Voyager Questions

[Martin Farmer]

Hello Steve,

It was a question I had and raised on the Voyager forum. 8 relays on the Velleman board is a squeeze so that's why I added the small board and used the analogue out on the Velleman.

You can add multiple Vikings running as a custom licence and that I understand is one way to do what you want to do - but please check on the forum to get confirmation on this fact..

Regarding the programming question - I myself cant answer this but as I said in an earlier post there are 4 of us within our small group who use Voyager and one of these guys is using scripts and calling them from the on the fly mode run external scripts from within a sequence. He is working on automation but not using Viking, I think he is a user of this site so I could get him to join in the discussion - I will ask him later on tonight on our Skype group call.

Did you post the circuit onto the forum you wanted to post it on Steve?

Regards

Martin

[sloz1664]

Thanks for the prompt reply, Martin. I really appreciate the help and really don't want to go down the custom / custom array route. Regards posting your great "add on" I tried posting it yesterday, but for some reason it's not accepting my login details and I'm waiting for a reply from the group.

Steve 

[sloz1664]

Did you post the circuit onto the forum you wanted to post it on Steve?

Posted on the Levesdome Users Group, thanks Martin 👍

Steve

[steppenwolf]

As I started this thread in the first place, I thought that for completeness, I should give a final update as my trial licence concludes today!

A few day ago, a new version of the software (Release 2.2.10 Build 2020-06-03) was released and to my surprise, FITViewer no longer hangs on exit. I also noticed that calling my AAG VBS script no longer results in an error message but unfortunately, the script still doesn't call up AAG so I would still be stuck with my work-around of placing a 'wait' in the DragScript tasks to manually run AAG. I never did get meridian flips to perform correctly and to be honest I got bored with repeatedly testing although I have no doubt that there is a straightforward solution but I didn't find it!

So all in all, an interesting trial of powerful piece of software.

[andrew s]

35 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

As I started this thread in the first place, I thought that for completeness, I should give a final update as my trial licence concludes today!

A few day ago, a new version of the software (Release 2.2.10 Build 2020-06-03) was released and to my surprise, FITViewer no longer hangs on exit. I also noticed that calling my AAG VBS script no longer results in an error message but unfortunately, the script still doesn't call up AAG so I would still be stuck with my work-around of placing a 'wait' in the DragScript tasks to manually run AAG. I never did get meridian flips to perform correctly and to be honest I got bored with repeatedly testing although I have no doubt that there is a straightforward solution but I didn't find it!

So all in all, an interesting trial of powerful piece of software.

Pity, it just worked for me and runs my rig each night, stopping and staring with the weather/roof and the rising and setting of the targets . Meridian flips, precise pointing, filters, rotator etc.all work as documented.

What will you use instead?

Regards Andrew 

[steppenwolf]

24 minutes ago, andrew s said:

What will you use instead?

Hi Andrew, I'm pleased to hear that it works for you and no doubt many others too! I have a good working solution already as documented in my thread here and I will just continue to use that as it simply works, albeit a little quirky at times! In essence, this comprises CCD Commander, MaxIm DL, Cartes du Ciel and PinPoint. The only thing my current system doesn't do that I liked in Voyager is dropping to an All Sky solve if a normal solve fails but that so rarely happens that it is a trivial inconvenience.

[sloz1664]

On 16/05/2020 at 15:40, Martin Farmer said:

Hello Steve,

Are you using the standard licence of Voyager?. If so then Viking can only access one Velleman board at a time - Just a thought.

 

Regards

Martin

Hi Martin,

Just a follow up on this amazing software. Avidly been learning this software and, in particular, the dragscript module and including the Viking module. It appears I can use both Velleman boards using the basic licence and have successfully written vbscripts to turn on and off the main power and switched each velleman relay via the dragscript relay command. Wish I had known you could import windows bat commands via external script and I would have gone to the trouble of learning vbscript. Also, I have since purchased the base licences of both the Voyager & Viking software.

Steve 

Edited June 26, 2020 by sloz1664

[Leonardo Orazi]

On 13/06/2020 at 13:18, steppenwolf said:

As I started this thread in the first place, I thought that for completeness, I should give a final update as my trial licence concludes today!

