John,

Strange things are happening lately. CCDAP seems to think that the mount is on the opposite side of where it actually is, and so checks (or unchecks) the box in the maxim guide dialog tab. I'm using a gemini equipped g-11. This is new behavior. It might be related to ascom 5, although I did not upgrade the gemini driver. I've had to manually toggle the pier flip checkbox to fool ccdap. Any ideas?

On another front, several nights in a row, I have a perfectly guided 20 minute image, only to have all subsequent images ruined by terrible guiding. Nothing has changed between images except alt and az, but in 20 minutes there is no radical shift. I've tried rebooting and starting over from scratch, but to no avail. The next night, the first image guides perfectly, and then the whole cycle starts over. Again, this is new behavior, only in the last week or so. I've carefully checked balance, but everything seems to be in order, with a tiny bit of load to the east.

I still would love to see a feature that terminated an image if the guiding error went over a certain threshold.

Thanks for any ideas,

Pete
Double L Observatory
Camden ME

Peter,

Please submit a log of the run with the problem. There should be no need to "fool" CCDAP about anything. Many folks run night after night with CCDAP/Maxim without incident. Don't get all excited about CCDP checking and unchecking the pier flip box. It determines the pier side internally and what is going on in the Maxim UI may not be relevant.

What was missing in ASCOM 4.1 that made you go to ASCOM 5? If all worked ok with 4.1 and doesn't with 5.0, that may be a clue. Have you tried reverting to 4.1?

john,

I've attached one of the log files, although I'm not sure how helpful it will be. I began the session on the east side of the meridian and the Maxim UI showed the box checked. At the start of an image, the autoguider RA error immediately climbed off the 0 mark, indicative of a pier flip issue. If I stopped the guider manually, unchecked the box, and then started guiding again, the RA error would return to 0.

I'll try reverting to ascom v 4.1 if I can find it.

Thanks, Pete

ccdap20080221_184229.log (5 KB, 90 downloads)

Hi Pete,

Do you have a log file that shows the guider moving the star off the chip? The log you posted shows a problem with your plate solves rather than a guiding problem. When you start Maxim up and connect to your cameras, can you take a look at the "pier flip" checkbox and determine whether it has a check or not before you start CCDAP3? That might give a direction to look in depending on the answer.

Pete,

You will never get successful guiding without successful plate solving. You must resolve the plate solving issue first by choice of exposure time, binning, etc. Your plate solving is set to use a red filter. This is not a good choice as the signal will be more attenuated than with a clear or luminance filter.

You should resolve the plate solving issue before reverting to ASCOM 4.1 as this may not be necessary.

Gentlemen,

Terribly sorry about attaching the wrong file. I have changed the plate solve filter to clear, and I have been pretty reliably plate solving.


I have attached a logfile from last night that shows the problems after the pier flip. I just reverted to ascom v 4.1, but with the same exact problems.

Here's what I know: Connecting to the gemini via poth from maxim does not check the pierflip checkbox in the guiding dialog box. It is only when ccdap goes to guide that the checkbox toggles. This leads me to believe that something changed in the last update of ccdap. Should I try reverting to the last version?

Thanks again for any suggestions.

Pete

ccdap20080224_183917.log (26 KB, 64 downloads)

In addition to the private response, I note in your log some conflicting settings for meridian crossing. On the one hand, you tell the run to pause 10 minutes before the meridian crossing yet you tell the mount to track 10 minutes past the meridian crossing. Try setting the latter to 0.

John,

After exhaustive testing, I finally resolved the problem of ccdap improperly toggling the pier flip checkbox in Maxim by resetting ccdap. After the reset and subsequent initialization, ccdap knows the correct side of the meridian that the scope is at.

Now we are back to where we were and I am guiding well again.

I'll look into the meridian crossing settings.

Thanks for all your help.

Pete