Problems with Alt/Az-GOTO

[StarFlea]

Hi Robin!

Several times last night I had problems with an Alt/Az GOTO statement within a sequence:

GOTO.JPG (77.55 KiB) Viewed 384 times

Although the telescope performed a movement each time, the sequence then broke off with an error message each time.

Unfortunately I can't decide if the problem is with Sharpcap or ASCOM. I can only say that this problem did not exist before the beta (4.1.10652.0).


Here ist an example for an interesting section in LOG-file (complete File is too large for attachment):

Debug 22:07:36.770489 #1 Sequencer : Starting : Move the mount to Alt=55, Az=130 in void SharpCap.Sequencer.SequencerContext.OnProgress(string e)
Info 22:07:36.771739 #1 Mount claims not to be able to slew to AltAz, but able to do RA/Dec and we have Lat/Long, converting in void SharpCap.Models.Mount.SlewToAltAz(double alt, double az)
Error 22:09:37.582520 #1 Running step Move the mount to Alt=55, Az=130 : Exception of type 'Exception' : Mount failed to complete goto within 120 seconds
Stack Trace: at async Task SharpCap.Sequencer.Steps.MountGotoStep.WaitForSlewCompleteAndMountSettled(ISequencerContext context, IMount mount, CancellationToken cancellationToken) in C:/Documents/Source Code/SharpCap/src/SharpCap/Sequencer/Steps/MountGotoStep.cs:line 138
at async Task SharpCap.Sequencer.Steps.MountGotoAltAzStep.ExecuteImplAsync(ISequencerContext context, CancellationToken cancellationToken) in C:/Documents/Source Code/SharpCap/src/SharpCap/Sequencer/Steps/MountGotoStep.cs:line 312
at async Task SharpCap.Sequencer.Steps.StepBase.ExecuteAsync(ISequencerContext context, CancellationToken cancellationToken, bool internalUse) in C:/Documents/Source Code/SharpCap/src/SharpCap/Sequencer/Steps/StepBase.cs:line 119 in void SharpCap.Sequencer.SequencerContext.OnStepError(ISequencerStep step, Exception exception)
Info 22:09:37.582796 #1 The script being run was :
SEQUENCE
CAMERA CLOSE
MOUNT SELECT "EQMOD HEQ5/6"
MOUNT CONNECT
MOUNT UNPARK
MOUNT GOTO ALTAZ 55 130
MOUNT TRACKING None
MOUNT DISCONNECT
END SEQUENCE in void SharpCap.Sequencer.SequencerContext.OnStepError(ISequencerStep step, Exception exception)
Debug 22:09:37.582897 #1 Sequencer : Error : 'Mount failed to complete goto within 120 seconds' while running step Move the mount to Alt=55, Az=130 in void SharpCap.Sequencer.SequencerContext.OnProgress(string e)
Info 22:09:37.585708 #1 The sequence is now finished.

Best regards!
StarFlea

[admin]

Hi,

There are only two reasons to get that particular message:

1) if the 'Slewing' property of the ASCOM driver is not changing back from 'true' to 'false' after the movement has completed.

2) SharpCap's update of the mount status has stopped working - if this happens then the mount co-ordinates shown in SharpCap would also stop updating.

(Obviously there is also the 'thing I haven't thought of' as the third option...)

I'm suspecting option 1 as the most likely. You could try turning on the additional logging of mount hardware communication to see if you can catch the requests from SharpCap for the slewing status of the mount and what the response is.

I suspect that 4.1.10652 was the release after I had been through some of these sequencer steps and made sure that they all waited for the mount to stop slewing, rather than just proceeding anyway.

cheers,

Robin

[StarFlea]

Hi Robin!

Now I have recorded the error under extended logging.

I still can't reproduce it 100% though. Sometimes it appears, sometimes not: Most of the time, the first sequence runs flawlessly with a GOTO, the second no longer.

Greetings!
StarFlea

[StarFlea]

Hello again!

During my tests, I found that SharpCap regularly hangs when I try to start another after completing one sequence.
But I can't say if this is related to the original problem!?

The freezes still occur even after I have completely restarted SharpCap.

StarFlea

[admin]

Hi,

the freeze in your last post is related to problems with graphics card acceleration - the giveaway is this line in the log

Code: Select all

at System.Windows.Media.Composition.DUCE+Channel.SyncFlush()

Basically the part of the Windows display framework that actually draws the content of the application to the screen has died in the background, and when the code gets to the point that it needs to update something it tries to tell the display framework to do its bit and gets stuck.

You need to either disable graphics card acceleration in the SharpCap settings or try updating your graphics drivers to the latest version (some older Intel ones for UHD graphics were particularly bad for this issue).

As to the previous one with the GOTO getting stuck...

In that log you can see SharpCap updating the status of the mount repeatedly throughout the log (about every 0.5s or so), then at the end the updates just stop. One possibility is that nothing is triggering the updates, but the mount co-ordinate display in the controls should do that. The other possibility is that the update has got stuck (ie asks the EQMOD driver for the status of something and never gets a response). Neither seem to quite fit as for the latter we would expect to see something in the log saying that we had started asking the ASCOM driver for some status and no matching 'completed' line.

I will have to add some extra logging around the possible areas where this might go wrong so we can work out what is happening.

cheers,

Robin