Staff Assigned: Adam Robichaud STX-16803 or MaxIm hangs

I'm using ACP and Scheduler for remote operation of my observatory (the telescope is in Australia and I'm in the US). Recently, ACP has been hanging up intermittently. I sent a detailed log file to Bob Denny. He said he had never seen the problem before and said I needed to contact SBIG / Diffraction Limited to get help. I could really use some help because as it is, when the observatory hangs up, it doesn't close at sunrise or if the weather goes bad. This is a very dangerous situation!

Below is Bob's last message to me:

That sheds some light on it. Again, for refreshment, after I call Expose(), the InitialWait loop waits for one of the "exposing" status values (3, 11, or 12) indicating that the camera is really exposing. I do this because some cameras have a slow RBI mitigation phase and I want to wait till all of that is over before entering the "real" exposure timing loop (which does have my own timeout ... unlike me but...). I haven't even seen a camera that fails like yours. Even if I put a timeout into the InitialWait loop, the failure is still going to be there, it'll just be handled more rationally (instead of getting stuck). Anyway:

17:23:34 [T] [tkpic] StartWait - STAT = 2
17:23:34 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
17:23:34 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:35 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:35 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:36 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:36 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:37 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:37 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:38 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:39 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:23:39 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 6
17:23:40 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 6
17:23:40 (starting exposure)

2 is "idle", 9 is "waiting till time to start exposure" (unsure what this is, Diffraction will need to explain if needed), 6 is "flushing the sensor array", and "(starting exposure) is going to be 3 "exposing a light frame" which allows exit from the loop.

17:30:11 [T] [tkpic] StartWait - STAT = 2
17:30:11 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
17:30:11 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:12 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:12 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:13 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:14 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:14 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:15 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:15 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:16 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:16 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:17 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:17 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 9
17:30:18 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
17:30:19 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
17:30:19 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
17:30:20 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
17:30:20 [T] [tkpic] InitialWait - STAT = 2
[... ad nauseum]

Here, the sequence starts with 2 (idle) as before, then 9 (delay) as before, then back to 2 (idle) forever. In this case the call to Expose() did not result in the camera starting the exposure. Instead of flushing and exposing after the 9/delay phase, it just goes idle again . You're the first to report this problem. I could put a timeout counter into this loop, but that wouldn't make things more reliable, it would only make the response the error more rational ("Unspecified camera failure - exposure failed to start after xxx seconds").

This one will need to go to Diffracton for the next level of troubleshooting. I don't know what things could cause the camera to simply go idle instead of performing the requested operation (expose). They can contact me, but the log you posted here should be plenty clear to them.
-- Bob

 

Adam,

I've put this problem on hold. It only comes up when I take images using autoguiding, which I don't normally do. I'm dealing with a different issue now. My Paramount ME II disconnects at random times. I trying to diagnose and fix this problem first. Then I'll get back to the camera hang up. I have some evidence that these issues are not related, but I want to be scientific about this and solve one issue at a time. The problem is that the telescope is in Australia and I'm in Indiana. The distance makes it a lot harder to figure things out. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks.

Rick