, I tried even putting them at te meridian … nothing.
If I reset the sequence or push slew in SkyChart, the flip starts immediately, I’m going crazy. I think I may need to start looking at other software. Hate it, but this is beyond logic.

This is interesting, I thought there was no other way to do a flip than to initiate a goto, if I read the SGP log, it seems to initiate a side of pier request, which return invalid properties as an error … !!!

[10/21/20 23:33:17.701][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;MF;] Meridian Flip: Sending Telescope command to execute meridian flip
[10/21/20 23:33:17.709][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: Pier side is West
[10/21/20 23:33:17.709][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: attempting pier flip using sideOfPier
[10/21/20 23:33:17.712][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Setting Pier East
[10/21/20 23:33:17.713][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Pier Flip failed when using side of pier: System.ArgumentException: Wrong number of arguments or invalid property assignment
[10/21/20 23:33:25.691][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] ASCOM Telescope: Failed to flip because starting pier side and ending pier side are the same!
[10/21/20 23:33:25.692][DEBUG][Telescope Thread][SQ;MF;] Telescope thread is IDLE…
[10/21/20 23:33:25.701][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;MF;] Meridian Flip: Telescope command to meridian flip has completed
[10/21/20 23:33:25.701][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;MF;] Meridian Flip: Telescope failed to perform meridian flip
[10/21/20 23:33:29.752][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] Adding sequence level notification: Failed to complete automatic meridian flip, aborting sequence!
[10/21/20 23:33:29.770][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Sending Notification: Error - Failed to complete automatic meridian flip, aborting sequence!
[10/21/20 23:33:29.837][DEBUG][Pier Flip Thread][SQ;] Meridian Flip: Procedure complete
[10/21/20 23:33:33.874][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Blocking Pier Flip: Failed to meridian flip, aborting sequence (False)
[10/21/20 23:33:33.874][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Aborting sequence: Failed to meridian flip
[10/21/20 23:33:33.874][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Set sequence abort
[10/21/20 23:33:33.879][DEBUG][Main Thread][SQ;] Adding sequence level notification: Failed to meridian flip, aborting sequence.
[10/21/20 23:33:33.914][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Sending Notification: Error - Failed to meridian flip, aborting sequence.
[10/21/20 23:33:33.914][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] EventMarker(3) - t:Target 2 (1); e:0; f:1; o:* aborted *
[10/21/20 23:33:33.914][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] EventMarker(10) - t:Target 2 (1); e:0; f:1; o:* aborted *
[10/21/20 23:33:33.914][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Set sequence abort
[10/21/20 23:33:33.919][DEBUG][Sequence Thread][SQ;] Run event requested sequence abort…

Yes, there are 2 ways. If SideOfPier is implemented that is the best option and the one we prefer. This also allows SGP to flip before the meridian. Sounds like “CanSetSideOfPier” is returning “true” but when we attempt to set it an exception is being thrown.

Jared

Thanks,
so that explains what I see, and I do understand why my other install with older SGP is working … so where to go from here?

EDIT: I can try one other thing, I see I’m not using a generic hub on my other setup, so I will fix that on my failing setup.

/Yves

How does this explain why your older SGP install was working? We’ve supported SideOfPier for many years…we actually supported SideOfPier BEFORE supporting slew.

Jared

Well I think I may have found the solution, roof is closed so I cannot test.
On my other setup and I suppose my older crashed setup too, I connected directly to the Sitech ASCOM driver, and now for some stupid reason I used as an intermediate the Generic Hub … so I guess the errors comes from the generic hub!
TBC.

Hubs can be useful if they’re needed…but if they’re not they generally just sit in the middle and cause problems. Always better to connect directly to the device if possible.

Hope that gets it solved for you,
Jared

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Yves, if you believe the generic hub is the issue, can you drop a line to the ASCOM group.io site. The generic hub is fairly new and they would find this useful feedback.

It was the ‘old’ generic hub, so not the new one from the latest ASCOM platform. Using the SITECH driver directly solved the issue!

/Yves

There was a service release to ASCOM platform today - addresses some transform issues and some bugs in Generic Hub.