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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

"Dome parking / Telescope parking" policy

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Thanks for the clarification and for correcting my comment re: use of 'command' instead of 'snoop'.

So, if I get it correctly, mount and dome/roof should snoop on one another to make sure no action is taken that could create a dangerous situation. Could we use a "Collision Avoidance" snoop property that could be set for roofs (or domes) that do not have the appropriate clearance to park without problem? This could help set the correct sequence of events when unparking/parking.
3 years 8 months ago #56588

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Nope, the Observatory does not take care of the mount currently. I already have the UI controls in place, but the functionality is not present yet.

If I remember well, the two of us discussed it whether parking of the telescope make sense to add this to the Observatory. The decision was that we should leave it to the Scheduler. But I might be wrong...

I did the tests for the two scenarios with simulators for dome and telescope. From what I see is that the only option that makes trouble is the scope option "dome parks". It works in principle, but as already mentioned in this thread, the dome does not wait with parking until the scope is parked and is parking in parallel. That is a risky behaviour, I fully agree.

But all the other combinations seem to work as designed, but I fully agree, not all combinations make sense.

We could add two actions to the Observatory:
  • Shutdown Scheduler
  • Park mount
But here we have the old problem, that part of the users use the Scheduler, others don't. For those not using the Scheduler, it would be straight forward that the Observatory parks the mount. But those using the Scheduler I think would prefer if the Scheduler controls the Observatory and not vice versa - which as far as I remember is already working for the weather alerts.

Implementing this behaviour in the Observatory should not be that complicated - as soon as we not how we want to have it.

Wolfgang
p.s.: I've attached a spreadsheet with my test cases I've been talking of.

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3 years 8 months ago #56589
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A question about a scheduled session.
How does Kstars do to trigger the action of putting the mount on Park and putting the dome on Park?
Would it be possible to simulate the same action with a weather alert.

Or the Dome driver must set the mount to Park by default before closing the roof.
3 years 8 months ago #56590

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Thanks for the TelescopeClosedLockTP property info.

The initial impression is that the Observatory closes the Dome and depends on the Dome and Telescope policy properties to determine correct behavior.

I am just starting to do some testing of the settings.
After the first few, a weather alert with roof open and mount tracking I have not found one that causes the Dome to wait on the mount.

Dome: telescope locks & auto park
Mount: dome parks
This combination prevents the Dome from parking and it appears that subsequent telescope snoops of the mount do not detect a need to initiate parking.

Dome: ignore telescope
Mount: dome parks
This combination will park both but it is a race. In my install the roof is heavy but moves fast and most likely hits the telescope.

Sorry, having breakfast and reading the paper, got a bit behind on replies.
Last edit: 3 years 8 months ago by wotalota.
3 years 8 months ago #56591

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When using the Scheduler, a Weather ALERT leads to the sequence park mount --> park dome (if both are selected). Weather WARNING is ignored by the Scheduler.
3 years 8 months ago #56593

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For the weather alerts it obviously needs to work without the scheduler, so having the Observatory first park the mount and then the Dome seems clean.

It looks like the scheduler is already aware of the alert but I don't know how it responds to that.
If logic is to be placed in the Observatory to wait until the mount is parked before parking the Dome, perhaps the scheduler can respond knowing that. It does not seem much different than how it must presently resolve the parking of the Dome knowing that the Observatory is probably already doing that because a weather alert has happened.

Does anyone know what added value the Dome property Auto Park provides over the other Dome/Mount policy combinations. Is it just a if you want to do anything useful do it at your own risk kind of a setting.
3 years 8 months ago #56595

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You mean that if I schedule a photo shoot and there is a weather alert it will end the session and suddenly it will be like a normal end of session with the setting on the park of the frame and then close the roof?
3 years 8 months ago #56596

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I wouldn't involve Ekos at all. what I'd do is:
The Weather driver sets some sort of unsafe property.
The telescope and Dome snoop on this and when it's set:
The Telescope parks. It ignores whatever any application is telling it to do, it parks. No options, no choice.
The Dome continues to snoop on the telescope and when it's parked and the weather status remanis unsafe it makes the observatory safe.
Ekos is no more than a spectator in this. It could do something sensible but it doesn't matter if it doesn't, no one is paying any attention to it.

Actually I would try not to involve Indi either. I'd have an observatory that could close regardless of what the telescope was up to and I'd have a hardware signal that triggered the make everything safe process. It's the only way to be sure.
3 years 8 months ago #56608

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Makes a lot of sense to me.

Would it also make sense to make it an orderly 'shutdown' procedure that could also be used when the scheduler or the user has finished its tasks for the night? Not wanting to overly complicate things though.

Thanks.
3 years 8 months ago #56610

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Folks, could you please do me the favour and test the behavior of the scheduler? My impression is that most of the behaviour you describe is already present in the Scheduler.

The only thing that you need to do is using the Scheduler for your nighttime capture session and define scheduler jobs that
  1. has the weather job constraint selected
  2. has a shutdown procedure defined with at least scope and dome parking selected


Testing this should be quite easy using simulators for scope, CCD, weather and dome. Start the schedule job and see what happens if you change the weather condition in the INDI tab for the weather such that it changes to ALERT state. As soon as this happens, the job should abort, the mount should get parked and finally the dome should get parked as well.

Wolfgang
3 years 8 months ago #56615
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I can test with my mount/scope and obsy side by side so no collision can occur but, unfortunately I have never used the scheduler (tried quickly without success 30 minutes ago) and must figure out how to use it. Furthermore, I won't be able to test for a few days. I would have loved to but I will be away from my setup. :(
3 years 8 months ago #56622

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This works, but for some setups, I'd like the roof/dome close ASAP and not wait for the telescope to park first. Every seconds matter. I have a rolloff roof and there is no collision issue, so on WEATHER_ALERT, I want both actions to take place at the same time.

Another related topic is that this needs to be done when the ALERT is confirmed. What if Wind goes over the max limit for a couple seconds before going down to normal? Should such ALERT cause a total observatory shutdown or there should be some threshold management. Right now, the INDI::Weather immediately sets the ALERT once a threshold is exceeded. So maybe this issue also needs to be considered.
3 years 8 months ago #56641

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