Tracking will not set after Sequencer Meridian Flip

[GaryCheam]

HI, I have a Skywatcher HEq5-Pro and GSO 6" Stellalyra Newtonian scope run by a MeLe 4c Windows 11 mini pc and Altair Hypercam 26C and Altair Autofocuser (currently set manually with a Bahtinov mask). When needing to do a meridian flip I use the Deepsky Sequencer command. After the software has completed the meridian flip and plate solved (almost). The Tracking button on the software fails to engage to Sideral or any option, hence the plate solving and guiding in PHD2 fails. To remove the issue I have to restart the pc as closing down Sharpcap and reopening does not remove the problem. When I do a manual Meridian Flip using the GoTo command everything works fine and Tracking is still engaged on Sideral and the plate solving works and recentres the image.

I am using the current version of Sharpcap and the first version of ASCOM 7. I wonder if my setup is causing the apparent bug in the software or is there a work around using the Sequencer.

Thank you for your assistance

Gary

[admin]

Hi Gary,

hopefully I am understanding correctly - from your description it seems that if you try to turn on the tracking after the flip then you can press the button for sidereal tracking and get no error, but the change of tracking doesn't 'take' - the mount stays in no tracking mode and SharpCap shows that too (possibly after a brief flicker of sidereal tracking).

If that's the case then it's useful information, since it is telling us that SharpCap is sending a request for tracking to the mount ASCOM driver, but the driver is ignoring it and staying in no tracking mode - sort of silently accepting the request without an error but carrying on doing nothing.
That then suggests that the place to look next is the log of the ASCOM driver itself to see if it has recorded anything along the lines of 'cannot track... because...' (we can always hope, right!).

Going any deeper requires us to start thinking about what ASCOM driver you are using for your HEQ5 - SynScan, EQMOD, GSS? (there are probably others...) Each probably has its own behaviour around the meridian (for instance EQMOD can be difficult to get going again if it goes past the meridian, requiring the use of specific 'MoveAxis' commands to bring it back past the meridian before it will GOTO). The meridian flip procedure in the sequencer is moderately complex, as it tries to deal with some of these peculiarities, but it sounds like we haven't found/dealt with them all.

cheers,

Robin

[GaryCheam]

Hi Robin, Thank you for your very useful reply, this is my first post so I did not include all the details required. I am using a Altair Hypercam 26C and ZWO 120mm Mini. I am also using EQMOD & version 7.1 of ASCOM (I see there is a recent update), so it as you first described that clicking on the Tracking button to move it to sidereal does not stay on and no tracking option stays in place. I guess you get the ASCOM log when you re-connect the computer to the mount.

I hope I have answered your outstanding questions

Regards

Gary

[admin]

Hi Gary,

there is some discussion of EQMOD log files here - https://groups.io/g/EQMOD/topic/where_i ... e/56610004 - which might help enable and find logging from EQMOD itself. Unfortunately it seems a bit of a muddled area...

There are a couple of things you could try -

* set the option in the EQMOD settings to allow 'SideOfPier' writes - this gives SharpCap an alternative approach to starting the flip, which might help (if it is already ticked, untick it and try that...)

* Let the mount get closer to or even past the meridian before trying the flip - I am wondering if after the flip is complete, it ends up in a position where it is flipped and back on target but that has put it just before the meridian (as the target is yet to actually cross the meridian) - maybe that situation causes an issue..

cheers,

Robin

[GaryCheam]

Hi Robin, Thank you for your informative reply, I'll change the settings of EQMOD next time I am running the mount. I have located the ASCOM logs for before and after the issue happened on the night in question. Hopefully this may help in ascertaining the software conflict. I do try and start the Meridian flip as you describe, but maybe I should wait quite a lot longer before doing the meridian flip to see if this stops the issue from occrring.
Log Before the Meridian flip
16:18:15.356 Main Adding OnActivated event handler...
16:18:15.539 Main Added OnActivated event handler
16:18:15.539 Main Supplied argument: -ToastActivated
16:18:15.539 Main Staring wait so that any ToastNotificationManagerCompat.OnActivated events can fire...
16:18:15.561 OnActivated Entered - Arguments: SkipRelease 7.1.1
16:18:15.561 SkipRelease Don't show again was clicked for version: 7.1.1!
16:18:15.564 OnActivated Exited
16:18:16.547 Main Wait completed - application finishing.

