Hi all, Bill here
I’m working on getting short sequences (just 20x10s subs in either Luminance or OSC) of T Coronae Borealis from a remote dome. I’ve got a dragscript here, and I’ve used a few elements I haven’t used before.
Have I done anything badly wrong here? I’m a bit concerned about safety, as it’s a remote facility and T CrB is a morning object so I won’t be attending to save it if something goes wrong.
I’ve enabled events just before opening the dome, and if it’s unsafe I plan to simply shut down for the night. So my resume event simply raises an emergency exit. The emergency exit is called either from the suspend event or by a successful sequence completion. I suspect this isn’t a conventional way of doing things - does anyone have a better structure?
Many thanks!
I can’t figure out how to attach a file to a post, so here it is…
1 - Start: Events At Start are DISABLE
2 - Script
3 - Block: General remarks about the script
4 - Remark: A script to catch T CrB at a specific user-defined time.
5 - Remark: T CrB is a simple star field, so the image will simply be a OSC or Luminance script of 20x10s images.to make a short stack.
6 - Remark: It is very low over the trees at LMDSS and probably not possible below 15° altitude
7 - Block: General remarks about the facility
8 - Remark: LMDSS 2M North dome contains a colour camera (QHY268C) and an Esprit 100.
9 - Remark: LMDSS 2M North Relays: (note that this is different to other locations)
10 - Remark: 6: aperture cover (off = closed)
11 - Remark: 7: accessories
12 - Remark: 8: mount (CEM40)
13 - Remark: LMDSS location for calculations: 144° 40’ E; 36° 48’ S
14 - Remark: LMDSS 2M North Voyager documents folder is in: C:\Users\scope\OneDrive\Documents
15 - Remark
16 - Remark: Events are disabled at this stage - we are shut and safe and about to do a wait safe
17 - Block: 1 Wait for startup
18 - Remark: Wait until T CrB gets to 15°
19 - Remark: This is a simple wait for altitude, as events are disabled. The dome is unequivocally shut.
20 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: Waiting for T CrB to rise
21 - Wait Altitude: >= 15 [°] - ( RA 15 59 30 - DEC 25 55 00 ) - Timeout 06:00:00 [hh:mm:ss] - AntiGlitch ON
22 - Block: 2 Prepare the facility
23 - Block: Remarks about preparing the facility
24 - Remark: We get into this block when it’s clear to start the sequence. First we need to prep the dome.
25 - Remark: Note that events are still disabled (a suspend event will have no effect). The dome is shut and safe.
26 - Remark: This section goes from the resting state to the active state
27 - Remark: Resting state is as follows:
28 - Remark: - Voyager - running
29 - Remark: - Viking - running
30 - Remark: - 6 (flippy flap) Relays 7 (accessories) 8 (mount) - off
31 - Remark: - PHD - not running (for 10s subs autoguiding won’t be needed)
32 - Remark: - iOptron Commander - not running
33 - Remark: - ScopeDome driver - not running
34 - Block: 2a_Startup commands
35 - Block: Connect to Viking
36 - Viking Client Connect: ClientID 1
37 - Wait Time: 00:00:10 [hh:mm:ss] Interval
38 - Block: Power up relays
39 - Remark: Mount on
40 - Relay On: 8 - ClientID 1
41 - Remark: Accessories on
42 - Relay On: 7 - ClientID 1
43 - Wait Time: 00:00:10 [hh:mm:ss] Interval
44 - Relay On: 6 - ClientID 1
45 - Wait Time: 00:00:10 [hh:mm:ss] Interval
46 - Block: Connect in Voyager
47 - Block: Connection actions
48 - Remark: Make sure the correct profile is attached. This does not connect anything.
49 - Change Voyager Profile: main profile
50 - Remark: Now connect to the selected profile. Timeout is 60s, try three times before abandoning.
51 - Connect Setup
52 - If OK
53 - GoTo Block: Connected successfully
54 - Repeat Block For n Times: 3
55 - Remark: We get here if the connection attempt has failed three times
56 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: Connection failed in Voyager!
57 - Enable Events
58 - Raise Emergency Exit Event
59 - Block: Connected successfully
60 - Remark: Into this bit when the connection has been made. Move on to the next step.
61 - Block: Prepare dome and mount
62 - Remark: At the start, the dome is home, unslaved, the mount is home.
63 - Block: Preparation actions
64 - Remark: First, start to cool the camera to our standard running temperature of -10C
65 - Cooling Down: -10[°C] - Async Cooling - Use Voyager Ramp Mode Cooling down-10[°C]
66 - Remark: Next step is to move the scope close to the target
67 - Unparking
68 - Goto RA/DEC: RA 15 59 30 - DEC 25 55 00
69 - Remark: When we’re there we can slave the dome.
