Sitech "bad scope comms" error sometimes

[kirkster501]

Hi all,

I've had a gremlin for a couple of evenings where the Meridian flip failed in SGP on my Mesu.  Scope managed to park itself but the only error in SGP was just that "meridian flip failed". As a consequence a lot of wasted clear sky time as this happened when I was in bed.

I started to investigate this evening and do a dummy sync in CdC just to the East of the meridian.  I go West past the meridian and bingo it flips to the West.  Cool.  I then slew to a star to the East of the Meridian and it flips back again.  Cool.

However, a couple of times after the flip Sitech came back with "bad scope comms" error when the scope was on the West side and I could not move the scope with either Sitech or CdC.   In Windows Device Manager the USB connection to the scope is still sound and if I disconnect the USB cable, the comm port goes out in device manager  Plug it back and up it comes again.  So physical connection in fine.

I note an ASCOM error under these circumstances.  It didn't give much away,  just ASCOM error.  I have to close all SW down, power the mount down, power back up and I'm in control again.  This happened three times.

Any theories what is going on folks please?  I am on Sitech version 0.94N which is the latest version on the Sitech website.  I am on Servo firmware 9.5 which is quite a recent one too (and I am loathe to start flashing the mount without very good reason).  The Software and firmware have been stable for ever, this issue just started it seems (although I have not been doing much meridian flipping during the last year and I did update ASCOM last Autumn).  No recent changes at all to the SW on the PC other than windows updates.   Must say though, I don't normally use CdC so maybe something to do with that and this is not connected to the SGPO meridian flip error that started me off on this investigation.

Anyone know of a way please to test meridian flips with SGP in the day with dummy images?

 

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by kirkster501

[steppenwolf]

Although your flip tests have been successful, they were not necessarily a good match to your actual imaging run with regard to the position of the object in the night sky. I wonder if you have a cable snagging issue at some object orientations that only happens after the relatively 'wild' movement of a meridian flip? This 'snagging' *could* give you an intermittent disconnect leading to the bad comms message.

[kirkster501]

Yeah maybe.  Something is amiss in my set up all of a sudden.  I can't seem to guide at the Celestial equator either......

[mihaighita]

15 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

I am on Sitech version 0.94N which is the latest version on the Sitech website

The latest version is 0.95G. And they fixed something about meridian flip but it does not seem to be the same bug... You should try to update first imo...

 

0.95G is here:

http://siderealtechnology.com/SiTechSetup095G.exe

Version notes:

 

 *   * *
  0.95G
  Fixed Meridian Flip if looking west and tracking in the trackpast area, and performing a goto to the same location.
 

[kirkster501]

Many thanks!