Waiting for Trigger Issue

Discussion in 'Aluma AC Series CMOS' started by Ira Bell, Dec 18, 2022.

  1. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    Hi, have there been any updates or resolutions on Greg's comments/questions? I have been holding off on installing Revision 14 for the Aluma AC 4040 based on this thread.

    Thanks, Ira
     
  2. Greg Nelson

    Greg Nelson Cyanogen Customer

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    Ira,
    No more info yet but I was easily able to downgrade back to the version that works on my rig. If you have an FW7 I’d be interested if the new firmware 14 works for you. It seems the issue is specific to my equipment, since they have not been able to reproduce the problem yet at Diffraction Limited offices,

    Greg
     
  3. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    Ok Greg - I performed the upgrade. In fact, I did several updates just to get everything out of the way:

    1. Windows Updates: Huge round of updates, including Windows 11 Pro 22H2, .NET updates, etc. I did have to go into device manager and fix all of the Power Management settings. Of note, this new windows update seems to reset my Power Management settings specifically for the SBIG Camera every time I power cycle it - yet not the SBIG Camera A and SBIG Camera B. I'm not sure why it is failing to persist in the state. I feel very comfortable with Microsoft technology so worst case I'll write a Powershell script or something easy and automate it. I will share it with the forums here on DL when I have the time to sit down and write it.
    2. MaximDL Upgraded to 6.30: Happy to say that all previous configurations conveyed/persisted. This is probably because I took the time to document everything. :)
    3. Aluma AC 4040 Firmware Updated to Rev 14: Update went through flawlessly, camera connected after power cycle without issue.

    Now for the bad news... I am having a similar issue to yours but not a show stopper. I am also having another issue that feels somewhat new, so I'll mention briefly here and then will probably open a new thread so DL can manage through it without muddying things.

    Issues:
    1. Waiting for Trigger: I get this same problem when trying to run an Auto Sequence. It will hang indefinitly - though not such that MaximDL is frozen. More so that it will just sit in this limbo state waiting to start the sequence and it will never begin even though I've clicked start. If I click "Stop", then click single exposure, and set the fdilter wheel to the filter I was expecting - then click Start to take a single exposure - it happens immediately. This indicates to me that the filter wheel has actually moved to the desired place and MaximDL is somehow not able to recognize that it has occurred when running auto-sequence only. Single exposure works just fine, for me, when going through the various filter wheel positions. Of note, if I run the single exposure in the desired filter wheel state then go back to auto-sequence, it will then run. (e.g. auto sequence begins with Ha, start, waiting for trigger, stop, set single exposure with Ha filter, start, single exposure captured, click auto-sequence, run, auto-sequence begins without waiting for trigger error).
    2. Camera Disconnected Unexpectedly, Error Retrieving Image Array Size, MaximDL freezes totally (clicking makes it grey out and gets me to a crash): These issues now occur every time I try to run an auto-sequence while guiding with AO. Essentially AO works just fine, I locate the star, calibrate, start guiding, that can run as long as I let it run - but the minute I begin an auto-sequence I'm going to get one of the three issues noted in this paragraph. For the DL folks - you'll easily be able to replicate this in my environment because it happens 100% of the time!

    Greg - I'd like to stay in touch with you if you're open to it! It seems we have similar(ish) rigs! It would probably be helpful for us to learn from one another / bounce ideas. There are a couple of other folks I mentioned connecting with and they were open to the idea!

    Ira
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2022
  4. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Typical for what I'm seeing from my own setup and other customers.
    The "SBIG Camera" is the AC4040 or any SBIG camera with a USB 3.0 interface (blue connector) using a USB 3.0 interface made by FTDIchip.
    It seems there is a quirk in the FTDIchip driver that re-enables power saving.
    We've noticed this before, and we're waiting on some new stuff from the chip maker.
    I don't think it is a problem worth worrying about. As long as the hubs/root hub are not powering off, this seems to be inconsequential.

