Rudolphe, this is some data for you. I am using X2 plugin. I tried to park my dome last night and it executed the park command, the dome moved to location, but then it immediately tried to return to sync with the telescope. I hit the abort button to stop it moving and it did for about two seconds then insisted on going to the scope position. The MyT Mount was at home position with tracking off at the time.
I realized that the dome was coupled to the telescope under the dome setup tab. So I uncoupled and then the park was successful. Same with abort.
I thought I might recommend that if a park or abort command is sent that the driver should uncouple the dome from the telescope. If parking then the user probably doesn’t want to continue tracking the scope. If abort then the user probably sees a problem with where the dome is going and just wants it to stop moving completely. I could see that there could be a safety issue with equipment or something if the dome continues to insist on coupling to the scope and moving after an abort.
just thought I would give you a data point. Otherwise I prefer the X2 over the ascom driver because it stays on track better. Thanks for all your work.
I can confirm the issue is the built in retry on homing. This was added for the old firmware as the homing was often passing the home sensor and then reporting it had stopped and was not on the home position so the plugin was doing 1 retry to get to the proper home position (as this was a small move at this point).
Now when you abort, it retries and if you abort again when it restart it will stop for good.
I'll remove that retry and will build a new plugin
The abort is sent by TSX, the plugin then send it the dome.
If TSX then send another command after that it will be executed.
If I were to ignore all command after an abort, how do you get out of that state ! ? (there is no un-abort).
So not too sure how to handle this when the mount is coupled to the dome.
As for the home then abort when not coupled, it should stop and not move after the abort... I'll retest that tonight if I can on my test rig. It might be related to the homing retries I added because of the way the old firmware was working (or not properly working). If that's the issue I'll remove this and re-test. If that fixes it I'll build a new version of the plugin.
Sorry. I was incorrect in my explanation before. I did a test and it was 'home' not 'park' that caused me problems
it seemed to ignore abort command while homing and skyx said it was aborted/ stopped but it was still actually moving.
today's test>>>
connected to dome, says ready
connected to scope, homed to bisque position ra 2 dec 0 , after scope homing stops, dome spins to sync.
park dome command, dome moves to park, stayed in place for 30 seconds or so till i hit next command 'home'
find home. even though park and home are same location, i issued home to get a precise position so that the charger magnets can connect.
when i hit home command after being at park, dome did briefly, but then immediately went to sync position with scope.
when i hit abort, it would maybe pause for just a half second, but then start to move to sync position again.
skyx reported move aborted and dome stopped but dome was actually still moving.
dome reached sync position
uncoupled from scope using check boxes, sent home command. dome started moving to home. i hit abort.
screen said abort successful and the dome slot graphic on thesky stopped at the azimuth where i issued abort command.
,
but dome actually continued to move to home position then stopped
then thesky dome slot graphic updated to home position
issued park command. dome parked.
under dome setup recoupled to scope with check boxes
dome stayed parked even after i coupled to scope.
unparked dome, and it immediately slewed to sync scope position.
>>
So this is the behavior that I want to report to see if it can be checked out.
If the dome is in the middle of a move to sync or to home, it seems to ignore the abort command.
SKYX control screen says abort successful and dome stopped, but it actually finishes the move.
maybe this is a firmware issue?
So my test in TSX , my home and park are at 0º:
- connect to dome
- connect to mount (mount simulator in TSX).
dome rotate to line up with scope.
- park dome
dome rotate to park position at 0º (mount is NOT parked)
- slew mount to something.
mount does slew, dome DOESN'T MOVE and stay parked at 0º
Next test : Change park position to 180º
- unpark dome, it slews to match the mount position.
- park dome : it slews to 180º
- slew scope to something : dome doesn't move and stays parked a 180º
So if the dome moved in your case, something is instructing it to move.
I assume you will be using some sort of executive control program to automate your dome? If so, all of the ones I am familiar with can park your scope before parking your dome. I use CCDAP, mostly because in integrates well with TSX, and it parks the scope, closes the shutter and parks the dome just fine under automated (weather, hardware issue, etc.) abort conditions.
If you're mainly worried about disconnecting the dome from the scope after manually aborting a dome rotation in TSX - then just hit the "disconnect" button in the X2 plugin. Also, for what it's worth, I tried to recreate your experience with my dome but, as long as mount tracking was OFF, the dome stayed put.
One thing you might try is to uncheck the "Couple Dome to Telescope Slews" box; i.e., only check the "Couple Dome to Telescope Tracking" box. You don't really need to couple the dome to slews as it will still move to the correct position as soon as the telescope finishes slewing and starts tracking.
Hi Dave,
I have never noticed that behavior. To the contrary, once my mount is parked, the dome parks with no problem. Just curious but was your mount parked?
Steve