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Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Ray Gralak
 

Hi Dominique,

I jumped into my observatory to check and it works perfectly.
Okay, great! Thanks for posting that the Pegasus ObservingConditions ASCOM driver is yet another alternative.

BTW, you can still manually enter the pressure on the Pointing Model tab, if you are using APCC Pro.

-Ray Gralak
Author of PEMPro
Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro
Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver


-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Dominique Durand via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 3:41 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Hi Ray,
Stupid, I am ...
with the ASCOM Observing Conditions Driver of the Powerbox that goes without saying. I jumped into my
observatory to check and it works perfectly.It remains for me to Peagasus to make a probe with the pressure in
addition.
Clear skies
Dominique
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Brian Valente
 

Larry you may just need to download the ascom drivers, which are a separate install?

check their website for that download

On Sat, Sep 19, 2020 at 3:44 PM Larry Phillips <llp41astro@...> wrote:
Thanks Ray.  Looks like I need to contact Astromi as the only choice I have in their setup is serial and there should be an ASCOM choice also.
Larry



--
Brian 



Brian Valente
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Larry Phillips
 

Thanks Ray.  Looks like I need to contact Astromi as the only choice I have in their setup is serial and there should be an ASCOM choice also.
Larry
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Dominique Durand
 
Edited

Hi Ray,
Stupid, I am ...
with the ASCOM Observing Conditions Driver of the Powerbox that goes without saying. I jumped into my observatory to check and it works perfectly.
It remains for me to Pegasus to make a probe with the pressure in addition.
Clear skies
Dominique
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Ray Gralak
 

Larry wrote:

 

> does APCC need to be connected

 

Connected to what?

 

To the mount? No.

 

To the MGBox V2? Yes, via Environmental Settings. You can use the button that says "Test". Here is a screenshot:

 

 

-Ray Gralak

Author of PEMPro

Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro

Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver

 

 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Larry Phillips

> Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 3:25 PM

> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io

> Subject: Re: [ap-gto] APCC Temperature Sensor Input

>

> Ray, does APCC need to be connected for it to communicate with MGBox or is it ok as I am doing trying to

> connect at my desk?

> Larry
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Larry Phillips
 

Ray, does APCC need to be connected for it to communicate with MGBox or is it ok as I am doing trying to connect at my desk?
Larry
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Dominique Durand
 

Hi Ray,
I ask myself the same question but I do not really see what Pempro comes to see in this story. I imagine that it is rather the settings of APCC.
With the Mach2 and its through cables, an Ultimate Powerbox V2 type box is useful. In the opinion of Georges who had tested it, it was a good option and I confirm. With, camera management, dew point, focus is greatly simplified. It would be perfect if at the level of APCC the environmental data could be retrieved from the powerbox sensor.
If that were possible, I would even push Pegasus to develop a sensor that also integrates pressure.
But I remain in the perspective on the right of parameters to enter (Select driver).

Dominique
Re: Updating Cabling

Lee Dodge
 

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the reason for wanting a fan-less mini-PC.  Is it power consumption, vibration, air currents (but there will be thermal currents regardless), or something else?  

With winter approaching, and a relatively high altitude observatory (8600' and 13 miles from the Continental Divide), I usually shut down astrophotography for about five months out of the year.  I have a heated room about 150' from the observatory dome, so I would like to investigate the possibilities of operating from inside a comfortable space.  The winter skies are often clear and always dark, but very cold for doing nothing but leaning over the computer.   

Thanks,
Lee

On Sat, Sep 19, 2020 at 11:30 AM DFisch <manusfisch@...> wrote:
Dale, thanks for the suggestion of the OnLogic.  Nice piece of electronics.  Tom Fischer, INdy

