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MaxDome issues

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Replied by Chris Ryan on topic MaxDome issues

I can report the driver is working again - I'm connecting fine.

But it's definitely whacky when it comes to positioning.

My G11 is pointing to RA 21:54:51, Dec -37:17:26 (so to the mostly west for me).

The Maxdome has chosen 128.95, which is SE.

I can see that it's using 0 for North, which I expect. Maxdome picks up my home as 183 degrees (South essentially).

It just seems to have a strange idea of where my scope actually is :)


EDIT: Another example:

Slewing to RA: 3:47:58 - DEC: 24:09:51
Dome is syncing to position 334.648 degrees...
It should be pointing somewhere to the NE probably about 50 to 60 degrees.
Last edit: 8 years 4 months ago by Chris Ryan. Reason: Another example
8 years 4 months ago #6334

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Replied by Ferran Casarramona on topic MaxDome issues

Hi,
In order to check it send me your dome slaving configuration parameters?

Also, activate debug for the dome driver and copy and paste the output to see what parameters snoops from the telescope driver. It must include RA, Dec and Latitude and Longitude.
8 years 4 months ago #6336

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Replied by Chris Ryan on topic MaxDome issues 

cat MaxDome_config.xml
<INDIDriver>
<newNumberVector device='MaxDome' name='HOME_AZIMUTH'>
  <oneNumber name='HOME_AZIMUTH'>
      183
  </oneNumber>
</newNumberVector>
<newNumberVector device='MaxDome' name='TICKS_PER_TURN'>
  <oneNumber name='TICKS_PER_TURN'>
      353
  </oneNumber>
</newNumberVector>
<newNumberVector device='MaxDome' name='SHUTTER_OPERATION_AZIMUTH'>
  <oneNumber name='SOp_AZIMUTH'>
      180
  </oneNumber>
</newNumberVector>
<newSwitchVector device='MaxDome' name='AZIMUTH_ON_SHUTTER'>
  <oneSwitch name='MOVE'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='NO_MOVE'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
</newSwitchVector>
<newSwitchVector device='MaxDome' name='SHUTTER_MODE'>
  <oneSwitch name='FULL'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='UPPER'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
</newSwitchVector>
<newTextVector device='MaxDome' name='ACTIVE_DEVICES'>
  <oneText name='ACTIVE_TELESCOPE'>
      G11
  </oneText>
  <oneText name='ACTIVE_WEATHER'>
      WunderGround
  </oneText>
</newTextVector>
<newTextVector device='MaxDome' name='DEVICE_PORT'>
  <oneText name='PORT'>
      /dev/ttyUSB0
  </oneText>
</newTextVector>
<newNumberVector device='MaxDome' name='Presets'>
  <oneNumber name='Preset 1'>
      0
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='Preset 2'>
      0
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='Preset 3'>
      0
  </oneNumber>
</newNumberVector>
<newSwitchVector device='MaxDome' name='DOME_AUTOSYNC'>
  <oneSwitch name='DOME_AUTOSYNC_ENABLE'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='DOME_AUTOSYNC_DISABLE'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>
</newSwitchVector>
<newNumberVector device='MaxDome' name='DOME_PARAMS'>
  <oneNumber name='AUTOSYNC_THRESHOLD'>
      0.5
  </oneNumber>
</newNumberVector>
<newNumberVector device='MaxDome' name='DOME_MEASUREMENTS'>
  <oneNumber name='DM_DOME_RADIUS'>
      1.75
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='DM_SHUTTER_WIDTH'>
      1
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='DM_NORTH_DISPLACEMENT'>
      0
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='DM_EAST_DISPLACEMENT'>
      0
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='DM_UP_DISPLACEMENT'>
      0
  </oneNumber>
  <oneNumber name='DM_OTA_OFFSET'>
      0.25400000000000000355
  </oneNumber>
</newNumberVector>
<newSwitchVector device='MaxDome' name='DOME_AUTOSYNC'>
  <oneSwitch name='DOME_AUTOSYNC_ENABLE'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='DOME_AUTOSYNC_DISABLE'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>
</newSwitchVector>
<newSwitchVector device='MaxDome' name='DOME_AUTOPARK'>
  <oneSwitch name='Enable'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='Disable'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>
</newSwitchVector>
<newSwitchVector device='MaxDome' name='USEJOYSTICK'>
  <oneSwitch name='ENABLE'>
      Off
  </oneSwitch>
  <oneSwitch name='DISABLE'>
      On
  </oneSwitch>
</newSwitchVector>
<newTextVector device='MaxDome' name='JOYSTICKSETTINGS'>
  <oneText name='Dome Abort'>
      BUTTON_3
  </oneText>
  <oneText name='Dome CW'>
      BUTTON_1
  </oneText>
  <oneText name='Dome CCW'>
      BUTTON_2
  </oneText>
</newTextVector>
</INDIDriver>

