PHD and Gemini Drivers

[Jared Wellman]

I went to grab the current version of PHD and saw a note on the download page:

Note for Gemini/Gemini2 ASCOM users: PHD2 v2.2.2 requires the latest Gemini ASCOM Driver, Version 1.0.54.0 or newer.

Unfortunately 1.0.54.0 has a pretty severe but for Gemini 1 users.  Is there a reason that this version is needed? 

Thanks,

Jared

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Jared,

Unfortunately PHD2.2.2 and later will not work with Gemini ASCOM Drivers earlier that 1.0.54.0. If you try it, you will find that PHD2 will guide for a short time and then stop, saying that the mount has started slewing.

It's kind of a long story but here goes...  it started when Joel ran into a situation where phd2 seemed to have hung. I did some investigation and traced it down to a Gemini2 problem where the mount continues to report Guiding = true after the pulse has completed. Joel posted the problem on the Gemini-2 group here, and Rene (Gem2 developer) acknowledged that it was a Gem2 bug but suggested we workaround it in PHD2 by invoking AbortSlew when the stuck condition is detected. As I implemented this workaround, I ran into a bug in the Gemini ASCOM driver (1.0.53.0 and earlier) that caused the ASCOM driver to report Slewing = true when the mount was guiding but not actually slewing. Paul K (Gemini ASCOM developer) promptly acknowledged the bug and fixed it, releasing 1.0.54.0. Without Paul K's fix, we cannot fix Joel's hang. The reason is that we need phd2 to call AbortSlew when Guiding is true for too long, but only if Slewing is false. Otherwise, phd2 could abort somebody's slew and we cannot have that. And without 1.0.54.0 we cannot reliably check the Slewing property.

I am surprised to hear that Paul K has not fixed the Gemini-1 bug in 1.0.54.0. In my experience he has always been extremely responsive in fixing bugs in the driver. Have you talked to him about it recently? I think it would be best to pursue getting the driver bug fixed. If there is some reason that bug cannot be fixed, we could look into alternatives in phd2.

Andy

[Jared Wellman]

Unfortunately PHD2.2.2 and later will not work with Gemini ASCOM Drivers earlier that 1.0.54.0. If you try it, you will find that PHD2 will guide for a short time and then stop, saying that the mount has started slewing.

Maybe this is specific to the Gemini 2?  I've been guiding successfully for the last couple of hours with PHD 2.2.2b and with the Gemini ASCOM Driver 1.0.18.0.  

Thanks,

Jared 

[Andy Galasso]

Hmmm, that surprises me a bit based on Paul's description of the ASCOM driver bug. He said that Slewing returns true whenever Gemini reports a speed other than tracking speed. The fix in 1.0.54.0 was to exclude guiding speed.

So I guess I do not understand why you are not running into a problem with v2.2.2. Perhaps one reason might be that Gem1 handles PulseGuide synchronously so phd2 never has to poll for Guiding = false.  We could confirm that by looking at your PHD2 debug log.

I still think we should get Paul to fix that Gem 1 bug that is preventing you from using 1.0.54.0 though.

Andy

[Jared Wellman]

I'll mention it again on the Gemini group.  He had stated that he could get out a build to test it but I haven't seen anything.  There weren't a lot of folks that piped up to offer to test it (I did and a couple of others) probably made it seem like it wasn't a huge priority.  

From my understanding, most of the changes from 1.0.18.0 to 1.0.54.0 are for the G2, so it might not be as beneficial for my lowly G1 :-)

Thanks,

Jared

[Jared Wellman]

Actually my errors were with 1.0.53.0.  I haven't tested with 1.0.54.0.  I'll do that this evening and see if it's been addressed.  I also posted on the Gemini group.  

In unrelated news would it be possible to change this group to allow posts via email?  

Thanks,

Jared

[Andy Galasso]

On Wednesday, April 9, 2014 10:43:23 AM UTC-4, Jared Wellman wrote:

In unrelated news would it be possible to change this group to allow posts via email?  

I agree, it would be great if we could reply by email. Right now, if you do a Reply All, the email gets sent to the group but the google server rejects it.

I have no idea if this is a forum option or not. If it is a forum option then Craig, the group owner, would be the one to make the change.

Andy

[Jared Wellman]

Now that I've installed 1.0.54.0 and had to uninstall it to put 1.0.18.0 back on...now I'm seeing the "ASCOM driver failed checking IsPulseGuiding" 

It's interested that I didn't see this at all last night and now I see it on every frame.  I guess this means I'm rolling back PHD until this driver issues gets fixed :-( 

Thanks,

Jared

[Andy Galasso]

I wonder if that is the same issue or something different. The symptom of the PHD2 2.2.2 vs Gemini ASCOM 1.0.53.0 incompatibility would have been guiding stopping with a message about the mount having started to slew.

Could you post the ASCOM exception info associated with the "ASCOM driver failed" error message? It will be in your PHD2_DebugLog.

Thanks,

Andy

[Jared Wellman]

I'm not sure.  I reverted back to 2.2.1 for the time being.  I can check it tomorrow if it remains clear.  Unfortunately I didn't have the debug log turned on at that time.

Thanks,

Jared

PS.  For the last 5 emails I've forgotten that I can't just reply.  I will be so happy if that feature gets turned on!

[Jared Wellman]

It appears PHD 2.2.2a is working again with 1.0.18.0.  

I'll report back if that issues pops up. 

Thanks,

Jared

[Andy Galasso]

On Thursday, April 10, 2014 12:14:35 AM UTC-4, Jared Wellman wrote:

PS.  For the last 5 emails I've forgotten that I can't just reply.  I will be so happy if that feature gets turned on!

I found the setting we need changed and emailed it to Craig, the group owner. Hopefully he'll see the message and fix it for us.

Andy

[John Carter]

I deleted my previous post because I forgot that my mount is connected as GPUSB and not ASCOM. PHD2 2.6.1 is working perfectly. Sorry.

John C

Prescott Valley, AZ

[bw_msgboard]

Well, that was easy. <g>  If you’re using GPUSB, you should probably still make an ‘aux mount’ connection using the ASCOM driver.  The aux mount interface shouldn’t be affected by any of these other problems, and you’ll pick up a lot of extra benefits.

 

Good luck,

Bruce

 

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[John Carter]

Unfortunately, after setting up the 'aux mount', PHD2 2.6.1 failed to connect to that mount but did connect to the GPUSB mount. And I have the recommended ASCOM driver installed. I'll take a look at this again later.