> On Sep 19, 2020, at 12:32 PM, Dale Ghent <daleg@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On Sep 19, 2020, at 9:20 AM, Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Dale,
>>
>> I’m also a mobile imager and agree the on-mount mini-PC should relieve a lot of the cable management burden while setting up / tearing down. I do not have any yet (besides a raspberry pi project I’m working on that will definitely not work below freezing temp next winter - I’m at 47 deg latitude and much of the 6-month winter season here is between -15 and -25C) so I was wondering if yours is an industrial type of mini-PC and if so what model it is.
>
> I use an industrial fanless mini PC from OnLogic, in their ML100 series, specifically the ML100G-51 model:
> https://www.onlogic.com/computers/industrial/fanless/ml100-series/
>
> The Whiskey Lake CPUs have a 15W TDP and so are very powerful but also very kind on battry-powered setups. However, I also run the Whiskey Lake CPUs because I run a 61mp QHY600 camera, and lower-powered Celerons (J series, N series) would have a tough time with that during autofocus and other image analysis operations. But if you went with a Celeron-based model, you would see even lower-powered usage.
>
> The body of the case is a heat sink so it keeps itself clear of dew, and it doesn't have a fan to blow humid air through the inside, either. It also has external wifi antennas (vs. an intel NUC, which is internal) so when setting up at home, it has the reach to get good speeds on my home wireless network. When in the field I use a low power wifi router (repurposed Apple Airport Express) to make a small wireless network on the spot that the unit will auto-connect to. I am starting to experiment with the reliability of Windows' Mobile Hotspot/Hotspot On Demand feature, and if that works reliably I can remove the small wifi router from the setup. It's a shame that Windows 10 discontinued wireless ad-hoc mode, which was a bit more foolproof.
>
> The only similar alternative to the OnLogic fanless models I found were SimplyNUC's Por-cool-pine line of fanless systems:
> http://simplynuc.com/nuc-products/#fanless
>
>
>
>






Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Ray Gralak
 

Hi Larry,

I assume you meant APCC, not PemPro.
Yes, sorry! There are so many questions about PEMPro recently here instead of where they should be, on the CCDWare forum.

Is the ASCOM choice the right one?
Yes, and you must select the MGBoxV2 ASCOM driver, which is a type of ObservingConditions ASCOM driver. If you have trouble you may need to contact the vendor if you cannot get it to work. I had no problem getting mine to work, but I have heard from a couple people that have had trouble.

-Ray Gralak
Author of PEMPro
Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro
Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver


-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Larry Phillips
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 3:00 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] APCC Temperature Sensor Input

I assume you meant APCC, not PemPro. The only two choices I have are THUM and
ASCOMObservingConditions. Did I configure it incorrectly? Is the ASCOM choice the right one? The MGBox
setup instructions were not very clear to me.

Larry
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Larry Phillips
 

I assume you meant APCC, not PemPro.  The only two choices I have are THUM and ASCOMObservingConditions.  Did I configure it incorrectly?  Is the ASCOM choice the right one?  The MGBox setup instructions were not very clear to me.

Larry
Re: APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Ray Gralak
 
Edited

Hi Larry,

Look in APCC's Settings menu, where you will find Environmental Settings.

-Ray Gralak
Author of PEMPro
Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro
Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Larry Phillips
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 2:28 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Ray, I have been using APCC for some time using the THUM temp sensor. On your recommendation I now have
the MGBox V2 sensor. It has been since the beginning of APCC that I started using THUM so I do not remember
what I did to get APCC to recognize it. If the MGBox is plugged in, will APCC automatically recognize it or is there
something I need to do in it to connect?

Larry
Re: Problem with PEMPRO polar alignment

Ray Gralak
 

Joe wrote:

I get PEMPRO’s sometimes confusing target star selection, a lot as well.
Joe, the process of finding a star in PEMPro's polar alignment wizard involves:

1) Taking a full-frame (or sub-frame) image, depending on what has been configured.
2) Selecting and identifying an appropriate star within the min/max brightness range.
3) After at least two sub-frames, both of which must fall in the min/max range, PEMPro will start to show on the graph.

So, PEMPro needs to do a large full/partial frame download first then two sub-frame samples before it can make an initial trend estimate and draw the trend line you see. That can take some time depending on camera download speed, and the exposure duration.

PEMPro should *never* select bad columns as there is an algorithm for the width/height of the star, which, if any dimension is exceeded, the star is rejected.

Also, stars cannot be single width pixels (i.e. hot pixels). They automatically get rejected.

-Ray Gralak
Author of PEMPro
Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro
Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver


-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Joe Zeglinski
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 1:55 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Problem with PEMPRO polar alignment

Hi,

I get PEMPRO’s sometimes confusing target star selection, a lot as well. I was out there last night for very
many hours just to get a PEMPRO polar align on my AP-1200/CP4. There were times, when it showed “Finding
Star”, then when it seemed to have found it, responding with “ Adjusting period”, strangely, it then kept switching
back to Finding Star, several times, until it finally locked onto something. I strongly suspect, without PemPro
allowing a Dark frame to be included, it may be hitting on a vertical line of bad CCD sensor pixels, and my
camera has several. At times, I had to stop the AZ process, and click BACK, to reposition the scope to the original
align Meridian starting point, before it kept searching into the far east/west horizon, with meaningless results, if
any.

