Autoslew and ACP powering motors on?

[lukepower]

As I am in the process of getting ACP (and its Scheduler) to work fully automatic and remotely, I was wondering if there is a (good) way to power up the motors when Autoslew starts. I can see that there is a setting to let the mount perform an Auto-Home when unparked (which is not bad, in this sense), but is there a way to tell Autoslew to start up the motors right away?

 

My plan would be the following:

1. Give power to mount and camera (works)
2. Let ACP connect to the mount and camera (works)
3. Autoslew starts, should power on its motors, but DO NOT do a homefind (as the roof is still closed (not working)
4. As soon as the weather permits, let the roof open and unpark the scope (will result in an auto-home, works)

When the observatory shuts down, it would also be great to find a way to close Autoslew before taking away the power. When ACP disconnects from Autoslew, it still stays active (which is usually cool). I could kill it, but then it complains on the next start that it has been shut down improperly

Maybe there could be an option to shut down Autoslew when the number of connected ASCOM-Clients reaches zero (?). Alternatively, it should accept the fact that I could take away power for a longer period of time (without complaining with plenty of USB errors ).

 

Thanks for your ideas

 

Lukas

Edited May 15, 2013 by lukepower

[lukepower]

Alright, for the records, I found the setting I wanted

It's under "Control" -> "Misc settings". "Power motors on when Autoslew starts" is indeed quite obvious

[dalelieb]

_{Hi Lukas,}

_{Glad you sorted it out.}

_{My issue is that when ACP scheduler shuts down the observatory, it disconnects from AS, but the motors remain on.}

_{Is there a way to shut them down? I do it manually.}

_{This is off the record in this forum, but then other issue is that, although the camera (FLI ML)  is warmed up and shut down, the fan still runs.}

_{The only way I could shut it down is to switch it off. Not a good solution for a automated observatory.}

 

_Dale