could not unpark mount

[GSchreider]

On May 15th I had SharpCap v4.1.13319.0 (X64, 64 bit) running on my MeLe mini computer running Windows 11, v 24H2
I started SharpCap and did my usual routine to Polar align the mount and then when I wanted to unpark the mount the mount did not respond.
I tried that a few times but when the error persistet I reverted SharpCap back to v4.1.13314.0 (X64, 64 bit) and the error did not happen
So I suspect that some problem exists in relation with the SharpCap v 133319 vs 13314 which caused the error.
I have attached the logs from May 15th with both versions.

Thanks for looking into it
Cheers
Gernot

[admin]

Hi Gernot,

I think the version of SharpCap might not be relevant to this particular problem (a 'red herring' as we might say here in England - something that looks like the cause but distracts you from the real cause of a problem). In this case, the changes between 13314 and 13319 are very limited and none are relevant to ASCOM mount control, so we know that the code in SharpCap trying to control the mount is identical in both versions.

The logs however give us more of a clue - we find this error message for various actions related to updating the status of the mount in both logs:

Exception of type 'COMException' : Der RPC-Server ist nicht verfügbar.

"The RPC Server is not responding" - basically what that is telling us is that SharpCap is sending messages -via the ASCOM driver - to the AvalonStarGo.NET software, and no responses are coming back. This stops the status of the mount from updating in SharpCap, and also stops commands like unpark or GOTO from working. There is no mention of the Unpark failing in the log, but I suspect that it was stuck waiting (probably futilely) for a response from the AvalonStarGo.NET software to say that it had happened.

My suspicion is that in changing SharpCap version, the Avalon software also got restarted, which probably was enough to cure the issue.

cheers,

Robin

[GSchreider]

Hi Robin

many thanks for your quick reply.
I never had issues with SharpCap and the Avalon mount driver so far. This is why I was so surprised.
I will monitor things and report back should I see something similar happen again.

Thanks
Cheers
Gernot