We experience problems with our ST8 when we run exposures with short exposure times of smaller than 2 seconds. Running ACP with Scheduler, the MaximDL window shows the full bar of "downloading", but operation does not continue. It appears to be frozen at this time. This behavior has never happened at exposure times of larger than 2 seconds, and it does not always happen at shorter times. Unfortunately, if it happens in the middle of the night, we can loose valuable observation time for the rest of the night (we are operating remotely and take images according to various plans all night long with a variety of filters and exposure times - 1.x sec. to 120 sec. ). I have tried to use a few "debug" options from ASCOM to the SBIG logs (SBIGDriverChecker), but cannot find any obvious hint in the log files (well, in most cases I cannot interpret the log results...). If you could tell me which file might be useful I could probably upload that file for further investigation. Thanks for your support! Happy Holidays, Eagle
Turning on debugging in the SBIGDriverChecker will slow down downloads a significant amount, to the point where it may look frozen. Waiting a few minutes, the image eventually downloads. Does it also occur with debugging off. Can you collect a driver log and send us a copy to have a look at? Please zip and send us your "Settings" folder located in "My Documents/MaxIm DL 6", so we may see what options you have set.
Hello Tim, The problem occurs with SBIGDriverChecker logging on or off. Even after waiting for a long time (hours) the image does not download. I collected a driver log and added your requested files in a zip-file. The zip file does not contain a setting-directory structure, all files were dumped into the zip-file (I could explain the contained files if you need any help here). The SBIGDriverChecker log file location seems to revert to an older file for logging "SBIG_20161226.txt", even if I tried to set it to the correct day "SBIG_20170105.txt"; thus there are two diver log files with these different days included, one short, the other long. I also included the MaximDl log file "20170105.log". Hth, Eagle
Addendum to my former email: Last night the telescope operation got stuck after/during downloading after a 1.4 sec. exposure at about 11:03:32 (UTC), see MaximDL log below: >>>> 11:02:38*4 Started 1.400s 1530x1020 exposure, binned 1x1, ROI (0, 0) 11:02:40*4 Completed 1.400s 1530x1020 exposure, binned 1x1, ROI (0, 0) 11:03:05*4 Started 1.400s 1530x1020 exposure, binned 1x1, ROI (0, 0) 11:03:06*4 Completed 1.400s 1530x1020 exposure, binned 1x1, ROI (0, 0) 11:03:31*4 Started 1.400s 1530x1020 exposure, binned 1x1, ROI (0, 0) 11:03:32*4 Completed 1.400s 1530x1020 exposure, binned 1x1, ROI (0, 0) 11:18:51$4 Camera Exposure Aborted <<< I aborted the operation in ACP Obs Control. Cheers, Eagle
ACP uses the 2-phase imaging feature of MaxIm in which ACP waits for the CameraStatus to show completion of the exposure, then explicitly starts the image download. If the camera status (a software property of MaxIm) isn't sequencing normally that could cause the symptoms you're seeing. Did this "just start happening"? Has your ST-8 ever worked with short exposures when driven from ACP? If you want, feel free to start a thread on the DC-3 Communication Center and post an ACP run log (not the scheduler engine log) and I'll take a look at the log to see if I can see anything unusual.
