My 2.2m dome arrived today

[steppenwolf]

22 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Hi Steve

I did exactly that, and used a dremel to carefully remove the skirt off the shutter section and about 2cm past it either side.  The shutter now operates perfectly, cheers.

Great, at least that issue is resolved. I don't use SGPro but most certainly DO use POTH. What happens if you untick the 'Slave to telescope' box in SGPro, leaving the one in POTH ticked (as it should be)?

 

[tooth_dr]

28 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Great, at least that issue is resolved. I don't use SGPro but most certainly DO use POTH. What happens if you untick the 'Slave to telescope' box in SGPro, leaving the one in POTH ticked (as it should be)?

 

Thanks Steve.  So the dome works totally as normal if the POTH slave button is ticked.  SGPro (I think it's in SGPro) does a dome update every 60s, so what appears to be happening is that SGPro is commanding the POTH box to untick, and ticking it's own box with SGPro.   When I check the slave box in POTH, and it's unticked, I go into SGPro setting, and the slave to telescope box is checked in SGPro.  It seems like there must be a conflict there?  Perhaps I should just not connect the dome to SGPro, if it works in POTH I wonder why I would need to connect in SGPro?  That might not the problem though either.

Edited August 12, 2020 by tooth_dr

[inFINNity Deck]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Then randomly it will say in the notifications in SGPro 'external disconnect of dome detected'.  I can no longer connect to the dome and in POTH it just hangs and I have to shut it down.   I then unplug the dome controller (Shelyak) and reconnect and I can then connect to the dome.  I have to reset the home position using the dome software and resync the home position.  When I reconnect in SGPro, all seems fine, but it doesnt track the scope.

There are 'slave to telescope' check boxes.  If I tick the one in POTH the dome seems to rotate properly, but once connected to SGPro, this box automatically becomes unticked and one in SGPro is ticked (under slave setting for POTH dome).  The dome doesnt rotate though.  However if I tick the POTH slave to telescope it starts to track the mount again, but then it reverts back to being off automatically.

It's hard to summarise this is words, so that doesnt make much sense I'm sure.  But essentially SGPro seems to want to disconnect the dome on occasions, and when it does connect it doesnt track.  100% this is a user input/software error, but it's frustrating as anything.

It does make sense, although I am not sure if I can help. Only thing I can say is, when my SGP reports a 'external disconnect of dome detected' it is because my LesveDomeNet installation (that controls the dome motor) detects no movement while the motor is powered. This is a built-in safety feature that avoids the motor to run with the gear only half in lock. If it would continue running, it would damage the chain it runs in. The stalled dome is detected by LesveDomeNet and reported through the ASCOM driver to SGP, causing this external disconnect message. Of course there is bound to be some backlash in the dome-drive system, so that may cause a false detection. So in your case you could check whether such a safety feature is present in the dome controller and, if so, if it can be set-up to respond differently allowing longer periods of none-responsiveness.

HTH

Nicolàs

[tooth_dr]

7 minutes ago, inFINNity Deck said:

It does make sense, although I am not sure if I can help. Only thing I can say is, when my SGP reports a 'external disconnect of dome detected' it is because my LesveDomeNet installation (that controls the dome motor) detects no movement while the motor is powered. This is a built-in safety feature that avoids the motor to run with the gear only half in lock. If it would continue running, it would damage the chain it runs in. The stalled dome is detected by LesveDomeNet and reported through the ASCOM driver to SGP, causing this external disconnect message. Of course there is bound to be some backlash in the dome-drive system, so that may cause a false detection. So in your case you could check whether such a safety feature is present in the dome controller and, if so, if it can be set-up to respond differently allowing longer periods of none-responsiveness.

HTH

Nicolàs

Thank you for the reply Nicolàs, I appreciate it   When this message happens in SGPro, POTH completely locks up and crashes when I click 'connect dome'.  I have to force it to close and restart it.  I dont think it works right after this and would necessitate a reboot of the PC, but at this stage I've platesolve and am sitting ready to image, it's a PITA.

[steppenwolf]

32 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

It seems like there must be a conflict there?  Perhaps I should just not connect the dome to SGPro, if it works in POTH I wonder why I would need to connect in SGPro?  That might not the problem though either.

If you are using POTH (and I recommend that you do!) you don't need SGPro to know anything about it at all - POTH takes care of it all - unless you are using SGPro to open and close the dome at the start and end of a session but again, you can use POTH to do that as well.

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

If you are using POTH (and I recommend that you do!) you don't need SGPro to know anything about it at all - POTH takes care of it all - unless you are using SGPro to open and close the dome at the start and end of a session but again, you can use POTH to do that as well.

Perfect. I’ll remove the dome from the equipment profile in SGPro and just let POTH do it.  That will also limit the plethora of places for settings, as currently to change an offset I have to do it in three places.  It’s looking partially clear tonight so if my luck holds out I’ll try another run tonight.
I always feared that the slit in the dome was just another thing to go wrong, and with a ror shed the sky is freely visible. But the dome should significantly outweigh the roll off roof in terms of benefits once i get it set up. 

[steppenwolf]

52 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I always feared that the slit in the dome was just another thing to go wrong, and with a ror shed the sky is freely visible. But the dome should significantly outweigh the roll off roof in terms of benefits once i get it set up. 

I'm biased, of course, because my dome just works perfectly but I still prefer the dome concept to the roll-off-roof especially as I feel that I have 'served my apprenticeship' in standing outside in the full open freezing my equipment .......

Don't forget that you can test all this during the day, you don't need night time for his sort of testing!

[GCG-Observatory]

On 27/04/2020 at 18:01, Jkulin said:

Hi Adam,

I'm in discussions about a dome at the moment, can I ask how you managed to make a perfectly round frame?

I'm tempted to make mine oversized and then have my bricky build a 3 high brickwork base on top with air bricks in to keep the air moving and then build rafters for the floor, my existing pier block is fine and would just need isolating.

I used a 6 inch pvc  strip and cable tied it to some rebar pegs.

[BigMisterP]

Was there any further progress on this, the thread just seemed to die off