<I have a OGMA AP26cc that just arrived and trying to connect to SGP. I downloaded the ASCOM driver from the getogma.com site, set up a new profile related to the camera. The driver connects, but the TEC cooler and fan never come on. I have set SGP to start cooling to -10C over 10 minutes at driver connect. The time status bar in the camera module moves, but the percent power remains at zero, and the sensor temp never changes. I have connected the camera to Sharpcap and confirmed the TEC works as it should. >
I’m not sure except to say that the code SGPro uses to cool cameras (over time) is functioning fine (we’ve broken it before it becomes very obvious very quickly since it breaks for all ASCOM cameras at once. In any case, you can try this and send us logs of the session…
Uncheck any options to cool the camera on connect
Connect the camera
Using the TEC module, bypass any complexity of altering temperature over time and just attempt to modify the temperature directly (manually). Enter a number… 0 is fine, then click “Set” ensuring that “over time” number is 0.
Based on your description, I suspect this will not work, but it may produce some kind of answer in the logs (and if it does we can look at why that error is not presented to the user).
I unchecked the cool on connect box from the control panel then connected the camera. The percent power came on to about 10 or 15 %. I thought maybe that was from the dew heater so I disconnected. I then made sure the cool on connect was unchecked in the profile, saved it and applied the profile to the sequence. Reconnected the camera, and manually changed the temp. There was no increase in percent power and no decrease in sensor temp. Temp did, however slowly increase as compared to the focus temp.
Double checked the TEC does work in Sharpcap with existing power supply and usb cable
Link to Logs
Approx time of issue: 12:00 AM
Useful Info
OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Ver: 4.3.0.1265 (64-bit) .NET: 4.8 ASCOM: 6.6.2.4195
I stumbled upon something interesting…If I start SGP from scratch, apply my profile to sequence, then connect the OGMA driver, TEC works perfectly with cooling on connect checked. I can also manually change the temp on the fly. If for any reason you disconnect the driver in the sequence window and reconnect the driver, then TEC no longer works…no percent power draw, and the camera LED for TEC and fan are no longer on. The only way to get them back is to restart SGP from scratch, reapply the profile, and connect the driver. TEC then works again. I also tried just reapplying the profile without a restart but no go.
Unfortunately, that does seem like it is likely a driver issue. I looked through your logs and didn’t see any kind of errors or anything. As far as SGPro is concerned it is relaying commands to the camera successfully. It is possible to see what commands the driver actually receives from SGPro… this is called an ASCOM trace log.
Here is the SGP log file with the ASCOM trace on. Started SGP, applied profile, connected camera, and TEC cooled to 4 C. Disconnected driver in sequence window, reconnected, TEC no longer functioning and the sensor temp climbed to 11 C.
How do I get the ASCOM logs to you? I will also email OGMA with the files.
John
Link to Logs
Useful Info
OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Ver: 4.3.0.1265 (64-bit) .NET: 4.8 ASCOM: 6.6.2.4195
Seems like the driver may get itself into a bad state. If the trace logs show a series of incoming command over the period you are noticing no change, but expect to see change, that will tell us for sure. We’ll just use the SGPro logs to mark the start of the cooldown attempt and see what’s coming through the ASCOM driver.
Any file sharing service will be fine. Almost all of them are free (to an extent… but certainly free for something like this).
I think that worked…
One file shows the TEC cooler working and dropping temp down to 4 C. I then disconnect the driver, reconnected…I think that’s in a different log, but shows the TEC power at like 1.9% or something to that effect. The camera LED’s for TEC and FAN are dark, sensor temp rises to 11 C before I disconnected.
Sorry for digging this up, but I just got a OGMA AP26MC camera and have discovered the quirky cooler issue. Restarting SGP and connecting the camera cools it no problem, even adjusting the temp while the first connection from startup is still active. Just as above, disconnecting the camera breaks the TEC control. What can I do to help resolve this?
I don’t have a solution either. Every tings works fine as long as you don’t disconnect the driver, if you do, then you must restart sgp. I even tried the newest driver from the Ogma website, but problem is still there. I will be selling my camera to a guy using N.I.N.A., and will be going back to ZWO.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a great answer here, but we can help you start a dialog with the driver’s author. We don’t typically just start by pointing fingers at other folks… but in cases like this there is no special TEC code… literally all cameras use the same version of it. In other words, this seems to literally be the only ASCOM camera exhibiting cooler issues. It is not impossible, but it is highly unlikely that this can be addressed in SGPro.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed though. It likely just means that there is a problem for which the driver’s author needs some diagnostic info to troubleshoot. We can get it as follows… We’ll want to certainly get the SGPro logs, but also, equally as important in this case is the camera’s logs. If OGMA emits its own logs, that would be wonderful and the controls over that may be in the ASCOM settings dialog or it may just dump out to one of the ASCOM folders. Lastly, we’ll want to enable the ASCOM camera’s trace logs.
Ideally with the 3 sets of logs we’ll have a clear picture of the inter-system communication and any issues in between (and which is failing). If the camera does not produce logs, just the SGPro logs and the ASCOM Trace logs is OK too.
Information we capture here using the correlated logs would be essential input to the driver’s author.