is a problem that's just starting to come up. The system is at SRO and we don't always keep a close eye on it. I found that if I cycle the power it seems to clear the issue. Another occasional issue is the camera is suppose to start an exposure and it simply sits at 0 seconds waiting forever hanging the program, MaxIm DL 6.13. Seems to be related to the camera starting issue as they both cropped up at the same time. If I abort the exposure in ACP it will do the next thing be it shutdown the system or take the next exposure, depending on when I catch the problem. This can hang the system for hours if not caught and the shutdown script won't run as it thinks it's taking an exposure. I can't think of any hardware changes recently and this is a Windows 7 system, 64 bit with 32 GBs RAM running ACP Expert, FocusMax, MaxImDL, and RoboFocus. The telescope connects to the camera for ASCOM Direct guiding as well as ACP. All images and scripts are run through ACP Expert. Thanks, Steve
Is it running through a USB hub? Could be flaky. Check the USB cables for damage/corrosion/degradation. Check that the camera is getting good power. Could try using a Restore Point to remove recent Windows Updates. Microsoft has been randomly breaking random people's computers of late. Other than that... if there is in fact an issue developing with the camera it's going to be nearly impossible to find when it's that intermittent. If you can baby it along until hard failure develops it would be a lot easier to resolve.
No Doug, we never use USB hubs and it's directly connected to the computer. Fortunately Windows 7 doesn't force feed updates and none have been done for a while now (months). It happened again last night after already taking 7 - 600 second exposures. ACP acquired the guide star, ran series of 5 good guider cycles and then went to start the exposure, and sat there for who knows how long before I saw it this morning and aborted the exposure at which time it proceeded to take dawn flats as expected. I don't think it's a USB issue as it never looses power to the camera or it's connection. I had thought about sending another active USB cable to replace but I'd like to eliminate the cause before just throwing things at it. The camera also is using the newer power supply. Steve
There used to be a firmware issue that could cause the shutter state in STX/STXL to lock up. Do you have the latest firmware installed?
OK Doug, Found that the STXGA firmware file was not up to date and updated as well as the driver. Usually don't check this often as I usually go by the old saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and it usually served me well. We'll see if this fixes the issue. Thanks, Steve
So far everything has been working as expected after updating the firmware. Thanks for the clue because I would have never looked there. especially being remote.
