Guiding but in Pause

[Han K]

When PHD2 is set in pause, then the status bar is showing Pause for about 11 seconds but then the statusbar returns back to indicating Guiding. But it is still in pause. Would it not be better to show continuous something like "Guiding (paused)"  to avoid confusion about the status?

Han

[Bruce Waddington]

Good idea, thanks for pointing it out:

 

https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/issues/919

 

Bruce

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open PHD Guiding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to open-phd-guidi...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/1e4688bc-5d52-480a-a638-c9ad3b3bba6dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Pict...@earthlink.net]

This intrigued me because I did not recall a reference to setting PHD2 to Pause.  So, I looked in the Help contents and found two references to "pause" - one in Main Screen and one in Guide Algorithms.  The Main Screen reference says that, "If guiding is subsequently started, clicking on the 'loop' icon again will pause guiding while continuing to take guide exposures."

So, I tried it out with PHD2 2.6.9dev4 using simulators.  Indeed, when guiding if I click on the Looping button, the guiding stops (is paused), but the status bar says "Looping".  It never says "Guiding".  What circumstance is it that leads to the condition referenced by the OP where the status bar shows "Pause for about 11 seconds but then the statusbar returns back to indicating Guiding"?  Is that when PHD2 is being invoked by some other software?

By the way I do agree that it would be better to continuously show something like "Guiding (paused)" in the circumstance cited by the OP.   In the case I see using 2.6.9dev4 and simulators it is less clear to me that Guiding(paused) is preferable to "Looping" (what it currently shows).  "Looping" is consistent with the Help documentation and the status bar does not show any corrections being made, nor does the graph of errors and corrections move, and the Begin Guiding button is active, so it is clear, I think that PHD2 is not guiding.

What am I missing?

Manning B

[Han K]

This is observed using the server link, controlled from CCDCiel. Pause is required for people who are using the main telescope for both imaging and guiding (off-axis-guider). When the sequence is starting an autofocus routine, the guider has to be set on pause. I also noticed when resume is given and a new guide command, the settling phase is not visible in the statusbar only via the server.

Han

[Han K]

I have it in simulation now and are monitoring the communication using phd2control. But the thing what's confusing is the "PAUSED"indication in the image and at the same time "Guiding" indication in the statusbar. That is conflicting information. It would be better if the statusbar tell the whole story something like Guiding (Paused) or simple Paused because it is not guiding.

[Han K]

Okay the plot is thickening. I see two different behaviors. If I gave a pause command using the program phdcontrol, both the yellow image message and the status bar stay infinite on status "Pause".  If I use CCDCiel to control PHD2, after about 11 seconds only the statusbar changes from "Pause" to "Guiding". But the yellow message in the PHD2 image stays on "Paused". I have attached the log of both test. In the log using CCDCiel there is an un-pause event. No idea how and why that is happening. I will ask Patrick.

12:23:06.032 00.175 8436 un-pause: clearing mount guide algorithm history

12:23:06.032 00.000 8436 Mount: notify guiding resumed

Han

[Han K]

Now it is clear. PHDcontrol requests a pause of the guider output only. CCDCiel request a pause of the 1) exposure and 2) output. But then the PHD2 status bar message change after 11 seconds from Pause to Guiding doesn't make sense. The status bar should indicate for full pause something like "Paused" and for PHDcontrol the statusbar could better indicate "Guider output paused". This to avoid any confusion.

Han

When setting paused to true, an optional second parameter with value "full" can be provided to fully pause phd, including pausing looping exposures. Otherwise, exposures continue to loop, and only guide output is paused. Example: {"method":"set_paused","params":[true,"full"],"id":42}

PHDcontrol program

12:11:28.481 00.000 5980 evsrv: cli 07CDDBF8 request: {"method":"set_paused","params":[true],"id":1}
12:11:28.481 00.000 5980 SetPaused type=1 isPaused=0 exposurePending=1
12:11:28.481 00.000 5980 Guider::SetPaused(1)

CCDCiel:
12:21:06.659 01.900 8436 evsrv: cli 04B55898 request: {"method":"set_paused","params":[true,"full"],"id":2002}
12:21:06.659 00.000 8436 SetPaused type=2 isPaused=0 exposurePending=1
12:21:06.659 00.000 8436 Guider::SetPaused(2)