70 - Dome Slave ON
71 - Block: Prepared successfully
72 - Remark: Into this bit when the connection has been made. Move on to the next step.
73 - Block: 3 Run the sequence
74 - Remark: Enable events at this point, just before we open the shutter. If from this point we get an emergency suspend it’ll go there and close the shutter.
75 - Enable Events
76 - Open Shutter
77 - If TIMEOUT
78 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: dome shutter opening has failed!
79 - Remark: We’re now in the active state. The task is to run a template sequence on a target saved by Telescopius in a CSV file in the downloads folder.
80 - Remark: The previous block ran about 15 minutes before the set time. That task took 10-15 minutes (assuming it was successful)
81 - Remark: so we don’t need to wait any longer.
82 - Remark: At any time an emergency suspend event might happen. In this case it’ll go to the suspend block then just bail.
83 - Block: 3a Execute the sequence
84 - Remark: This is show time. Running the sequence, precise pointing to the target, focusing, and getting the images
85 - Sequence: Start and End from Sequence - C:\Users\scope\OneDrive\Documents\Voyager\ConfigSequence\T CrB.s2q
86 - Block: 4 Shut down
87 - Remark: Rather than putting the shutdown script here, I’ll send the control to the emergency exit area
88 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: sequence completed successfully
89 - Remark: Don’t need to enable events here just before calling an emergency exit, it’s already enabled in the image acquisition block.
90 - Raise Emergency Exit Event
91 - End
92 - Events
93 - Emergency Suspend: Wait Resume until end of Nautical Night - On Resume Timeout Exec Emergency Exit Event - Manual Data [ LAT:36° 48’ 00" S LON: 144° 40’ 00" E]
94 - Remark: If we’re in a suspend event we just bail.
95 - Raise Emergency Exit Event
96 - Emergency Exit
97 - Remark: Standard shutdown script
98 - Block: Warm camera - close dome - park scope
99 - Block: Warm camera
100 - Remark: Warm the camera (can do other things while this is done)
101 - Remark: By the time the camera is done warming we should be into the shutdown block. It’ll wait for it to be complete there.
102 - Warmup: Async
103 - Block: Close dome
104 - Remark: Close the dome - if it’s open. It is possible to get here without the dome ever having been opened.
105 - DO IF DOME/ROOF OPEN
106 - Close Shutter
107 - If Error
108 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: dome shutter closing has failed!
109 - If TIMEOUT
110 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: dome shutter closing has failed!
111 - Remark: Unslave the dome
112 - Dome Slave OFF
113 - Remark: Park the dome (actually find the home sensor)
114 - Dome Find Home
115 - Block: Park scope
116 - Remark: Park the scope (horizontal dust-resisting position)
117 - Parking
118 - Block: Wait for camera to finish warming
119 - Remark: We started warming the camera when we closed the dome. We did some things but it’s probably not done yet.
120 - Remark: Just wait for 10 minutes while that does its thing
121 - Wait Time: 00:10:00 [hh:mm:ss] Interval
122 - Block: Disconnect and turn off everything
123 - Remark: Now that the equipment is put away, we can shut the facility down
124 - Disconnect Setup
125 - If TIMEOUT
126 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: disconnection timeout - check facility.
127 - Block: Quit software
128 - Remark: Before we turn off power, we have to quit a few programs
129 - Remark: iOptron Commander doesn’t play nice when the mount is turned off, and the same with PHD when there’s no guide camera
130 - Remark: Once or twice I’ve also had a problem with a malfunctioning ScopeDome driver.
131 - Kill Process: PHD2
132 - Kill Process: iOptron Commander 9.07 Connection Settings
133 - Kill Process: iOptron Commander 9.07 Mount Panel
134 - Kill Process: iOptron Commander 2017
135 - Kill Process: ASCOM.ScopeDomeUSBDome
136 - Kill Process: Skychart
137 - Block: Turn off relays
138 - Remark: Close flippy flap
139 - Relay Off: 6 - ClientID 1
140 - Wait Time: 00:00:10 [hh:mm:ss] Interval
141 - Remark: Accessories off
142 - Relay Off: 7 - ClientID 1
143 - Remark: Mount off
144 - Relay Off: 8 - ClientID 1
145 - Remark: We should now have all relays off and neither Commander, ScopeDome driver, nor PHD running.
146 - Remark: Now we are in the resting state
147 - Block: Notify shut down successful
148 - Send Telegram: ##NOW## LMDSS 2M North: dome is now shut down.
149 - Events RoboTarget