Hi everyone,

I'm running a Mach2 with APCC Pro, TSX Pro and SG Pro all interacting. It has worked very well with one exception: I get intermittent and (to me) unexplained loss of communication to the mount. If I am there I have found that telling APCC to disconnect and reconnect solves the problem almost all of the time. Last night, however, I wasn't there and I loss a bunch of subs because the mount stopped tracking. The mount was reported as "Parked" but hadn't moved to a standard park position.

This has never happened when I am just talking to the mount over APCC. It happens only when the ASCOM driver is also in operation to support TSX, SG Pro or another program. All of the software is up to date. Using latest Ascom platform.

I'm using the Ethernet connection via a reserved IP address. When it fails APCC tries to look for a backup serial connection, which I don't have. The Ethernet connection is via a managed POE switch, which appears to be operating flawlessly. All of the cables are of high quality and were tested first.

Questions:
1. As anyone else experienced this and found a simple solution?
2. Does it make sense to install a serial-USB secondary connection to the computer, as backup?  Would that help?

Thanks

Marty

Hi Marty,

I'm using the Ethernet connection via a reserved IP address. When it fails APCC tries to look for a backup serial
connection, which I don't have. The Ethernet connection is via a managed POE switch, which appears to be
operating flawlessly. All of the cables are of high quality and were tested first.

First, if you don't have a COM port connected to the mount, you should disable the backup connection by selecting "None" in the "Backup Port" drop-down list. This will keep APCC from switching from Ethernet to a COM port. This would help because if APCC switches to the backup, it will continue to use the backup COM port (which is not connected to the mount) until you disconnect/reconnect, as you discovered. Whatever Ethernet issue happened, which could have been something Windows-related, might have recovered after a period of time.

Of course, one possible way to handle this would be to install a COM port backup cable and configure APCC appropriately.

Would it be possible to get your log files from last night so that we can investigate this? It would be best to use the APCC Log Zipper utility, which is installed along with APCC. Then provide a dropbox, google drive, or one drive link to the zip file.

The mount was reported as "Parked" but hadn't moved to a standard park position.

This is controlled by the Park position defined in the "Safety Park" group box on APCC's Park tab. There are three options: "In place", "Home position", and "Configured park position". You want to select the last option if you want the mount to move to the standard park position if APCC loses contact. By default, APCC will park the mount "In place" (i.e., its current position).

-Ray

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of mjb87 via groups.io
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 5:39 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] Mach2 intermittent loss of connection

Hi everyone,

I'm running a Mach2 with APCC Pro, TSX Pro and SG Pro all interacting. It has worked very well with one
exception: I get intermittent and (to me) unexplained loss of communication to the mount. If I am there I have found
that telling APCC to disconnect and reconnect solves the problem almost all of the time. Last night, however, I
wasn't there and I loss a bunch of subs because the mount stopped tracking. The mount was reported as "Parked"
but hadn't moved to a standard park position.

This has never happened when I am just talking to the mount over APCC. It happens only when the ASCOM driver
is also in operation to support TSX, SG Pro or another program. All of the software is up to date. Using latest
Ascom platform.

I'm using the Ethernet connection via a reserved IP address. When it fails APCC tries to look for a backup serial
connection, which I don't have. The Ethernet connection is via a managed POE switch, which appears to be
operating flawlessly. All of the cables are of high quality and were tested first.

Questions:
1. As anyone else experienced this and found a simple solution?
2. Does it make sense to install a serial-USB secondary connection to the computer, as backup? Would that help?

Thanks

Marty

Thanks, Ray.

I did try to select "none" for the backup connection but the setting didn't "stick" when I reopened the program. I must not have saved the settings, or an earlier version was being loaded. I'll look into that.

I'll collect the log file. Don't have access to any dropbox, etc. places to allow you to collect it. I emailed it to you (7MB) at what I think is a good email address.

I think I'll set up a COM port backup. Will need another USB-serial adapter.

Marty

Marty,

I emailed it to you (7MB) at what I think is a good email address.

I haven't received it yet, so it may be one of the email addresses I deleted recently. When I start getting spam on an email address I remove it and create another one. For this forum, I am now using iogroups at siriusimaging dot com. Please try emailing it to that email address.

-Ray

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of mjb87 via groups.io
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 6:37 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach2 intermittent loss of connection

[Edited Message Follows]

Thanks, Ray.

I did try to select "none" for the backup connection but the setting didn't "stick" when I reopened the program. I must
not have saved the settings, or an earlier version was being loaded. I'll look into that.

I'll collect the log file. Don't have access to any dropbox, etc. places to allow you to collect it. I emailed it to you
(7MB) at what I think is a good email address.

I think I'll set up a COM port backup. Will need another USB-serial adapter.

Marty

Hi Marty

one thing to confirm is you are using TCP and not UDP?

I found UDP to be unreliable and cause intermittent connectivity issues

Brian

Hi Marty,

I had a similar problem and reported it here a while
ago. It took a while for me to isolate the issue.
It turned out, it’s a faulty power supply. Of course,
what happened on me may not be the same as
your issue, but it’s worth checking out.

Cheers,
Wei-Hao
--

Homepage:

http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~whwang/

Astrobin gallery:
http://www.astrobin.com/users/whwang/

Same problem happened last night.

Thanks to all for the help.

Yes, I'm using TCP.

Ray has looked at my logs and thinks it is a timing issue. My data goes from mount via Cat6 to LAN switch via fiber to another LAN switch and then via Cat6 to the computer.  I will advance the timeout setting from 100ms to as much as 500ms, a bit over time to fine the sweet spot. I'll also set up the backup COM port using a USB connection. I can also take the second switch out of the loop if needed.

I'm using the brick power supply that came with the mount.  I also have the Powerwerx power supply, for now attached to my 1100. If the problem persists I'll use that power supply on the Mach2 and see if that solves it.

Once again, my thanks to this great community for their support and good counsel.

Marty