You should check the astro sky reports, to see if the smoke in the upper atmosphere has finally cleared up in
your area. Several nights, earlier, when I initially ran polar alignment, the task was an extreme chore, really a
waste of time. It was finally better here in Ontario after a few days, and the skies are now back to fairly normal.
So, last night’s PEMPRO “Star Finding” inconsistencies were somewhat shorter – but it does work,, just requires
user patience.

Colder autumn nights will surely improve doing the alignment runs.
Joe Z.

From: maikner via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 5:16 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] Problem with PEMPRO polar alignment


I am setting up my new AP 1600 and having problem with polar align with PemPro. In step 5, the Measure
Azimuth Error, trouble finding a star and never coming up with the error measurement. I did try the slew scope
button to move a to a new field and did not solve the problem. Any suggestion??



Thank you for your help.
APCC Temperature Sensor Input

Larry Phillips
 

Ray, I have been using APCC for some time using the THUM temp sensor.  On your recommendation I now have the MGBox V2 sensor.  It has been since the beginning of APCC that I started using THUM so I do not remember what I did to get APCC to recognize it.  If the MGBox is plugged in, will APCC automatically recognize it or is there something I need to do in it to connect?

Larry
Re: Problem with PEMPRO polar alignment

Joe Zeglinski
 

Hi,
 
    I get PEMPRO’s sometimes confusing target star selection,  a lot as well. I was out there last night for very many hours just to get a PEMPRO polar align on my AP-1200/CP4. There were times, when it showed “Finding Star”, then when it seemed to have found it, responding with  “ Adjusting period”, strangely, it then kept switching back to Finding Star, several times, until it finally locked onto something. I strongly suspect, without PemPro allowing a Dark frame to be included, it may be hitting on a vertical line of bad CCD sensor  pixels, and my camera has several. At times, I had to stop the AZ process, and click BACK, to reposition the scope to the original align Meridian starting point, before it kept searching into the far east/west horizon, with meaningless results, if any.
 
    You should check the astro sky reports, to see if the smoke in the upper atmosphere has finally cleared up in your area. Several nights, earlier, when I initially ran polar alignment, the task was an extreme chore, really a waste of time. It was finally better here in Ontario after a few days, and the skies are now back to fairly normal. So, last night’s PEMPRO “Star Finding”  inconsistencies were somewhat shorter – but it does work,, just requires user patience.
 
    Colder autumn nights will surely improve doing the alignment runs.
Joe Z.
 

From: maikner via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 5:16 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] Problem with PEMPRO polar alignment
 

I am setting up my new AP 1600 and having problem with polar align with PemPro. In step 5, the Measure Azimuth Error, trouble finding a star and never coming up with the error measurement. I did try the slew scope button to move a to a new field and did not solve the problem. Any suggestion??

 

Thank you for your help.
Re: Updating Cabling

DFisch
 

Dale, thanks for the suggestion of the OnLogic. Nice piece of electronics. Tom Fischer, INdy

On Sep 19, 2020, at 12:32 PM, Dale Ghent <daleg@...> wrote:



On Sep 19, 2020, at 9:20 AM, Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:

Hello Dale,

I’m also a mobile imager and agree the on-mount mini-PC should relieve a lot of the cable management burden while setting up / tearing down. I do not have any yet (besides a raspberry pi project I’m working on that will definitely not work below freezing temp next winter - I’m at 47 deg latitude and much of the 6-month winter season here is between -15 and -25C) so I was wondering if yours is an industrial type of mini-PC and if so what model it is.
I use an industrial fanless mini PC from OnLogic, in their ML100 series, specifically the ML100G-51 model:
https://www.onlogic.com/computers/industrial/fanless/ml100-series/

The Whiskey Lake CPUs have a 15W TDP and so are very powerful but also very kind on battry-powered setups. However, I also run the Whiskey Lake CPUs because I run a 61mp QHY600 camera, and lower-powered Celerons (J series, N series) would have a tough time with that during autofocus and other image analysis operations. But if you went with a Celeron-based model, you would see even lower-powered usage.

