开云体育

Oh I have a new FTDI USB/RS232 G1 leads I can loan you.?
--
Brendan

Mark. ?I’m tempted to send you one of my GEMINI BT devices. ? I’ve had not trouble connecting it at 56k and even higher 115kbps I think?

It’s just a BT RS232 Serial Port Protocol. ? I Wonder if this would help. ?But FTDI etc Rs232 converters are capable of these speeds no problem nor does it appear a connection data rate issue?

Which reminds me have you tried connecting at higher data rates to see if this allows better flow? ? I’m sure you have.?

FWIW really odd!
--
Brendan

Hi Mark,

The problems you are having have one thing in common: the computer. When using a USB to serial converter, have you tried using a different USB port on your computer? USB ports on a computer are usually designed in pairs, so the USB port next to the one you are using may be the problem, especially if the neighboring USB port is to a high-bandwidth device like a camera. So, try using a different USB port.

Also, you want to keep the USB cable as short as possible. The max recommended USB cable length is only about 15 feet, but RS232 cables can be much longer, up to about 300 feet. I've found that USB/serial converters with a short USB cable to the DB9 end typically work best because you can build/use a longer RS232 cable between the converter's DB9 to the mount.

-Ray Gralak
(Author of PEMPro)

Paul, Michael

I waited for the Aten cable to arrive and ran these tests just now with the new cable.? Unfortunately no different.? Attached are:

• Trouble shooting - gemini_status log
• Trouble shooting - ascom.gemini telescope.net log
• Gemini log file run at 20ms delay as requested.

I also checked the port settings for com9 - I notice the flow control is set to 'None' - that would be a major issue if the gemini/pc handshake were capable of hardware/software flow control?? But with the pins used at the DB9 end, my assumption is that there is no hardware flow control...



Regards

Mark

On Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 04:25 AM, madastro wrote:

Thanks - I tried setting that all the way to 100 (the top end) and no difference. ?

Mark, can you please upload a log with the errors with 20ms delay? Just want to see if there's any patterns I can pick out between the two logs.

Paul

Thanks - I tried setting that all the way to 100 (the top end) and no difference. ?

Regards?

Mark

Hi Mark,

Hmm, the only thing I can suggest, since most of the errors did get recovered by a retry, is to increase the delay between commands when programming PEC from PEMPro. If I recall, it's just how many milliseconds to wait between commands. Make it some reasonable number, not too large, otherwise you might be waiting for a long time for the whole PEC table to be programmed. 5-20msec should be plenty.

Regards,

? ? -Paul

Paul

Many thanks! ?I have been through a suite of tests. ?I have tried 3 cables and 3 usb convertors - tried all combinations and then made up a new cable - nice and short RS232 to db9. ?My pc has a db9 connector as one of the options. ?I also have two Gemini 1 L4 control panels - so I swapped the panels and got the same results. ?Am at a bit of a loss….

Regards

Mark

On Fri, Mar 22, 2024 at 07:14 PM, madastro wrote:

Folks

I have successfully run a PemPro 3 session - 12 worm cycles - created a good PEC curve and am now trying to load it to the Gemini controller but keep getting serial port comms errors and serial port timeouts.? It looks like PemPro is trying to write the curve data out too fast?? Any ideas?? Gemini log file attached...

Regards

Mark

Hi Mark, you are getting a lot of communications errors in the log, long before you try to program PEC. You may need to replace the serial cable, or the USB->Serial adapter, or both.

Regards,

? ?-Paul

Folks

I have successfully run a PemPro 3 session - 12 worm cycles - created a good PEC curve and am now trying to load it to the Gemini controller but keep getting serial port comms errors and serial port timeouts.? It looks like PemPro is trying to write the curve data out too fast?? Any ideas?? Gemini log file attached...

Regards

Mark

Thanks for the comment and knowledge. ?I'll check that out when I have the opportunity. ?Greatly appreciated!

On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 12:00 AM, Anthony Colwell wrote:

I'm new to the forum and new to the Losmandy G11 and Gemini 1. The Gemini unit appears to power up properly with all 4 "arrow" buttons seeming to operate properly when used for menu selection, sub-menus selection and previous menu selection as described in the user manual. ?After alignment, or if I skip the alignment process, the arrow buttons will not power/slew the RA or Dec motors manually? Any ideas? ?What am I missing? Occasionally, during the alignment process, The Dec motor will turn (I can hear it), but the Dec axis does not move. ?How tight should the RA and DEC clutches be when slewing the mount? ?Lastly, the mount is just back from Losmandy with new tucked in motors and worm drives. ?Thanks for the insight as I begin this journey of knowledge.