A few day ago, a new version of the software (Release 2.2.10 Build 2020-06-03) was released and to my surprise, FITViewer no longer hangs on exit. I also noticed that calling my AAG VBS script no longer results in an error message but unfortunately, the script still doesn't call up AAG so I would still be stuck with my work-around of placing a 'wait' in the DragScript tasks to manually run AAG. I never did get meridian flips to perform correctly and to be honest I got bored with repeatedly testing although I have no doubt that there is a straightforward solution but I didn't find it!

So all in all, an interesting trial of powerful piece of software.

Thank you Steve, really surprise that all work now for you. Really happy.

Voyager its so powerful that fix bug itself without my control !

[Jonk]

I've just read about Voyager and am keen to test it alongside N.I.N.A

Has anyone got any further thoughts on this option, as I'm sure a lot more testing has taken place since July?

[andrew s]

18 minutes ago, Jonk said:

I've just read about Voyager and am keen to test it alongside N.I.N.A

Has anyone got any further thoughts on this option, as I'm sure a lot more testing has taken place since July?

The have been a number of updates since July. I use it every night without any issues.

Regards Andrew 

[sloz1664]

I've had Voyager now for 5 months, and now I have my Dome fully automated, I have now completed my first imaging session without a hitch. Well impressed.  Don't get me wrong, writing full Dragscripts tailored for your own automated setup is no easy task and when you get it right. It works brilliantly.

Steve

[andrew s]

13 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

Don't get me wrong, writing full Dragscripts tailored for your own automated setup is no easy task and when you get it right. It works brilliantly.

Steve

Once I realised Voyager is an event driven, quasi realtime, system the DragScripts became more obvious as it's not like, say Basic or Fortran, as events can interrupt the program. If a sequence is interrupted it starts again from the beginning. The simulators for weather events certainly help testing.

Not a big issue if you take a small  number of images but the image names can be annoying as the "numbers" can repeat (time is the key differentiator). I can take 2000 images a night and the  numbers can mix them up! I use a bulk renaming program to strip them out.

Regards Andrew 

 

[sloz1664]

8 hours ago, andrew s said:

Once I realised Voyager is an event driven, quasi realtime, system the DragScripts became more obvious as it's not like, say Basic or Fortran, as events can interrupt the program. If a sequence is interrupted it starts again from the beginning. The simulators for weather events certainly help testing.

Not a big issue if you take a small  number of images but the image names can be annoying as the "numbers" can repeat (time is the key differentiator). I can take 2000 images a night and the  numbers can mix them up! I use a bulk renaming program to strip them out.

Regards Andrew 

 

Hi Andrew, Thanks for the info, it will take a few clear nights to understand the logic in how Voyager works. I'm lucky in some respects, as part of my working life I used to write machine code for complex automated machines and Dragscript is of a similar vein. As you rightly pointed out, How it indexes the images is something I will have to sort out.

Steve

[andrew s]

7 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

Hi Andrew, Thanks for the info, it will take a few clear nights to understand the logic in how Voyager works. I'm lucky in some respects, as part of my working life I used to write machine code for complex automated machines and Dragscript is of a similar vein. As you rightly pointed out, How it indexes the images is something I will have to sort out.

Steve

In the distant past (note reference to FORTAN) I was a control engineer at the dawn of computer control with real ferrite core computers! 🙄

Regards Andrew 

[sloz1664]

29 minutes ago, andrew s said:

In the distant past (note reference to FORTAN) I was a control engineer at the dawn of computer control with real ferrite core computers! 🙄

Regards Andrew 

I wasn't a computer programmer, I was a Manufacturing Engineer and although I did dabble with Fortran in 1983, it wasn't my thing and went into Robotics instead

Steve

[skybadger]

It's good to here of automation progress here. 

I followed the voyager path to handle multiple cameras using the virtual mount mode. However I'm still completing the dome automation so concentrating on that. I've got drag scripts that call external batch files for powering the whole setup on and off, using alpaca calls. 

I'm working on the shutter automation right now using my own home brew system at which point I'll be up and rolling..!

[Jonk]

I've had a trial of Voyager for about a week now, and as with any software, there's a learning curve.

