SGpro plate solving problem

[alcol620]

Hi folks

Took the decision to try the trial version of SGP, having used APT for the past 3 years (and thought it was superb).

Much to my surprise over the last 2/3 days I have got most of the basic set up working, including auto focus!

Last night I tried to get plate solving working and run into a snag. Plate solving and blind solving both solve on an existing image but when I try the auto centre and get the scope moving, solving etc I get the following error message in the Centre Scope & Rotate Camera processing screen. 

Step 1 is completed successfully but Step 2 gives the following message:  

"Slew to reference frame. Failed! Slew to reference frame failed, slew failed, check DotNet exceptions POTH telescope slewing Get System Unauthorised Access Exception."

I have my scope being controlled via POTH hub

Can anyone shed any light on what the problem might be?

Thanks for your help

[Singlin]

Try connecting your scope via the ascom driver

[Guest]

AS SINGLIN did answer, try to connect your mount via ASCOM and niot via POTH.. I did never try to connect via POTH, but for me, centering via ASCOM works very good..

 

Cheers & good luck

 

Martin

[alcol620]

Thanks, will do. Awaiting some stars. Next lot not expected for a couple of weeks!!

[alcol620]

Still having problems with the plate solving, hoped to sort it tonight, but the clouds have rolled in so I have packed up for tonight.

Had a play around using Platesolve 2 to solve individual images I have taken in the past. Seemed to do this with no problem. However, one thing I noticed, and perhaps someone can tell me what is going on and how to correct it. Platesolve has both data catalogues ADM and UCAC3 configured, but when I select ADM in the parameter box and close it, when it is opened again UCAC3 is selected. It doesn't seem to matter that I save the selection in Equipment Profile Manager, the Platesolver parameters always revert back to the UCAC3 catalogue being selected. The images get solved, presumably using the UCAC3 catalogue?

Anyone any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks

[Starflyer]

If you make a change in an equipment profile then that change isn't automatically carried over to existing sequences that you've created, I think this is the problem you're seeing.

You need to open your sequence, choose Apply Profile to Sequence, course the profile you want to apply and then save the sequence. This will cause your new PS2 settings to be applied to that sequence.

[alcol620]

What I can't understand is if I open an existing Equipment Profile Manager (of which I have 1) and make a change to it and save it. I would have thought that that Profile Manager if opened with a new sequence would reflect that profile change. From what I can see it doesn't. The plate solve catalogue always resets to UCAC3.

[Starflyer]

Is the correct catalogue saved in the equipment profile, if you close SGP and reopen it does it show the catalogue you want on reopening?

If so then choose file, new sequence with profile and select your equipment profile. You should be good to go then and the new sequence should use the catalogue you chose in your profile.

If an equipment profile isn't saving your settings between sessions then it's something else going wrong.

I found it difficult to understand what the equipment profile, sequence and control panel did and how they interacted when I first started with SGP. Once you've got this clear it all makes sense why things behave the way they do.

Equipment Profile - changes made here only apply to new sequences, or to an existing sequence if you use; file, apply profile to sequence.

Control panel - changes made here only affect the current sequence and the sequence must be saved.

[alcol620]

10 hours ago, Starflyer said:

Is the correct catalogue saved in the equipment profile, if you close SGP and reopen it does it show the catalogue you want on reopening?

If so then choose file, new sequence with profile and select your equipment profile. You should be good to go then and the new sequence should use the catalogue you chose in your profile.

If an equipment profile isn't saving your settings between sessions then it's something else going wrong.

I found it difficult to understand what the equipment profile, sequence and control panel did and how they interacted when I first started with SGP. Once you've got this clear it all makes sense why things behave the way they do.

Equipment Profile - changes made here only apply to new sequences, or to an existing sequence if you use; file, apply profile to sequence.

Control panel - changes made here only affect the current sequence and the sequence must be saved.

Thanks for taking time to explain, it is becoming clearer. Had another play around and now clear how to open an existing equipment profile make changes and save it as an alternative equipment profile. However, changes made to Platesolve2 settings do not get saved. Any other changes made to camera, focus, filters etc etc get saved to the alternative equipment profile when it is saved.

