The issue is now the order in which equipment connects in SGP. If I first connect the observatory (this seems to be the order when I start a sequence) the observatory will start the scopedome driver and connect the observatory. This works fine.
Next the OCH is connected. This should invoke the OCH server but it seems because the scopedome driver is already running (to control the observatory) the OCH server will not start and SGP shows the warning and disconnects from the OCH. Therefore no environmental data is available.
If I first connect the environment, SGP will start the scopedome driver and connects fine. Then I can connect the observatory and both observatory and environment are connected.
The same problem exists when I disconnect the equipment but in this case it is less dramatic. If I disconnect the dome, thid will terminate the scopedome driver but the OCH still needs the scopedome driver to get the environmental data.
I also don’t like that the scopedome driver is shut down on disconnect because this driver also performs safety features for the dome operation when SGP is not running.
It sounds like there is something in the driver that is requiring them to be connected in a specific manner in order to function correctly. I believe you’ll need to talk to ScopeDome to address this.
Some drivers can be started externally from client applications and then continue to run after the client applications have terminated. It may be worth seeing if this is one of those. If not you’d have to disable the disconnect on sequence end option in SGP.
I don’t think this is a ScopeDome driver issue. To me it looks like the Observation Conditon Hub Server cannot attach to a driver that is already running. Since SGP is connection the observatory driver before it connects the safety monitor, the Scopedome driver is already running and the OCH server cannot attach to the Scopedome driver.
I can start the Scopedome driver before I start SGP and I have also disabled the “disconnect at sequence end” but when I close SGP it disconnects and closes the scopededome driver. Do you have influence if you close the driver when you disconnect or if you keep it running? I talked to ScopeDome and they have no influence if the driver keeps running or gets closed at disconnect.
Best regards,
Dietmar
Drivers can support multiple connections should the driver choose to support it. Think about telescope drivers and how almost all of them allow multiple simultaneous connections. This is also similar to the MoonLite NiteCrawler that is a rotator and focuser. You can connect the rotator and the focuser to SGP at the same time and the driver allows this even though it is exposing 2 different devices.
The Observation Condition Hub Server can connect to a running device, should the device support that.
We do not. The only option we have is to set the Connection to false and what happens after that is up to the driver or ASCOM. If other clients are connected to the driver then it should stay running or if it’s an EXE and you launch it outside of SGP then it should also stay running when all clients disconnect. But in general if the driver is launched through an application then the driver will keep count of how many clients are connected and when that number hits 0 the driver will dispose itself. But if you launch the driver externally (assuming this is supported) then it will continue running when all clients have disconnected.
Hello Jared,
there is no version difference. Jacek just installed the latest DLLs on my PC. Scopedome confirmed this behavior and they believe this is the correct behavior. I have a different opinion but that’s life. The good thing in software is, there are always many roads to success.
Thanks for your help,
Dietmar
I use latest ScopeDome driver version.