So far however, it seems to fit the bill, you just need to remember how to set things up properly, and more importantly, why they need to be set up in the way they are.

There;s no one size fits all with software, and there are alway things good and not so good, but it's about matching the softwsre to the requirement.

For me, dual / triple or more scope control on 1 mount is near if not top of the list - Voyager array can take care of this.

[old_eyes]

Latest updates as a begginner user of Voyager and Viking.

A week or so ago, I had a couple of complete run through nights with Voyager:

• Connecting all the hardware. opening the observatory roof and lowering the flap.
• Slewing and precise pointing to the first target.
• Focusing on first filter, collecting subs and then switching to the next filter and refocusing.
• Carrying out meridian flip
• After collection sequence ended - report that to my phone using Telegram.
• Slew to next target and wait until it has risen high enough.
• Precise point and focus before collecting data.
• Retry to start data collection a couple of times as the target had not quite cleared a tree.
• Once target clear of tree and guiding can lock on - collect subs on differnet filters.
• At end of night:
  • Stop data collection, park scope, close roof, warm camera and disconnect hardware.

I was pretty pleased with that. It all ran smoothly - though as the moon was high and full the data is not great.

Last night we were promised a few hours clear skies after midnight. So I set everything up to try and image. We did get a  brief clear spell at about the right time, and  everything worked as above. Then it clouded over, but Voyager kept trying to restart the sequence every 10 minutes until the end of the night, before closing down as above. It included a merdian flip as the target (which was invisible) crossed the meridian. I was pretty impressed by this. Error handling seemed to do what I expected. The only thing that has not been tested in real life yet is a power failure and rain. Both should lead to an immediate and emergency shut down and closing up the observatory.

I feel I am making progress with this automation project, and that providing I don't make silly coding  errors in the scripting language, Voyager will make my observatory do what I need.

Using Telegram to send progress messages and the Voyager web dashboard helped me keep track of what was happening from inside the house and allowed me to sleep with some confidence.

[Jonk]

Sounds good - I haven’t used at all in reality, only in simulation.

Are you planning on the array control? This is the most attractive option for me, but will wait until i’m fully setup to try a trial.

[old_eyes]

19 hours ago, Jonk said:

Sounds good - I haven’t used at all in reality, only in simulation.

Are you planning on the array control? This is the most attractive option for me, but will wait until i’m fully setup to try a trial.

No. Not yet. I have two scopes mounted side by side on my Mesu, but this is to avoid messing around swapping scopes. I only use one at a time at the moment. I don’t have the fine alignment control to set up a proper dual rig. So no need for array version of Voyager at the moment. 

[sloz1664]

23 hours ago, old_eyes said:

Latest updates as a begginner user of Voyager and Viking.

A week or so ago, I had a couple of complete run through nights with Voyager:

• Connecting all the hardware. opening the observatory roof and lowering the flap.
• Slewing and precise pointing to the first target.
• Focusing on first filter, collecting subs and then switching to the next filter and refocusing.
• Carrying out meridian flip
• After collection sequence ended - report that to my phone using Telegram.
• Slew to next target and wait until it has risen high enough.
• Precise point and focus before collecting data.
• Retry to start data collection a couple of times as the target had not quite cleared a tree.
• Once target clear of tree and guiding can lock on - collect subs on differnet filters.
• At end of night:
  • Stop data collection, park scope, close roof, warm camera and disconnect hardware.

I was pretty pleased with that. It all ran smoothly - though as the moon was high and full the data is not great.

Last night we were promised a few hours clear skies after midnight. So I set everything up to try and image. We did get a  brief clear spell at about the right time, and  everything worked as above. Then it clouded over, but Voyager kept trying to restart the sequence every 10 minutes until the end of the night, before closing down as above. It included a merdian flip as the target (which was invisible) crossed the meridian. I was pretty impressed by this. Error handling seemed to do what I expected. The only thing that has not been tested in real life yet is a power failure and rain. Both should lead to an immediate and emergency shut down and closing up the observatory.

I feel I am making progress with this automation project, and that providing I don't make silly coding  errors in the scripting language, Voyager will make my observatory do what I need.

Using Telegram to send progress messages and the Voyager web dashboard helped me keep track of what was happening from inside the house and allowed me to sleep with some confidence.

