Staff Assigned: Brian Brown AO-8a won't bump mount

Discussion in 'Guiding and Adaptive Optics - StarChaser and AO' started by mike m benjamin, Dec 17, 2019.

  1. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    I zipped everything I think is relevant, if I zipped the entire setting file it was too large. I am somewhat suspicious of my mount as I reloaded version 6.20 and tried it last night with the same results, then I updated to 6.21 after a couple hours of testing with 6.20.
     

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  2. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Sorry that isn't sufficient.

    There might be some image files in one of the subfolders; you can skip those for now. I'll need everything else.
     
  3. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Try this
     

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  4. William B

    William B Cyanogen Customer

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    Hi Mike et.al.

    At the risk of muddying the waters further...

    If Doug can see nothing obvious wrong with your settings there are a couple of points to check.

    Two of our students had problems with the ASCOM platform following mid January's Microsoft 'Patch Tuesday' .Net security update.
    It was update KB4533002 in Windows 10. I'm not in the office again till next week so I can't tell you the update number for Win7, I think it was the very last one issued before Microsoft ended Win7 support.

    Reinstall the complete ASCOM platform and the iOptron ASCOM driver.
    The issues we had following the .Net update included guiding and slewing problems but no errors actually reported by ASCOM or MaxIm.

    I see that you have been uninstalling - reinstalling MaxIm and trying the beta versions.

    We have found that the uninstall wizards do not do a complete job of removing all the MaxIm files and registry entries and leave some behind which may cause odd behaviour when running with a new version or rolling back to an old version.

    In Win 7, after the usual uninstall go to location C:\Program Files (x86) \ Diffraction Limited...and manually delete the entire folder(s) "MaxIm DL 6" (there may be more than one) then install the fresh copy of MaxIm.
    In Win 10 it is the same procedure but don't uninstall from the "Apps and Features" tab but rather, use the "Programs and Features" tab then manually delete the MaxIm DL 6 folder as described above.

    We have noticed that there is an issue when multiple versions of the same program exist on a Windows 1o system in that the 'Apps and Features' tab only shows the most recent copy of the program, if you uninstall the program from this location it leaves behind hidden older versions and the associated registry entries which then cause issues when you reinstall. If you use the 'Programs and Features' tab in Win 10 then you will see all listed versions of the program and can remove them (all) individually.

    It has been my experience when transitioning from a full release version of MaxIm to beta versions and back again that it is best to start afresh with a clean config folder while saving the old config folder to go back to if any issue that I might be trying to solve is still present.

    William.
     
  5. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Mike, run DL Config, and tell us what Firmware revision is in your camera.
    It should be 20.
     
  6. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Colin,

    I checked it is 20. I did find my ascom driver for the cem120 was one version out of date, So I took Williams suggestion and removed and reinstalled the ascom platform and cem120 driver, I deleted and installed 6.21 DL Pro. I will test out on the next decent night.
     
  7. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Ok, I did another two nights of testing, last night with cem120, I made sure all the mount firmware and ascom driver were up to date, no
    change unfortunately. Once the deflection limit is reached, it will bump the mount nonstop. The larger the setting for the bump time, the quicker the AO deflection reaches 100%. ,
    Tonight I switched over to my Celestron CGX, no difference same results. Doesn't appear that it's any mount issue, possibility issue with the AO itself? Tonight after I tested out the AO, I switched over to guide just with the internal guide chip, no issue at all, worked great.
    Here are the two nights logs.
     

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  8. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Have you check that the Guide tab MOVE button menu dialog properly moves the mount in all directions?
    move.png
    Try the 4 direction buttons, make sure the mount doesnt run away.
     
  9. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Yes Colin, I've used the move tab a number of times, it works fine in all directions.
     
  10. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    I think one of my colleagues will have to investigate with you.
    Is your setup internet accessible ? eg via Remote Desktop or some other tool like TeamViewer?
     
  11. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Yes Colin no problem, I have my pier just outside my house and connect via usb to my laptop. I have teamviewer. It can be hard to find a decent night here, usually can only give a days notice, forecast is too unpredictable here in NS.
     
  12. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Colin,

    Tonight looks as though it will be clear early evening hours, I'll setup when I get home from work (atlantic time), if I don't hear from your staff I'll check out the possibility of corrupted config files as William B. suggested.
     
  13. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Mike, send me a Private Message with your Teamviewer id and password when you are set up.
     
  14. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    How's the weather looking?
     
  15. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Right now quite good Colin. I have everything setup, I will do a quick alignment and the camera mount connected and be back with the teamviewer info.
     
  16. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Mike, include @Doug in the PM, so he can hop on.
     
  17. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Ready Colin, ID 913 777 852 PW 26wk7n
     
  18. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Mike I'm hopping in...
     
  19. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Okay first problem - the Activation Level for bumping is way too low. It was at 8%. I have increased it to 70%.

    Second problem - the drive calibration is coming out backwards. That's a software bug. Oddly it doesn't do that on my setup, so it's probable that you've installed the equipment differently than I did. So I'm thinking the programmer didn't test it with the equipment in all possible orientations (i.e. didn't unscrew the AO from the camera and try rotating it.)

    Can you post a photo of your equipment so we can see how everything is attached?

    For now the workaround is to manually set the mount bump directions opposite to what the calibration does. I used Reverse X ON and Reverse Y OFF. Now it works perfectly.

    I also upped the bump time to 20, as it seemed to require an awful lot of bumps to move it back. That of course can be adjusted to taste. You don't want it too fast because then the AO guiding won't keep up with it.
     
  20. mike m benjamin

    mike m benjamin Cyanogen Customer

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    Great Doug, I was using a low bump level mainly to save time trying to figure out the issue, I had it set at 40% before and still had the issue in the past. I'll leave it where you current have it. I think I have the AO in it's standard position.
    I do have a smaller issue with the camera itself, the temp sensor is out of calibration, it reads around 10 deg cooler than it actually is. The chip is so clean that darks are almost unnecessary I've found so having a matching set is almost unnecessary. Is the sensor a easy swap out?
     

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