After the Meridian Flip and the tracking has created a fault

22:12:41.990 Main Adding OnActivated event handler...
22:12:42.779 Main Added OnActivated event handler
22:12:42.779 Main Supplied argument:
22:12:42.795 DelayedUpdateCheck Starting 20.0 second delay...
22:13:02.809 DelayedUpdateCheck Completed delay, checking for updates.
22:13:03.976 CheckForUpdates Getting list of skipped releases.
22:13:03.993 CheckForUpdates Skipping release: 7.1.1
22:13:03.993 CheckForUpdates Release updates enabled: True, pre-release updates enabled: False
22:13:04.081 CheckForUpdates Running update check. Current Platform: 7.1.0+4707.4b3a3514. SemVersion: 7.1.0+4707.4b3a3514
22:13:04.999 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 7.1 - Update 1 TagName: v7.1.1 Pre-release: False ID: 267132378 Published at (UTC): 03/12/2025 16:22:26 Published at: 03/12/2025 16:22:26 +00:00
22:13:04.999 CheckForUpdates Valid: True SemVersion: 7.1.1
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.1.1 is later than 0.0.0: True
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.1.1 is later than 0.0.0: True
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Making 7.1.1 the latest release version
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 7.1 TagName: v7.1.0 Pre-release: False ID: 254604204 Published at (UTC): 31/10/2025 14:00:15 Published at: 31/10/2025 14:00:15 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: True SemVersion: 7.1.0
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.1.0 is later than 7.1.1: False
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.1.0 is later than 0.0.0: True
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 7.0 - Update 2 TagName: v7.0.2 Pre-release: False ID: 188003655 Published at (UTC): 28/11/2024 11:21:15 Published at: 28/11/2024 11:21:15 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: True SemVersion: 7.0.2
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.0.2 is later than 7.1.1: False
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.0.2 is later than 0.0.0: True
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 7.0 - Update 1 TagName: v7.0.1 Pre-release: False ID: 180795062 Published at (UTC): 21/10/2024 08:13:21 Published at: 21/10/2024 08:13:21 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: True SemVersion: 7.0.1
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.0.1 is later than 7.1.1: False
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.0.1 is later than 0.0.0: True
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 7.0 TagName: v7.0.0 Pre-release: False ID: 179637335 Published at (UTC): 14/10/2024 20:08:04 Published at: 14/10/2024 20:08:04 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: True SemVersion: 7.0.0
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.0.0 is later than 7.1.1: False
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates 7.0.0 is later than 0.0.0: True
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 6.6 - Service Pack 2 TagName: v6.6SP2Release Pre-release: False ID: 118375640 Published at (UTC): 24/08/2023 08:32:40 Published at: 24/08/2023 08:32:40 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: False SemVersion:
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 6.6 - Service Pack 1 TagName: v6.6SP1Release Pre-release: False ID: 74220523 Published at (UTC): 17/08/2022 15:40:48 Published at: 17/08/2022 15:40:48 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: False SemVersion:
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 6.6 TagName: v6.6 Pre-release: False ID: 57114374 Published at (UTC): 14/01/2022 13:09:59 Published at: 14/01/2022 13:09:59 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: False SemVersion:
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 6.5 - Service Pack 1 TagName: v6.5SP1Release Pre-release: False ID: 34102008 Published at (UTC): 23/12/2020 11:43:47 Published at: 23/12/2020 11:43:47 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: False SemVersion:
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Found ASCOM Platform 6.5 TagName: v6.5Release Pre-release: False ID: 28410683 Published at (UTC): 16/07/2020 09:28:07 Published at: 16/07/2020 09:28:07 +00:00
22:13:05.018 CheckForUpdates Valid: False SemVersion:
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Found Platform 6.4 TagName: Platform6.4Release Pre-release: False ID: 11632304 Published at (UTC): 26/06/2018 12:50:40 Published at: 26/06/2018 12:50:40 +00:00
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Valid: False SemVersion:
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Latest release: 7.1.1
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Latest pre-release: 0.0.0
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Latest release is newer than Platform (7.1.0+4707.4b3a3514): True
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Latest pre-release is newer than Platform (7.1.0+4707.4b3a3514): False
22:13:05.031 CheckForUpdates Skipping the latest release because the user pressed the toast Skip button at some point.

Thank you for all your help and consideration of the issue I have

Best Regards

Gary

[admin]

Hi Gary,

unfortunately it looks like that isn't the log we were really after - pretty much everything in it seems to be related to the ASCOM platform checking for updates, rather than to do with the mount operation

One other possibility that I forgot to mention is that you could try the other options for controlling the mount via ASCOM - since you are using a Skywatcher mount there is the option of the official Skywatcher Synscan Pro App and also Green Swamp Server - both can do the same job as EQMOD. Of course even if one of those works better on the meridian flip side of things, it could have its own gremlins elsewhere, and of course there is the learning curve of changing software

cheers,

Robin

[GaryCheam]

Hi Robin, Thank you for the email at the weekend, yes I thought the logs were not really showing anything. I'll have to have a think about your suggestions as I was really wanting to stick with the Sharpcap program. I'll try the Synscan option first as I use to use that option previously on a laptop as I could not download the ASCOM toolbox when downloading ASCOM and so could not setup EQMOD.

Thank you again for your assistance

Gary