Staff Assigned: Adam Robichaud Guiding, calibration on Aluma 694 not possible

Discussion in 'Aluma CCD Series' started by Paul Haese, Jan 18, 2020.

  1. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    I sent an email to Adam and Doug regarding this matter but have not heard back, so thought it prudent to put the problem in a thread.

    I have the camera connecting and cooling. When I go to calibrate the guider, the following occurs:

    1 Take image, I get an image of the star field. Message Error in plug in callback (519), Error in guide camera plug in
    2 Calibrate, first image taken in calibration sequence, moving mount stated but it goes no further.
    3 Calibration goes no further. I waited 5 minutes without any change. The programme just stalls.

    Can this problem be corrected? I am eager to use the camera and final commissioning cannot go any further without this problem being resolved. I am using V6.20.
     

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  2. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Any news yet?
     
  3. Adam Robichaud

    Adam Robichaud Lead Developer Staff Member

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    Have you tried running MaxIm DL v6.21? We made some changes to the guiding algorithm/plugin that shore up guider operations. We also attempted to address that callback error (which was typically related to FITS keys).
     
  4. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Paul, one more tip in addition to Adam's suggestion.

    Your camera may not have the latest new version of the Firmware for the Camera and Firmware for the WiFi (if yours is a WiFi model).
    See this page for info:
    http://diffractionlimited.com/aluma-fpga-firmware/

    It's worth upgrading.
    Cheers
    Colin
     
  5. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Hi Adam and Colin,

    Adam, I have just installed 6.21 (it was 6.20). Camera control is ok so far, cooling and connection went seamlessly. I took a guide frame and that came up without the error, simply stating that a star could not be found. It is day here and the dome is closed (so that makes sense). I'll have to wait for a clear night to see if the guiding works. Fingers crossed this solves the problem. I'll let you know.

    Colin, I had installed the firmware, but mine is not a WiFi model. So perhaps there was some glitch between 6.20 and the new firmware. Would it require rollback?
     
  6. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Don't rollback anything.
    There's 3 pieces = Firmware version 20 for Camera FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array, the brain); DL Imaging Drivers 1.4.0.0 to have the software on the PC talk to the camera; MaxIm 6.21.

    Let us know how things go tonight if it clears up.
     
  7. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Ok, good news and bad news.

    Camera connects, guide calibration goes well in MaximDL. Guiding seems to work ok but Y drifts a bit. Not sure why. It's like no corrections are occurring. I checked the guide settings, everything looks good. Perhaps the 10 seconds for calibration is not enough. Though I did have at least once when the stars were guiding ok in both axis.

    The bad news. I tried initializing in CCDAP but Maxim crashes when initializing the guider. Maxim takes an image with the main camera and solves it. Then maxim takes an image with the guider and then crashes. I tried this three times with guider relays and got the same results. I then changed to main relays and it crashed again. I gave that away and decided to hibernate the observatory for the night.

    Any suggestions?
     
  8. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Ok good, so you've made some progress.
    Can you zip up your settings and attach here using Upload a File (button at the lower right), so we can have a look?
    They should be somewhere like:
    C:\Users\Paul\Documents\MaxIm DL 6\Settings
     
  9. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Also, what mount do you have?
     
  10. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Hi Colin, see attached.

    The mount I have in that observatory is a PMX. In the other observatory I have a PME. I might be placing this camera into the other observatory (with the PME) at some point in the future, so would need to know what to do for that one too, should the mount be an issue. I doubt that would be the case though. Never had this problem with the STXL and either mount.
     

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  11. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    I don't have time to look at this today (Saturday) due to family commitments.
    However, I'd recommend setting the guider output to ASCOM Direct.
    Make sure you have the Software Bisque Paramount ASCOM2XAdapter installed, and that you have enabled direct guide and pulse guide in it.
    Change the guide output in MaxIm to the Software Bisque ASCOM driver for TheSky.
    Then you can remove the guider cable (RJ11 phone cable).
     
  12. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Colin, I am going to give this a go tonight and see what transpires.
     
  13. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    No, that did not work either. It calibrates and guides in Maxim alone fine, but when I go to initialize in CCDAP5 with maxim (so it remembers the guiding parameters and adjusts for the entire sky), Maxim crashes when CCDAP calls on Maxim to calibrate the guider. This problem is very similar to the AOX and CCDAP problem, in that I needed to calibrate for each session. Seems like nothing has changed.
     
  14. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Any ideas chaps? I cannot use the camera at all with CCDAP at present which means I cannot use it remotely. Not what I was expecting. Given that ACP would require the use of Maxim too, this would also likely mean ACP would be ineffective also. I cannot use it in SkyX either because it means I need to use DL imaging in the SkyX to operate the main camera and the guide camera. This then uses Maxim DL to control the camera. If you need another zip with the new settings that Colin suggested can you let me know please? Nice camera pity I cannot use it. This might be a deal breaker.
     
  15. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Paul, my colleague @Adam Robichaud is looking into a few things that may give us some insight.
    We're wondering if your machine is a bit messed because of all the reinstalls/uninstalls.
    When you say MaxIm is crashing, can you be more specific - does it just exit out, or does it give some message/error?
    If you View... Log Window, is there anything in there that gives a hint as to what goes on?
    I'm trying to figure out if this is somehow specific to your install, or what.
     
  16. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    What version of CCDAP are you running? I saw at least one report of CCDAP crashing (with MaXIm 6.18 and an Atik camera) in the guiding area, and am starting to whether there is something else going on.
    Is the observatory internet accesible - could we Remote Desktop or TeamViewer or something like that into it? I'd like to see what is going on first-hand.
    My local time is 8:22am (UTC-5).
     
  17. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Hi Colin, when it crashes it says MaximDL has stopped working and needs to quit. The log does not give much information at all.

    I am using the latest version of CCDAP 5.0. Yes You or Adam could teamviewer into it to check it out. I am around 18 hours from your time I think. South Australia. Please email me to get the password and identifier. The machine is on right now but you may not be up still.
     
  18. Paul Haese

    Paul Haese Cyanogen Customer

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    Any News? Not heard from either of you about when this problem is going to get looked at. Could you give me an indication as to when you can take a look at the observatory computer and or analysis of the files I uploaded?
     
  19. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    PM sent.
     

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