    Not sure that this is necessary. If you do so, thank you for sharing.


    The only thing that sometimes changes are filter wheel or AO related items, depending on how old the prior version was. We try to maintain forward compatibility. e.g. upgrades should generally preserve settings.
    Thanks for the happy report; AND for documenting - more people should do that!

    Ok, that's good.
    Is the filter wheel behaving?

    Check that the Camera's advanced settings for External Hardware Trigger are disabled. Like so (See the yellow circle - step 4):
    use_external_trigger.png
    Be sure to verify for both cameras (main, guider).
    If this isn't the issue, let us know, and we'll investigate.
    It's possible a copy of the older version of the dlapi.dll might be in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6. It is safe to delete from that folder.


    Check to see if the dlapi.dll is in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6. It is safe to delete from that folder.
    There should only be a copy in C:\windows\SysWOW64
    Let us know.
     
  5. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    No worries. For my own (and perhaps the community's benefit) I intend to write a script that hits device manager with a broad disable of this setting for all devices listed. I'll share it with no reps or warranties and a warning and probably maintain it on GitHub. It seems to come up a lot.

    It appears to be, at this time. Other than the weirdness in the waiting for trigger and the workaround I described.

    'Use Ext Trigger' was already disabled for both the AC4040M and SC1300M (meaning I did not have to make any changes to comply with your request).

    The file dlapi.dll was not present in C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6. However, it was present in C:\windows\SysWOW64. See the attached image for the MD5 hash of that file.
     

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  6. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    Also - for the DL folks - I am quite happy to work through the issues I've noted in this thread (particularly with Frank following as well). Or if you prefer, I can open a new thread.
     
  7. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Generally speaking, we prefer that people post in separate threads. It's very common for similar-sounding issues to be completely different in reality, and as you can imagine that can create a great deal of confusion.

    I will move your comments to a separate thread.
     
  8. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    Agreed Doug, thanks for moving the thread.
     
  9. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    Another update. I'm unable to take flats using Voyager's autoflat sequence as Maxim just hangs on "Waiting for filter". See attached image.
     

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  10. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    It seems to me that in Maxim 6.30 (and/or possibly the firmware update) - that when you select a filter in single exposure, the filter wheel immediately begins moving to that position before you click "start" to take an exposure. This feels like different behavior than in the past where I would select a filter, then click "start" to take a single exposure and then wait for the filter wheel to arrive at its position and watch Maxim conduct the exposure. I had to power cycle the camera and restart maxim three times to get to the point where I could take single exposures all from within Maxim. It feels like something in either Maxim 6.30 or the firmware update has screwed up our control of the filter wheel. Between this which has worsened as of today and the second error I mentioned above I am now in an unusable state, again.
     
  11. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    MaxIm DL has always moved the filter wheel as soon as you changed the drop list. If you then click Expose it will wait until the filter wheel has stopped moving. It's always worked this way since V1.
     
  12. Ira Bell

    Ira Bell Cyanogen Customer

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    Any chance I can get an update on this? Still unable to use my telescope.
     
  13. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    For anyone reading about enable/disable Hardware Trigger, follow the steps shown below to ensure the Use Ext Trigger is turned off. See green circle step #5.
    Use_ext_trigger.png

    Meanwhile, our engineering team are investigating firmware changes between AC4040 version 13 and 14 to see if this accounts for what Greg's experienced.
    Ira's issue with hardware triggering is being followed up separately.
     
  14. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Hello @Ira Bell
    We released an update on Friday May 19 to the DL API Drivers.
    This is recommended for all Aluma and STC cameras.

    You can read about it and download here:
    https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/dlapi-2-7-1-0-released.9722/

    This addresses a number of issues, including a change to filter wheel handling.

    Please install it and test it out.
    Let us know if it resolves the filter wheel issue you've experienced.

    If not, we'd like to do a bit more troubleshooting with you.
     

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