ACP driver problem

[gerald]

Dear all,

I am using ACP (http://acp.dc3.com) to control the backyard observatory but have a small issue with the ATIK camera driver.

In MaximDL, if I use the standard ArtemisHSC driver there is a blocking issue when ACP's web interface is being used - there is a delay of 2-3 minutes until the web page is being displayed.

Probably ACP queries something from the camera which blocks the CPU.

If I change to Chris Rowland's ASCOM driver, everything is fine - no more blocking issue. But unfortunately this driver doesn't allow to take images less than ~0.2 seconds, which disables the possiblity to take bias images.

Is there any chance to either change the behaviour of the ArtemisHSC driver - or - to allow the ASCOM driver to take images with zero exposure time  if the image type is BIAS?

As I already developed some ASCOM drivers for other projects, I would also appreciate to make the source code available if there are no copyright issues. To make a new ASCOM camera driver from scratch would also be a possibilty, but the interface to the camera dll (unmanaged C++) is quite complex in the .NET environment and I'd like to avoid unnecessary work.

Best regards,
Gerald

[wgrimes]

Crap.....I hope they get this worked out.  I just purchased a 314e for guiding using ACP.

I noticed also that the ASCOM driver did not seem to support cooling.....is that true??

In the main driver I also do not see a sensor temperature reported in MaximDL.  It shows the set point but not the actual temperature.

Maybe I need to send this camera back......now I'm worried.

[wgrimes]

I tried connecting last night.  There is a slight delay on web page load, but for me it was not that long....maybe 30 seconds or so.  One time it did seem longer, but was not really paying attention to it by that point.

I am having some other issues, so did not fully test...but in general it seemed to work.

EXCEPT.  I get no sensor temp data.  What good is it to have a cooler if you don't know what the temp actually is??

[gerald]

Hi,

I don't have issues with the sensor temp - it's shown in MaximDL and also ACP correctly. Either with the ASCOM driver and the ArtemisHSC.dll. The camera is 383L+

But the delay here is definitely longer than 30 seconds and sometimes also crashes ACP due to non responsiveness. Therefore I can't use ACP's web interface :-(

[wgrimes]

That is odd.

I talked to a guy at OPT, where I got the camera, he said that the 314e is not 'regulated'....so that would explain why I don't get temperature.

How old is the 383L+??  firmware up to date?? 

You can connect directly to Maxim, but not ACP..... have you tried starting ACP and with out automatic connection.....then connect using Maxim??  Breaking protocol I know, but wonder if it would work.

[Chris]

This reminds me.

I've a new version of the ASCOM driver that I need to pass on to ATIK.  It allows exposures down to zero if the shutter is not opened, but 0.2 seconds if the shutter is opened.  It also implements ASCOM camera version 2 correctly.

Chris

[gerald]

Hi Chris,

this really sounds promising, thanks! 
I'm looking forward for the new driver.

BR Gerald

[gerald]

Hello everybody,

are there any news when we can expect to have the new driver released?

BR Gerald

[Chris]

I sent it to ATIK last week, they report problems which I can't reproduce so we need to get to the bottom of that.  I think it's some module I'm expecting that isn't installed, the $64K question is which one of course.

Cris

[gerald]

Hi Chris,

I don't know if this is of any help, but I had a similar issue with the ASCOM driver which I developed (http://sourceforge.net/projects/lfepascom/)

The solution was to add the "ignoreversion" flag in the Inno Setup Script for the DLL's, otherwise it wouldn't overwrite an existing one, like this:

[Files]

Source: "..\*.dll"; DestDir: "{app}" ; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "..\LFEP_ServerServedClasses\*"; DestDir: "{app}\LFEP_ServerServedClasses" ; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "..\ASCOM.LFEP_Server.exe"; DestDir: "{app}" ; Flags: ignoreversion ;AfterInstall: RegASCOM()
Source: "..\LFEP Starter.exe"; DestDir: "{app}" ; Flags: ignoreversion

BR Gerald

[Chris]

good thought but I'm doing that.

We have found out what's happening.  All the logging I put in has paid off.  It turns out that the problem is to do with reading the temperature and handling the cooler.  Not all current cameras support those things.

Part of the problem is that the errors that are reported are misleading. I'm reporting exactly what happens, with useful error messages, but they aren't finding their way to the user and are replaced by incorrect error messages.

I should be able to get a new version out soon.  At least we aren't inflicting this on the users.

Chris

[gerald]

Hi Chris,

just found that the new driver is available since yesterday.

I made a quick test and it works great - congratulations!

The delay which I had experienced in ACP is completely gone and taking bias images is also possibly.

But one thing is not clear to me: The option "High priority data downloads". The ASCOM driver manual refers to some Atik manual for this point, but I can't find the reference.

Does it mean that downloads are made at 100% CPU speed to avoid any interferences during download - OR - downloading in "preview mode" with reduced quality?

Gerald

[Chris]

Good to hear it's working for you.

AFAIK high priority increases the CPU priority for the driver so there's less chance of other processes interrupting the image download.  It doesn't change the image quality.

Chris