Switxhed on debugging (MaxDome and G11), and then turned on slaving again:
2015-12-21T10:10:50: Dome is on target position 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: Dome is syncing to position 80.5082 degrees... 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: Dome is moving to position 80.5082 degrees... 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: Calculated target azimuth is 80.5082. MinAz: 57.9901, MaxAz: 103.026 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: OA.x: 0.845389 - OA.y: 0.107643 OA.z: 0.798391 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: Mount Az: 76.3206  Alt: 38.8716 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: OC.x: 0.0889188 - OC.y: -0.076477 OC.z: 0.170814 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: OTA_OFFSET: 0.254  Lat: -27.4997 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: OTA_SIDE: 1 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: HA: 21.2868  Lng: 153.167 RA: 76.225 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: MC.x: 0 - MC.y: 0 MC.z: 0 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: JD: 2.45738e+06 - MSD: 16.1573 
2015-12-21T10:10:46: Dome will now be synced to mount azimuth position. 
2015-12-21T10:07:35: Session log file /tmp/indi_maxdomeii_2015-12-21T08:36:31.log 
2015-12-21T10:07:33: Toggle Logging Level -- Driver Debug 
2015-12-21T10:07:31: Toggle Debug Level -- Driver Debug 
2015-12-21T10:07:19: Debug is enabled.

This is pretty close to correct position.

I then picked another target...
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Dome is syncing to position 184.561 degrees... 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Dome is moving to position 184.561 degrees... 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Calculated target azimuth is 184.561. MinAz: 143.837, MaxAz: 225.285 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: OA.x: 0.00323831 - OA.y: -0.476108 OA.z: 1.07916 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Mount Az: 192.57  Alt: 59.1685 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: OC.x: 0.114775 - OC.y: 0.0241232 OC.z: 0.220484 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: OTA_OFFSET: 0.254  Lat: -27.4997 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: OTA_SIDE: 1 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: HA: 24.7913  Lng: 153.167 RA: 24.5708 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: MC.x: 0 - MC.y: 0 MC.z: 0 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: JD: 2.45738e+06 - MSD: 16.2182 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Updated telescope Az: 192.57 - Alt: 59.1685 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.638055555555555598 
2015-12-21T10:14:24: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:14:23: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:23: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.6391666666666666607 
2015-12-21T10:14:23: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:14:22: Snooped RA: 24.6625 - DEC: -57.1614 
2015-12-21T10:14:22: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:22: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.6441666666666665542 
2015-12-21T10:14:22: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:14:21: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:21: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.64972222222222209 
2015-12-21T10:14:21: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:14:20: Snooped RA: 24.825 - DEC: -57.1614 
2015-12-21T10:14:20: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:20: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.6549999999999998046 
2015-12-21T10:14:20: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:14:19: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:19: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.6602777777777777413 
2015-12-21T10:14:19: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:14:18: Snooped RA: 24.9833 - DEC: -57.1614 
2015-12-21T10:14:18: Snooped RA-DEC: -57.161388888888886584 
2015-12-21T10:14:18: Snooped RA-DEC: 1.6655555555555554559 
2015-12-21T10:14:18: Snooped RA-DEC 
...snipped lots of snoops

And it too is basically ok...

