SGP crashing during darks

Sequence Generator
1

Two nights ago I had SGP crash during an end of night darks sequence. I thought it was just a fluke, maybe a power glitch in the observatory or something (it is not on a UPS, the PC is). The next night all was well but then last night it did it again.

All normal up to that time. PhD had stopped guiding, scope had parked and disconnected (Paramount ME), Roll-Off had closed, Darks had started and 3 (first time) to 11 (second time) darks had completed. Then SGP just crashed. The other programs continued to run (although they had already stopped being active as they should). No idea what happened.

Only a mild annoyance when it happens during darks, my concern is it may start happening during lights.

I do not think the log will be much help, here is a snippet from the end and it looks normal until it just stops:

[6/17/2015 3:48:39 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera status check: INTEGRATING
[6/17/2015 3:48:39 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Waking from exposure time sleep period…
[6/17/2015 3:48:39 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Checking to see if the CCD has a temp…
[6/17/2015 3:48:39 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Saving the CCD temp…
[6/17/2015 3:48:39 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Entering super dangerous loop to await image completion…
[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Error in GetCurrentPos : GetAndFixRaDec (ASCOM.NotConnectedException: GetAndFixRaDec
at ASCOM.SoftwareBisque.Telescope.CheckConnected(String message)
at ASCOM.SoftwareBisque.Telescope.GetAndFixRaDec()
at ASCOM.SoftwareBisque.Telescope.get_RightAscension())
at ASCOM.DriverAccess.MemberFactory.CheckDotNetExceptions(String memberName, Exception e) in c:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\MemberFactory.cs:line 560
at ASCOM.DriverAccess.MemberFactory.GetTargetInvocationExceptionHandler(String memberName, Exception e) in c:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\MemberFactory.cs:line 650
at ASCOM.DriverAccess.MemberFactory.CallMember(Int32 memberCode, String memberName, Type[] parameterTypes, Object[] parms) in c:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\MemberFactory.cs:line 231
at ASCOM.DriverAccess.Telescope.get_RightAscension() in c:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\Telescope.cs:line 769
at ah.GetCurrentPosition(Boolean force)
[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera status check: INTEGRATION_COMPLETE
[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera: end exposure called…
[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera: read data…
[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera: starting readout…
[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera: reading lines…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG Camera: end readout…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SBIG read complete. Took 1167ms…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_CAMERA_CAPTURE complete…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Image reported as complete. Continuing…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Collecting FITs headers…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] DATE-LOC time provided by SGPro (failed to retrieve from camera)…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] GatherFitsHeaders: Writing header info for last solve…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] GatherFitsHeaders: Writing header info from UI…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Clearing timed monitoring events…
[6/17/2015 3:48:42 AM] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Created full file name (file does not exist): H:\2015 Images\6-16-15\Dark\Darks_300sec_1x1_S2_frame11.fit

2

Is H: a local drive or a mapped network drive? Since it seems to have happened during writing of the frame it seems a little suspect. Not saying that’s the issue, just a starting point.

Thanks,
Jared

3

Standard Hard Drive Locally. Not a new drive but I have not seen any issues with it that I know of. It is only about 1/4 full, and is a 1/2 Tb Seagate Momentus. Would you suggest trying saving elsewhere? I have a small SSD data drive on the system as well I could save to.

4

No need to save elsewhere. Just making sure it wasn’t a network drive.

I’m not entirely sure what the issue could be. I’ll try to reproduce this evening.

Thanks,
Jared

5

Im wondering if the end of the logs are a red herring. There is a disconnect of the mount directly above. If we tried to access the scope in some way (in another thread during save), it may produce this as well…

[6/17/2015 3:48:40 AM] [DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Error in GetCurrentPos : GetAndFixRaDec (ASCOM.NotConnectedException: GetAndFixRaDec
at ASCOM.SoftwareBisque.Telescope.CheckConnected(String message)
6

I do know that with the Paramount ME, when the mount is parked from SGP it has always also disconnected. I assume this is normal or a product of the way SGP and/or TheSky parks the mount. It has never caused a crash before (although used to cause some lengthy and messy logs ).

I think what you are saying is that something (maybe fairly new) in SGP is asking to talk to the mount when it is not available and therefore crashing. Is that right?

7

OK, well if this is normal behavior then it also may be nothing. Alternatively, you could be right… maybe in new builds there is somewhere we attempt to illegally access the telescope driver.

8

It’s definitely normal behaviour of the SB mounts that they disconnect when they finish parking. This is a nuisance for the ASCOM driver because all we can do to tell that the mount is parked is see that the mount is not connected and hope that’s because the park command worked. After that we have to report that the mount is not connected and any command that needs communicating with the mount, such as reading the position, will fail.

9

Ran again last night with no issues. I did switch to saving to an SSD, not that it was needed. This seems to be pretty random.