The body of the case is a heat sink so it keeps itself clear of dew, and it doesn't have a fan to blow humid air through the inside, either. It also has external wifi antennas (vs. an intel NUC, which is internal) so when setting up at home, it has the reach to get good speeds on my home wireless network. When in the field I use a low power wifi router (repurposed Apple Airport Express) to make a small wireless network on the spot that the unit will auto-connect to. I am starting to experiment with the reliability of Windows' Mobile Hotspot/Hotspot On Demand feature, and if that works reliably I can remove the small wifi router from the setup. It's a shame that Windows 10 discontinued wireless ad-hoc mode, which was a bit more foolproof.

The only similar alternative to the OnLogic fanless models I found were SimplyNUC's Por-cool-pine line of fanless systems:
http://simplynuc.com/nuc-products/#fanless
Re: A little trouble updating my CP4 firmware

Roland Christen
 

We try to be at your service 24-7   ;^))

Rolando



-----Original Message-----
From: stinerjohn@...
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Sat, Sep 19, 2020 11:51 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] A little trouble updating my CP4 firmware

Gotcha. Thanks again for the quick response!

Re: A little trouble updating my CP4 firmware

John Stiner
 

Gotcha. Thanks again for the quick response!
Re: Updating Cabling

Christopher Erickson
 

For me, most of the time a remote PC just simply won't work. I enjoy doing occultations with my two QHY174M-GPS cameras. Mini-PC's don't have the raw horsepower to do that and also tolerate the latency of a remote connection when capturing QHY174M full resolution, full depth FITS frames anywhere from 2 to 450 frames a second. I use a USB3 hub on the OTA to aggregate everything except the main camera, which gets its own dedicated USB3 cable to my occultation laptop. So there are two USB and one power cable through my AP mounts. I also have a PowerPole hub on the OTA. My laptop is usually a powerful gamer's model with a 2TB SSD drive.

-Christopher Erickson
Observatory engineer
Waikoloa, HI 96738
www.summitkinetics.com
   

On Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 9:32 AM Dale Ghent <daleg@...> wrote:


> On Sep 19, 2020, at 9:20 AM, Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Dale,
>
> I’m also a mobile imager and agree the on-mount mini-PC should relieve a lot of the cable management burden while setting up / tearing down. I do not have any yet (besides a raspberry pi project I’m working on that will definitely not work below freezing temp next winter - I’m at 47 deg latitude and much of the 6-month winter season here is between -15 and -25C) so I was wondering if yours is an industrial type of mini-PC and if so what model it is.

I use an industrial fanless mini PC from OnLogic, in their ML100 series, specifically the ML100G-51 model:
https://www.onlogic.com/computers/industrial/fanless/ml100-series/

The Whiskey Lake CPUs have a 15W TDP and so are very powerful but also very kind on battry-powered setups. However, I also run the Whiskey Lake CPUs because I run a 61mp QHY600 camera, and lower-powered Celerons (J series, N series) would have a tough time with that during autofocus and other image analysis operations. But if you went with a Celeron-based model, you would see even lower-powered usage.

The body of the case is a heat sink so it keeps itself clear of dew, and it doesn't have a fan to blow humid air through the inside, either. It also has external wifi antennas (vs. an intel NUC, which is internal) so when setting up at home, it has the reach to get good speeds on my home wireless network. When in the field I use a low power wifi router (repurposed Apple Airport Express) to make a small wireless network on the spot that the unit will auto-connect to. I am starting to experiment with the reliability of Windows' Mobile Hotspot/Hotspot On Demand feature, and if that works reliably I can remove the small wifi router from the setup. It's a shame that Windows 10 discontinued wireless ad-hoc mode, which was a bit more foolproof.

The only similar alternative to the OnLogic fanless models I found were SimplyNUC's Por-cool-pine line of fanless systems:
http://simplynuc.com/nuc-products/#fanless
Re: A little trouble updating my CP4 firmware

Roland Christen
 

Here is what our software engineer said about your post:

"It sounds like it is completing the download successfully.  That's what "Running New Program" means.
I can probably force the progress bar to 100 percent on download termination, in the next software version, if this is confusing."

Normally I get the bar to be 100% blue when i do a software download, but I have also seen it turn partially blue. Not sure why, but it never caused a problem with the actual download. So most likely you are fine with your download.

Rolando



-----Original Message-----
From: stinerjohn@...
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Sat, Sep 19, 2020 11:38 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] A little trouble updating my CP4 firmware

I just put the cover on the scope, but before I image tonight I’ll use your guidance to make sure it actually updated. Thanks!

Re: A little trouble updating my CP4 firmware

John Stiner
 

I just put the cover on the scope, but before I image tonight I’ll use your guidance to make sure it actually updated. Thanks!
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