Presumably changes made to Platesolve2 settings should be saved?  It means that I can't seem to get the APM catalogue as the default. This may be the reason that I am having so much trouble getting SGPro platesolving to work?

Anyone else have this problem. Both catalogues APM and UCAC3 are configured with Status OK

[Starflyer]

It may be a user permissions thing, try running sgp as admin, make the change and close / reopen and check if it retains the change.

[alcol620]

30 minutes ago, Starflyer said:

It may be a user permissions thing, try running sgp as admin, make the change and close / reopen and check if it retains the change.

Makes no difference

[Andyb90]

I was imaging last night using Platesolve2. I did a couple of solve and sync blinds for alignment. Then started to center on the target. Solving worked, but the step of 'estimating background' took some time. I could see the progress bar moving quite slowly. Is there anything that can be done to speed up that step?

For solving I used 10 seond exposures with L filter and a high gain setting on my asi1600mm camera. The camera was uncooled while solving.

I'm wondering if reducing the gain and cooling the camera first would help?

Andy.

[alcol620]

Just by way of an update, having failed to get Platesolve2 to work with SGP I downloaded the Astrometry files and data and tried this as the alternative. Alas, this didn't work either. Eventually Andy Galasso came on the scene and via Teamviewer took control of my laptop and after some time, he found that my laptop had found a bug in the Astrometry software. He cleared it up and issued and update of the software. Astrometry.net now plate solves. Very many thanks to Andy, wonderful.

However, on the next occasion of running SGPro, Platesolve2 now works as well. No idea why this is the case but it is sorted.

I am still having trouble in completing a sequence in SGPro, it starts, plate solves, auto focuses, PHD guides, takes a couple of images and then seems to go into sleep mode between further images. Log files are in the hands of the SGPro experts and I am hoping for further advice.

[iapa]

On 13/05/2017 at 16:32, alcol620 said:

What I can't understand is if I open an existing Equipment Profile Manager (of which I have 1) and make a change to it and save it. I would have thought that that Profile Manager if opened with a new sequence would reflect that profile change. From what I can see it doesn't. The plate solve catalogue always resets to UCAC3.

If you change an equipment profile, you need to assign it to a sequnce, a sequence does not automatically update the equipment profile when it loads, it retains the equipment profile details from the last time it was save

You also need to remember to save the sequence if you want to keep the updated equipment profile

[alcol620]

thanks iapa very helpful

 

[iapa]

On 28/10/2018 at 15:02, alcol620 said:

thanks iapa very helpful

 

yeah - when I come back months after original posting, and issue had been resolved

duh!

[Aidan]

On 27/05/2017 at 20:14, alcol620 said:

Just by way of an update, having failed to get Platesolve2 to work with SGP I downloaded the Astrometry files and data and tried this as the alternative. Alas, this didn't work either. Eventually Andy Galasso came on the scene and via Teamviewer took control of my laptop and after some time, he found that my laptop had found a bug in the Astrometry software. He cleared it up and issued and update of the software. Astrometry.net now plate solves. Very many thanks to Andy, wonderful.

However, on the next occasion of running SGPro, Platesolve2 now works as well. No idea why this is the case but it is sorted.

I am still having trouble in completing a sequence in SGPro, it starts, plate solves, auto focuses, PHD guides, takes a couple of images and then seems to go into sleep mode between further images. Log files are in the hands of the SGPro experts and I am hoping for further advice.

Having used SGP and Platesolve 2 for the past couple of years with great success, about 2 weeks ago it stopped working...or just became very inconsistent... especially when trying to center the target.  I troubleshooted the problem for many nights with no resolution.

i resorted to ore drastic action - Laptop format and new win10 and all my Astro software installation.  Tested last night and Platesolve 2 worked every time.

It would be interesting to find out what Andy did to resolve the problem... it might have saved me a rebuild and might help someone else in the future 

[alcol620]

No real idea what Andy did, too tecky for me. He might be watching?