So things were going smoothly the first time I fired up the dome and started to track my scope following my target in the east. I first did a routine alignment and then selected track my scope in ASCOM (Beaver) and sent the scope and dome to the same location. When I finally sent the scope to the home position, the dome followed as expected. About 10 seconds later, the dome went back to the eastern location it first went to. I told the dome to go home, and it did, then repeated its movement to the east, over and over again after sending it home.
I turned the scope off, closed the dome and turned off the shutter motor, at one point I even pulled the plug on the rotator and rebooted my PC. Every time I connect then select track the scope, the dome moves to the east even thought the scope is still at home (aligned with CNP) where the dome home location is located too.
How do I reset the dome, so it doesn't jump to a location it once followed the scope the first time I selected track. If I give the scope a new target, the dome moves but is always offset by the same ~90 degrees. I never set park, and it knows where home is.
BTW, when I first set up the dome and scope and hit track for the first time, the dome did not move until I gave the scope a target.
My equipment is a CGEM DX mount with an 11" Edge scope balanced in all directions. My offsets are all good.
HELP!
Steven
Yep, a diameter of zero will indeed create weird cases.
I have a few beaver boards here for testing (for TheSkyX X2 plugin development) and none has any heatsink (the only component that might need one is the TMC2660).
Of course, it doesn't get super hot inside so your case might be more akin to regular use and a heatsink might be needed.
Well, I'm an idiot. It turns out that the diameter of the dome in the Dome setup was set to zero and once connected to the scope it defaults to azimuth 90. All the other offsets were set and once I corrected the diameter and the dome is slaved to the mount, the dome moves to the correct location. Still not clear on why the dome didn't follow the scope, even thought it would be way off, while the mount was slewing to a different position. Will work with NexDome if that starts up again in the future.
As far as the COMMS DOWN! message it appears to be related to the driver for the shutter overheating. In my case, it looks like the heat sink is missing from the Beaver board, which may be associated with the battery BMS shutting down.
Yes, all the offsets are input.
I am preparing an email to the engineer documenting what’s going on. The first is the dome moving to azimuth 90 immediately after checking track then not tracking the mount after that initial move. The other issue is the battery BMS tripping when connected to the battery charger and power switch off.
Steven
did you set up all the offset information the new beaver manual details for ascom device hub? I've had eratic behavior in my dome but I think that's the missing piece
To me this sounds like whatever is supposed to tell the dome to move when the mount is moving is not doing it properly.
The dome doesn't know anything about the mount (or remember anything). It only does what it's told to do .. aka "go to azimuth DDD.dd".
If when the mount is connected it goes to weird position or does unexpected things, this is directed by whatever software is connected to the mount and instruct the dome to go to a "wrong" position.
Hopefully NexDome can sort out what is going on.
My comment above about the dome not doing anything on its own is based on my knowledge of the firmware and commands (as I'm currently finishing the new X2 plugin for the Beaver for TheSkyX). So these are not assumptions :)
Rodolphe
With the dome only connected it does not move.
some how the dome sees the mount and remembers it one time track. The other odd thing is when the mount slews the dome doesn’t move or track.
I contacted NexDome and I will be setting up a sharing session.
Steven
What I'm trying to get at is : if only the dome is connected in ASCOM, does it move on its own to the east position.
If not, then the driver and firmware behave as expected : it doesn't do anything unless instructed to.
Next step will be finding out what sends the dome to the weird position :
- Is the the application (HUB, POTH, ...) doing this once connected to the mount ? Aka.. is it computing a weird position for the dome and sends it there instead of where the point is pointing ?
In most (all) application, if the dome is set to track the telescope (slew or just tracking a target), the dome can't be sent home as as soon as the homing is done, the software will try to sync the dome with the mount position. The application need to understand not to do this i the dome is parked (homed is not parked) or the mount is parked.
Does the dome go to that position on its own, when nothing else is connected ?
I ask as this sound like whatever software you use to control your mount, gears and dome is the one sending the dome to that position.
I don't use Windows so I don't use ASCOM, but as ASCOM tends to have multiple moving parts (pun intended) and if you use the ASCOM Hub , multiple applications can connect to one device and give conflicting order to that device.
So start with nothing connected but 1 application and only to the dome,
Send the dome home and see if it go back to that eastern position (on its own)