Problem with Dome and Mount Positioning/Synchronisation from Sequence

[deepskyman]

.I have an issue with my Pulsar 2.7m Dome and DDM85 Mount synchronisation.  I have a set of dome parameters which work perfectly when ASCOM Device Hub is in sole control of the dome, however when I attempt to control from sequence the mount and dome are out by several degrees, to the extent that it is unusable, so currently in sequence I switch off dome control and leave this aspect of the observatory completely to ASCOM Device Hub and this works perfectly every time.  Control of the dome from Sequence and from ASCOM Device Hub is facilitated by an Alpaca Dynamic Driver which communicates with ASCOM Remote running on my dome control server.

I’m now considering the impact this issue will have on the Sequence autopoint function.  There can be a considerable delay between the mount slewing to position and the dome coming to the same position, anything between 30 seconds and 1.5 minutes.  If Sequence is not controlling the dome how do I get the mount and dome to synch to enable me to carry out a full sky autopoint function.  I’m assuming that exposure timing will be handled by the link between Sequence and MaximDL.

Kind Regards

Paul.

[Mark]

I wrestled with this for a while.  I reported it to ASA, but it never got fixed.  It is another example of ASA software that is broken and it is very frustrating.  They have fixed other issues I have identified in their software, so I am unclear as to why they focus on some and not others.

My solution was, like yours, to control the dome synchronization using other software.  

To address the timing issue, in Sequence, I set a mount settle time that is long enough to allow the longest slew required by autopoint during a model build.  That adds a lot of time to the model build, but since I do those infrequently, it is a workaround that I can live with.

 

There is a better solution - a fellow ASA user has built a NINA plug in that will do autopoints job, and NINA controls the dome correctly.