Now I'm seriously confused.

I'm going to switch off debug and do another test.... it worked fine.

Restarted INDI and it's wrong again.
2015-12-21T10:22:52: Slew is complete. Tracking...
2015-12-21T10:22:22: Slewing to RA: 6:24:21 - DEC: -52:42:26

2015-12-21T10:22:52: Dome is syncing to position 201.241 degrees...
2015-12-21T10:22:52: Dome is moving to position 201.241 degrees...
2015-12-21T10:21:42: Dome will now be synced to mount azimuth position.

Switched on just MaxDome debugging
2015-12-21T10:26:05: Dome is on target position 
 
2015-12-21T10:25:48: Snooped RA: 78.8292 - DEC: -8.58222 
2015-12-21T10:25:48: Snooped RA-DEC: -8.5822222222222226407 
2015-12-21T10:25:48: Snooped RA-DEC: 5.2552777777777777146 
2015-12-21T10:25:48: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:25:47: Snooped RA: 78.8292 - DEC: -10.1375 
2015-12-21T10:25:47: Snooped RA-DEC: -10.137499999999999289 
2015-12-21T10:25:47: Snooped RA-DEC: 5.2552777777777777146 
2015-12-21T10:25:47: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:25:46: Snooped RA: 78.8292 - DEC: -11.8233 
2015-12-21T10:25:46: Snooped RA-DEC: -11.823333333333332362 
2015-12-21T10:25:46: Snooped RA-DEC: 5.2552777777777777146 
2015-12-21T10:25:46: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:25:45: Snooped RA: 78.8292 - DEC: -13.5044 
2015-12-21T10:25:45: Snooped RA-DEC: -13.504444444444445139 
2015-12-21T10:25:45: Snooped RA-DEC: 5.2552777777777777146 
2015-12-21T10:25:45: Snooped RA-DEC 
2015-12-21T10:25:44: Snooped RA: 78.8292 - DEC: -15.1919 
2015-12-21T10:25:44: Snooped RA-DEC: -15.191944444444445139 
2015-12-21T10:25:44: Snooped RA-DEC: 5.2552777777777777146 
2015-12-21T10:25:44: Snooped RA-DEC 
...

Still incorrect. Turned on G11 debuggins as well and again, incorrect.

Final test of disable/enable slaving and changing targets was also incorrect:
2015-12-21T10:31:02: Dome is on target position 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: Dome is syncing to position 234.056 degrees... 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: Dome is moving to position 234.056 degrees... 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: Calculated target azimuth is 234.056. MinAz: 0, MaxAz: 360 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: OA.x: -0.196407 - OA.y: -0.142403 OA.z: -1.21908 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: Mount Az: 234.056  Alt: -75.96 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: OC.x: 1.52437e-17 - OC.y: -3.08618e-18 OC.z: -0.248949 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: OTA_OFFSET: 0.254  Lat: 0 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: OTA_SIDE: 1 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: HA: 11.237  Lng: 0 RA: 78.8292 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: MC.x: 0 - MC.y: 0 MC.z: 0 
2015-12-21T10:30:48: JD: 2.45738e+06 - MSD: 16.4923
2015-12-21T10:30:48: Slew is complete. Tracking... 
2015-12-21T10:30:18: Slewing to RA:  5:15:20 - DEC: -8:11:14
8 years 4 months ago #6338

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Replied by Ferran Casarramona on topic MaxDome issues

Mmmm ...

When the slaving is correct, it snoops Lat and Long right. For example:

but when goes wrong it didn't get Lat. and Long.

This cames from the mount driver.
How your G11 driver gets Latitude and Longitude? It's a GPS mount? Or is entered manually?

