SC starts with wrong gotocoord

[admin]

Hi Don,

thanks for the info - I have a little iOptron SkyHunter mount here that I sometimes use - in spite of being much smaller it uses the same iOptron commander software, so I just tried that.

As far as I can see the correct sidereal time is reported by the mount at connection and the goto list is correctly positioned in terms of alt/az, which is not really much help, since it kind of rules out my one idea (unless your mount is somehow subtly different).

I will still put the sidereal time check into the next update, just in case - the logging produced on connection which records the values is shown below

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Info    14:07:12.904538 #41 Mount reports UTC date of 2024-09-26T13:07:12.9030000, system time is 2024-09-26T13:07:12.9018933Z, offset is 0.0011067s                    in void SharpCap.Models.Mount.CheckMountTime()
Info    14:07:12.905392 #41 Mount reports sidereal time of 13.42330734729767, system calculated sidereal time is 13.423402246173698, offset is -0.3s, based on longitude of -1.2833333333333334 calculated at 2024-09-26T13:07:12.9045669Z              in void SharpCap.Models.Mount.CheckMountTime()

if you happen to see the problem and find the log contains a significant offset between the times, let me know!

cheers,

Robin

[donboy]

Hi Robin,

Yesterday I was able to image and SC again had the wrong locations listed. The first object in the list was IC5068 (which was last object I imaged several days ago) and it had the altitude at 21 deg, when it should have been 78 deg. Restarting SC fixed the issue.

Attached is the log.

Don

[admin]

Hi Don,

thanks for that - it looks like we are on the right track, as the log reveals that when SharpCap first connects to the mount, it has no clue about either the current civil time or the sidereal time!

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Warning	19:34:42.447818	#38	Mount time of 2013-10-04T08:39:27.0020000 differs from system time 2024-10-03T23:34:42.4415465Z by -5785375.3 minutes	
Warning	19:34:42.449042	#38	Mount sidereal time of 0 differs from system calculated sidereal time 0.4557678262489162 by -27.3 minutes, based on longitude of 0 calculated at 2024-10-03T23:34:42.4483687Z			
Debug  	19:34:42.449116	#1 	Notification (Status=Warning): The mount reports a time of 2013-10-04T08:39:27.0020000, which differs from the PC time by -5785375.3 minutes. This may cause issues with mount movements.	

You can see from these log entries that the mount initially reports a time and date in 2013 and a sidereal time of zero. It's also reporting a longitude of zero too, which means that SharpCap can't even calculate the sidereal time correctly internally. I think the ASCOM driver is announcing to SharpCap that it is connected before it has finished initializing, so that SharpCap then goes and asks it things like the longitude and sidereal time before it is ready to answer.

From the log, it looks like you have version 5.9 of the iOptron ASCOM driver

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Info   	19:34:42.267988	#38	The mount claims to be iOptron CEM60,iEQ45Pro/30Pro,CEM25,SmartEQ Pro+,AZ Mount Pro,Cube II Mount, iOptron CEM60,iEQ45Pro/30Pro,CEM25,SmartEQ Pro+,AZ Mount Pro,Cube II Mount V5.90, iOptron CEM60,iEQ45Pro/30Pro,CEM25,SmartEQ Pro+,AZ Mount Pro,Cube II Mount, 5.90					in void SharpCap.MountProxy.ASCOM.MountWrapper.DoMountInitialization()

I am using iOptron 9.11, but I'm not 100% sure if the newer version 9 supports all the hardware that is supported on the older v5.9.

If you cannot upgrade then I may have to workaround the issue in SharpCap - it would be interesting to know what happens if you see the problem and then just disconnect and reconnect the mount inside SharpCap (rather than restart SharpCap). It's possible that I just need to wait a few seconds for the mount to become fully initialized before asking it questions (although I don't want to do that for everyone as this is an issue specific to the iOptron driver)

cheers,

Robin

[donboy]

Hi Robin,

The mount, which is the original CEM60, is using the recommended ASCOM driver 5.9.0.2.

Don

[admin]

Hi Don,

when you get a chance, can you test to see if a disconnect/reconnect to the mount once SharpCap is running fixes the issue? That would indicate that I have a chance of fixing this on the SharpCap side.

cheers,

Robin

[donboy]

Hi Robin,

I closed iOptron Commander and reopened it and it didn't fix the issue. Closing SC and reopening as usual fixes the location listings.

Regards,

Don

[admin]

Hi Don,

did you untick and then re-tick the 'Connected' box in SharpCap? That was what I had in mind as it forces SharpCap to re-read all the info from the mount.

cheers,

Robin

[donboy]

Hi Robin,

I didn't untick the connection box. I will do that the next time SC opens with this issue. The latest version has only once opened with the location issue, so it may be a while before I can try the connection disconnect/reconnect.

Regards,

Don

[donboy]

Hi Robin,

Last night the error appeared and I unchecked the mount connect and rechecked and that straightened things out.

Regards,

Don

[admin]

Hi Don,

that's good - thanks for testing. I am going to try something like making the code wait after connecting to the driver for the lat/long to report sensible values (not zero). Hopefully that will give enough time for the driver to initialize without needing to reconnect.

thanks,

Robin