New Feature : Support for ASCOM Cover/Calibrator devices

[sonata31]

Hello Robin
I couldn't find a log file or a way to create one.
Louis

[admin]

Hi,

OK, no worries. What happens if you just tell it to ignore the error? Does it do what you want? That would indicate that I can make SharpCap treat the error as less serious and perhaps get it working.

cheers,

Robin

[sonata31]

Hello Robin
I still have the problem
However with NINA it works perfectly
Louis

[admin]

Hi Louis,

I have seen a couple of uploaded bug reports that might have been you - they match your description that the cover has reported an error state. Those reports were from SharpCap 4.1.12128.

The newer version - 4.1.12174 will still report the error state to the user, but no longer makes it a 'report the error and close SharpCap' issue. I have also put extra logging in to record changes of state, so if you can make it happen with the newer version and send me a log, I can track the history of how the cover and calibrator states have changed. It would be interesting to see what happens if you ignore the error state and let it carry on - does the state go back to a normal 'open' or 'closed' state, or does it stay stuck in error.

I can't hide the fact that the device has reported an error state from the user - even if the error state is perhaps an incorrect report - if I do that then people would not get notified if their device really reported an error.

cheers,

Robin

[sonata31]

Hello Robin
Here is the log, I checked for the focuser (I still have the problem at startup) and the Alnitak

Log_2024-05-27T09_22_11-3344.log.zip

(96.29 KiB) Downloaded 1 time

Louis

[admin]

Hi, thanks for posting the log

I can see that the cover initially reports as closed, then at 09:23:32.466, SharpCap requests the cover to open. For about 15 seconds, SharpCap receives a 'Moving' state from the cover, until at 09:23:46.987 it starts reporting an error state. The error state then causes an error message to show, and the cover stays in 'error' state until the end of the log.

From the SharpCap side of things, I have limited options - the ASCOM driver is reporting the error state (rightly or wrongly - it's impossible to tell), so it may be an issue with the ASCOM driver. I would certainly check that you have the latest version, just in case.

I did notice that the requests to check the state while waiting for the open cover to complete are more frequent than I had expected - I will drop the frequency back to a lower rate in the next update, just in case the ASCOM driver copes poorly with rapid, repeated requests for status.

cheers,

Robin

[sonata31]

Hello Robin
This is the latest version of the driver
As I already indicated I do not have this error with NINA
Louis