Sharpcap Plate Solving - Possible Causes of spontaneous failure

[GaryS]

Hi
Plate solving (PS) in Sharpcap (SC) has always been like magic to me. It has nearly always worked flawlessly - until a week ago.

Just over a week ago, I've had to shift to using my iOptron AZ Mount Pro while a permanent pier is being constructed where my CEM70G normally stands. It was great to have a second mount and the AZMP has generally been a great EAA mount - very nice now with the new WO Redcat 51 on it. Unfortunately, while using Sharpcap with it in the normal way, it has spontaneously failed. When I have the AZMP slew to the first star for focus and sync'ing, I always invoke PS to get right on the star. About a week ago when I tried this, nothing happened - the mount didn't react. I re-started everything and again it failed. I set up the CEM 70 in a temporary location and carried on my observing program that night.

Over the past week, PS with the AZMP and SC has sporadically worked but now, with nearly every attempt, SC gives me a message asking permission to correct for a bad slew needing a excessive correction of 9-14 degrees - but, it never looks like that amount of correction is really required. When I select 'OK' to make the excessive correction, nothing happens - no correction and re-syncing, the AZMP does not move. When I use iOptron's Commander SW to make the initial slew, the mount moves fine and readily takes direction from the computer but not when it is Sharpcap trying to initiate a Plate Solve correction command.

So, I guess I'm asking for help to understand what could be causing SC to fail and how to restore its functionality. Is there some protective feature in SC that could be preventing the PS commands from being carried out - especially when they are large enough to trigger the permission box when a large correction is required? I'd be very grateful for any and all thoughts that you might offer. I'm missing some great Autumn observing nights due to this problem.
Cheers,
Gary

[celkins]

Gary,
I had a similar problem a week ago (I’m U.K. based), but I see that you’re in the US, and so your DST changes this weekend…
Notice that 1hour of DST => 15 degrees error in pointing/solving…

Don’t know if this explains it, but worth checking

[GaryS]

Interesting observation Celkins but we changed time at 0200 today and my problem with failing Sharpcap plate solving was before midnight last night.

How did you fix your problem? Was this also a SC issue or a mount issue?
Thank you
Gary

[admin]

Hi Gary,

could you post a log from a session where the plate solving has misbehaved like this please? The log is usually pretty informative about plate solving issues as almost everything relevant ends up in there (its just a matter of finding the right bits in amongst all the rest!)

cheerse,

Robin

[GaryS]

Hi Robin
Last night I replaced my SC Pro version with the latest update. After that, the mount controls functioned although clouds prevented me trying the plate solve. Before the update, attempts to use mount controls failed and gave an error message. I’ll review where to find the logs and post them for you.
Gary

[celkins]

Gary,
my mount’s RTC was still running BST : when I reset to UTC, things were fine…

Carl