Ever since I upgraded to version 3, the park function either at the end of a sequence, or actually pressing the park function in the telescope tab, will not park the G11/Gemini 2 system anymore. It used to work in Version 2.X
Any thoughts on this?
A couple of ideas - obviously, have you got the park function enabled in Version 3? It may not have made it across. I’m assuming the Gemini uses an ASCOM interface, does it park with other applications using ASCOM?
Failing that - if you can share log files for the ASCOM driver and SGP, we will be able to get a better idea of what is happening (or not)
I use either the checkbox for the hardware configuration, or the end of sequence.
Yes, using the gemini ASCOM driver as usual.
I haven’t tried parking it outside of SGPro, other than the Gemini interface (which works as expected).
I’ll have to collect a set of logs for this behavior, to send to you in the future.
Doug
Doug - the thing is to find out if SGP is sending the park command or not, whether the driver is picking it up and then, if it is not complying for some reason. The files are generated automatically and if you can recall when it occurred, you should find it already. Once you find it in one file, you should find it in the others, as they are all time-stamped.
I was having the same fits with my G11. It kept parking the mount sideways which isnt a problem but is not what I wanted. I finally unchecked the box in sgp and then used the hand controller on the G11 to CWD and told the hand controller that that was my home position. After that I rechecked the box in sgp to use that as the park position and hit park. It worked.
Tonight will be the first test to see if it actually does it after the end of the sequence.
Good luck.
Did some more testing last night, and more peculiarity has occurred. First SGPro’s request to PARK didn’t do anything. Some where along the line trying to figure out what was going on, the park started to work, but parked in the vertical position from SGPro. That is not the Home park position. After shutting down and restarting again, the Park request didn’t happen at all again. I’ll have to go look at the logs tonight after work.
Hey it worked! I’ll be darned. My sequence ended and sgpro parked the scope where I wanted it too. Weights down.
As I stated above I unchecked the park here box in the Telescope module in sgp. Then I went to the G11 and told it to park to the CWD Position (Center Weights Down). I then told the G11 through the hand controller to set that as my home position. After that I went back to SGP which was still connected to the mount and re checked that box saying that that was my home position.
So last night I ran a sequence and the thing parked it center weights down and scope pointed to to the north.
Prior to that every time sgp parked the scope after a sequence it would turn it completely sideways. The weights would be straight out east and the scope would be level and on the west side… I guess this would be great if I haad a little hovel of an observatory and no room for it to park straight up and down but I don’t have an observatory.
I have the open air and places for birds to land and make presents for me.
Anyway it worked which I think was cool. If you have any additional questions feel free to ask them of me.
Sean
Ok, here is a simple log file where I start up SGPro, connect to the telescope, request an unpark, slew a bit, then request a Park. The unpark works, the park fails.
[05/01/18 19:06:00.819][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SGM_TELESCOPE_CONNECT complete…
[05/01/18 19:06:00.844][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Telescope: Setting sync behavior to: Sync
[05/01/18 19:06:13.348][DEBUG] [Main Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Unpark message received.
[05/01/18 19:06:13.358][DEBUG] [Main Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Start tracking
[05/01/18 19:06:49.810][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Park message received.
[05/01/18 19:06:49.822][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Sending park…
[05/01/18 19:06:59.069][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Disconnecting ASCOM Telescope: ASCOM.GeminiTelescope.Telescope
[05/01/18 19:06:59.548][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Error in ParkTel! : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at qp.br(String& A_0)
[05/01/18 19:06:59.548][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Error parking telescope: Error in Parking Telescope! See logs.
It appears it is disconnecting instead of parking, or I may have disconnected 10 seconds later, when it didn’t actually park the scope. I wouldn’t think there would be that much delay in the request though.
Here is another section from earlier this evening, that might be more telling.
[05/01/18 18:14:23.040][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Telescope: Setting sync behavior to: Sync
[05/01/18 18:14:40.099][DEBUG] [Main Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Unpark message received.
[05/01/18 18:14:40.148][DEBUG] [Main Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Start tracking
[05/01/18 18:15:58.953][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Park message received.
[05/01/18 18:15:58.965][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Sending park…
[05/01/18 18:20:59.361][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Mount failed to report that it was parked!
[05/01/18 18:20:59.361][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Sending post-park stop tracking…
[05/01/18 18:20:59.361][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Setting tracking state to False
[05/01/18 18:20:59.370][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Error parking telescope: Mount failed to report that it was parked!
Doug
Mystery solved. The update to the gemini driver had reset the park position default incorrectly (alt/az, instead of home), so it wasn’t responding to any 3rd party park requests. Thanks for the previous feedback.
Easily done - you clearly updated more than just SGP in the first instance. For simple things like this, it is really easy to set up a tiny Visual Basic script to check ASCOM behavior. Something like this:
set mount = CreateObject(“Name of Gemini ProgID”)
mount.Connected = true
mount.Park
mount.Connected = false
You type this into a text file using Edit and change the fiename to .VBS , so it will run.
The log files led me to check the gemini configurations, since the mount wasn’t answering up. Thanks again.