Hi Anthony, welcome!

Your Gemini has multiple speed settings. If you have it set to guide mode, your buttons will move at a very slow rate (0.5x Sidereal) which is very hard to see without large magnification. Set your Gemini to Visual mode and see if the buttons move the mount in an obvious way. There's also an All-Speeds mode that allows you start out in Guide mode with buttons, but accelerate to centering and slew speeds when you want. This is all described in the manual:



Regards,

? ?-Paul

I'm new to the forum and new to the Losmandy G11 and Gemini 1. The Gemini unit appears to power up properly with all 4 "arrow" buttons seeming to operate properly when used for menu selection, sub-menus selection and previous menu selection as described in the user manual. ?After alignment, or if I skip the alignment process, the arrow buttons will not power/slew the RA or Dec motors manually? Any ideas? ?What am I missing? Occasionally, during the alignment process, The Dec motor will turn (I can hear it), but the Dec axis does not move. ?How tight should the RA and DEC clutches be when slewing the mount? ?Lastly, the mount is just back from Losmandy with new tucked in motors and worm drives. ?Thanks for the insight as I begin this journey of knowledge.

I made a trip out to my observatory last night.? I went through the list of ideas provided by the good folks here, on the MI-250 forum and on the SGP forum.??

Oldham couplers: tight
Precision Pulse Guide is not checked in my profile
Ran the PHD calibration (more below)
Ran the Guide Assistant, including backlash measurement (more below)
I also refocused my guide camera, it was pretty far out

My problem last night: I still got the "guiding stopped, mount started slewing" error once.? More frustrating, SGP and PHD wouldn't talk, when I started a sequence in SGP it would try to start guiding, but guiding wouldn't start.? I tried starting sequences with guiding not running as well as with guiding already running.? Same trouble.? I'll be reading up on SGP today...

Some unexpected results from PHD utilities:

I ended up running calibration four times last night.? The first time my orthogonality error was 65, then 34, then 18 and finally 18.5 (I rejected that last calibration run).? The change between the first and second calibration runs I maybe could explain because I refocused between those runs.? The last three runs, I can't explain.

Similarly, I ran Guiding Assistant twice.? Guiding suggestions were similar in both runs, so that's not interesting.? The backlash measurements are, though.? The first time my backlash was 0 +?1469ms, and the plot (photo attached) was all over the place.? After my last calibration run (after focusing) I ran the GA assistant again.? Backlash then measured 183 +?58ms, and the graph was textbook.??

In addition, while I was watching the first Guiding Assistant run, I noticed my Polar Alignment error varied between 3' and 30', depending on the sample.? During the second GA run, polar alignment error was consistent at 2.3'.??

I didn't spend much time guiding last night, but it did seem to settle down after a minute or two of running.? But, guiding by itself is no fun, so I didn't do it for long.

On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 12:38 PM, Luis Barneo wrote:

One question,

Each time that you perform a pointing model ?is it necessary to save it, and download after the new warm restart, or Gemini 1 does it automatically?

Luis

HI Luis, the model is saved automatically and will be re-used automatically until you clear it by doing a Cold Start (or a Gemini Reset).

One question,

Each time that you perform a pointing model ?is it necessary to save it, and download after the new warm restart, or Gemini 1 does it automatically?

Luis

Macdonjh,

I have experienced the very same slewing error at times but it is intermittent. I doubt it is your alignment; I drift align every time and check with PHD2. I also can easily hold a star for 5 min with no drift.? I have found that on breezy nights, I'm more likely to get the error. The strangest thing is that I never get this error when shooting targets in the northern sky, even with a slight breeze. My Precision Pulse Guide is checked; I will uncheck it and see what happens.?

Thanks for the discussion.

Jonathan and Paul Kanevsky,?

Thank you for responding.? I hate to think my polar alignment is bad.? I spent a long time over two nights doing an old school drift alignment.? It takes five minutes for a star to drift off my reticle line.? However, I'll check it again.

My ASCOM driver was set up to use BOTH Precision Pulse Guide and Asynchronous Pulse Guide.? I've deselected the former and re-saved my settings/ profile.? I hope I remember to double check that the next time I go to my observatory.

FWIW, I received a suggestion that polar alignment might be a problem from a member of the MI-250 forum.? He also suggested the L4 EEPROM is the best version to use; mine's already been updated.??

Hi,

With Gemini 1 you'll want to make sure that the Gemini.NET ASCOM driver is set?not to use precision pulse-guiding option. That didn't work well in G1, but became the default, and only option in G2.?

Make sure it's unchecked, and Asynchronous Pulse Guiding is checked:


Regards,

? -Paul