That's great news. Voyager has certainly made me feel very confident in full automation and having a relatively good nights sleep  I have tested for rain, I use the Cloudwatcher, and tested it on a clear night with full moon. Voyager immediately   went into emergency mode and parked the mount & closed the shutter and waited for the "rain" to clear. Test done. Regarding the power failure I need to fine tune my UPS parameters to execute a safe shutdown. Too cold at the mo to set it up.

I have the custom array for my two scope setup and Leonardo kindly orchestrated a Teamview session to fine tune my setup. All set for my first session when unfortunately my auto focuser failed. I have since reverted to my Tal 200k single scope for the time being. I have just rebuilt the electronics on the auto focuser and will change to the two scope setup soon. 

Although the electronics needed an update the issue turned out to be a serial cable failure. I have since ordered two new cables and they had issues also. I found a Startech serial cable and that works fine. Ordered two Startech cables and set the other two back.

Steve

[ampleamp]

After various delays, i just completed my first test array sequence in near enough full moon (of course). It all worked fine and am feeling quite happy with myself at the moment as i usually find some way to mess things up. With much to learn, I still have a very manual approach to this software but so far so excellent.

I am quite a bit off any real automation, not least my roof motor doesn't work at the moment, though this remains my ultimate goal to achieve this year. Leonardo will dial in some time soon and I hope send me in the right direction re Dragscript and some basic automation etc. Despite this being another world for my very non-computer orientated brain, i can see huge potential with this software and will continue to get used to where options and services live. As @sloz1664  the safety elements of reliable closing in bad weather, and reopening should clear skies return are worth a lot to me. Hopefully i can now think about consigning SGP to archive 😉 

Edited March 29, 2021 by ampleamp
sp

[Petergoodhew]

On 30/03/2021 at 00:36, ampleamp said:

After various delays, i just completed my first test array sequence in near enough full moon (of course). It all worked fine and am feeling quite happy with myself at the moment as i usually find some way to mess things up. With much to learn, I still have a very manual approach to this software but so far so excellent.

I am quite a bit off any real automation, not least my roof motor doesn't work at the moment, though this remains my ultimate goal to achieve this year. Leonardo will dial in some time soon and I hope send me in the right direction re Dragscript and some basic automation etc. Despite this being another world for my very non-computer orientated brain, i can see huge potential with this software and will continue to get used to where options and services live. As @sloz1664  the safety elements of reliable closing in bad weather, and reopening should clear skies return are worth a lot to me. Hopefully i can now think about consigning SGP to archive 😉 

Alistair, I'm intrigued by the Voyager support for dual rig setups.

Does it manage to pause the slave before a meridian flip and then restart it after the flip?

[ampleamp]

Hi Peter,

if a computer numpty like me can make it work I'm sure you will have no trouble. 

Like everything, it is the initial setup that makes everything else happen and Voyager is no exception. The array aspect needs both scopes/cameras etc setting up individually in their respective Voyager programmes and then the primary system (the one that controls the mount) has additional settings that directs the array to the secondary system. I have them on different computers but I believe that isn't necessary (though certainly simpler).
 

The primary system is put into array mode and is linked to the secondary. From there, nearly everything you do in the primary system is mimicked in the secondary though the two sequences can be different. 

In answer to your question, yes, the secondary/slave stops imaging and the primary takes over, pushes the mount to flip, plate solves, and re-initiates the imaging again. 

I am still baby sitting this manually at the moment but am getting braver about using dragscript which will mean once I ask it to go, everything should work on its own from there; except my roof motor still does not work so I have to be available for manual closure. 
 

The attached picture is from the widefield array but you get the idea. 
 

So far I am really impressed with this programme, and the backup, and since I am more or less out of astro dark now, I intend to learn what I can over the summer especially developing and using dragscript for all functions. 
 

[Petergoodhew]

Thanks Alistair - this almost sounds too good to be true.  As you know, I've no ability to sync both scopes other than doing a lot of manual fiddling. I have to calculate the time of the flip and make sure the slave scope isn't imaging or guiding until the flip is done.  Another bonus is the abiity to do sky flats - something else that SGP doesn't support.  Have you come across anything that SGP does and Voyager can't do?