If entered manually, check if it's stored in the configuration, so when restarted you get the correct geographical position.

Please, report your findings, regarding if it's working or not.
8 years 4 months ago #6340

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Replied by Chris Ryan on topic MaxDome issues

The mount has the site location stored in it's firmware - there is no GPS. Kstars/ekos seems to see it ok - it picks it up and displays the G11 in the correct location (in kstars). When I slew to a star chosen in kstars it goes there fine, almost spot on.
8 years 4 months ago #6341

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Replied by Ferran Casarramona on topic MaxDome issues

You need to point manually to a star and the begining of the session, or your mount just knows where it is when you turn on?
If it's the former site location did not affect star spot, because slewing is differential.

In any case, there is a bug in telescope driver, in snooping feature or in dome driver than in some circumstances don't pass geographical position right.

I can check the later, but once this happened to me and was a bug in my mount driver (lx200fs2). So try to figure out if your driver read ok Latitude and Longitude (may be turning on the debug you can see something).
8 years 4 months ago #6342

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic MaxDome issues

Because the "snooping" driver listens until the mount either defines or changes the geographic coords, then it might miss it out if the mount driver already sent this information before the snooping starts. One way to avoid this is to always start the dome driver before the mount driver, but even then there is no absolute guarantee but it should mostly work. Another option is to add Long/Lat to the dome driver, but I don't like this option.

I just though of another solution... since the dome driver defines ACTIVE_TELESCOPE, I can issue ISGetProperties to the telescope driver from KStars to force it to define its methods again and thereby the dome driver is guaranteed to receive the property it is snooping. Let me know about this for a bit to make sure it doesn't have any side effects.
8 years 4 months ago #6343

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Replied by Ferran Casarramona on topic MaxDome issues

For a more general solution, is it possible 'IDSnoopDevice' causes indiserver to call a ISGetProperies to the target device and property?
8 years 4 months ago #6344

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Replied by Gerry Rozema on topic MaxDome issues


Huge terrible side effect, this essentially creates an indirect dependancy on Kstars for the dome driver, and leaves the system broken if using a different client.

A full and proper solution would cover the following sequence of events.

indi server started, with mount only. Later, dome driver started thru a running pipe, with mount fully connected and running already. Dome driver should still be able to get an updated lat/long. You can replace mount with gps in this case too. Bottom line is, if a device is dependant on snooping location co-ords from another device, there should be a mechanism for the snooping device to ensure it's got the data, irrelavent of the state of the providing driver.

I think the only true general case solution is for the target driver to enumerate all of it's properties when the snooping device attaches.
8 years 4 months ago #6368

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic MaxDome issues

Actually, problem was easy to fix. ACTIVE_DEVICE was supposed to be loaded on initialization and before connection, but it was not. Now all ACTIVE_DEVICES properties are loaded before any connection happens.
8 years 4 months ago #6376

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Replied by Gerry Rozema on topic MaxDome issues

So I've started to write some firmware for an arduino based dome controller, and pondering protocols for serial control. I took a look at the sources for the MaxDome driver, and it looks like a simple enough protocol to implement, would save a lot of effort in driver work if I can emulate an existing protocol that already has a functional driver.

I found one option that I'm wondering about. It appears in the sources that there is a configuration option for 'shutter control only when parked'. That's interesting to me, because it completely solves cable wrap issues, instead of trying to have cables to the shutter control, just put in some brushes that only make contact when the dome is parked, so the sequence of events is to rotate into the park position before doing any shutter movement.

Do Maxdome implementations actually work this way? Ie, are there systems out there where dome must be parked in order to power the shutter controls ?
8 years 4 months ago #6401

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Replied by Ferran Casarramona on topic MaxDome issues

Maxdome controles shutter with a battery and a wireless serial comunication.

Park before shutter operation is intended for avoid a fisical interference between a shutter actuator and the telescope. When configured firmware parks dome before any shutter movement.
8 years 3 months ago #6408

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