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Strange Mount Behaviour

Terry Martin
 

My Mach2 scared the hell out of me this morning.  Last night we had some clear skies; unbelievable, but true! So, I setup a sequence in NINA which ran perfectly until the target hit my horizon.  Then the sequence ended and the mount parked, as per expected.  This morning when I got up the mount was parked; I disconnected all the equipment in NINA, shut down NINA, then shut down APPC, then shut down the computer.  I went outside to put the cap on the scope (power was still on to the mount at this time) and while doing so the mount started to rotate.  Now, as I stated above, I was quite startled.  I turned the power off to the mount before the scope hit the pier.  I turned the power back on to the mount; it didn’t continue rotating, so I went back inside, turned the computer back on, connected to the mount and parked it.  Then I disconnected everything again and turned it all off.  I am quite baffled by this.  Any ideas out there?

~Terry
Chris White
 

Terry,

Can't answer the big question here but rest easy, if you have a pier collision the mach 2 stops instantly. No damage to scope or camera. 
Terry Martin
 

Thanks Chris.

They're not a pleasant experience though.  I'm thinking my issue might be a grounding problem.  I have noticed a couple times in the past that there would be a small spark when I touched the mount while it's running.  This morning the mount was stopped until I touched the scope; then it started to move.  I need to investigate further.

~Terry
Arun
 

This is correct. When I first started APCC, I had not homed the mount. APCC was set to park at home position rather than in place if it lost connection to the mount. All of this resulted in a pier collision. I was surprised (and pleased) and how quickly the mount stopped. There was no damage to the scope, not a single scratch. 
Mike Hanson
 

Hi Terry,

Make sure APCC safety timer on the "Park" tab is set the way you intend.  Here's an example of a setting that has startled me with "uncommanded" motion more times than I care to admit.  While this scenario isn't fully supported by your description of events, I'd check for it first anyway.



Regards,
Mike Hanson

Roland Christen
 

If you are using APCC Safety Timer and the mount loses connection to your computer, the mount will slew to the Home position after a few minutes.

Roland Christen
Astro-Physics Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Martin <terry@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Sun, Feb 5, 2023 2:36 pm
Subject: [ap-gto] Strange Mount Behaviour

My Mach2 scared the hell out of me this morning.  Last night we had some clear skies; unbelievable, but true! So, I setup a sequence in NINA which ran perfectly until the target hit my horizon.  Then the sequence ended and the mount parked, as per expected.  This morning when I got up the mount was parked; I disconnected all the equipment in NINA, shut down NINA, then shut down APPC, then shut down the computer.  I went outside to put the cap on the scope (power was still on to the mount at this time) and while doing so the mount started to rotate.  Now, as I stated above, I was quite startled.  I turned the power off to the mount before the scope hit the pier.  I turned the power back on to the mount; it didn’t continue rotating, so I went back inside, turned the computer back on, connected to the mount and parked it.  Then I disconnected everything again and turned it all off.  I am quite baffled by this.  Any ideas out there?

~Terry

--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics
M Hambrick
 

Hi Terry

Expanding on what Roland said, I'm not sure how your computer is connected to your mount, but there are some power settings in Windows that will put your computer to sleep if there is no activity for a while. The setting I have encountered this with before is the USB Selective suspend feature. You may have turned it off at one time or another, but it has been known to get re-enabled after some of the Windows updates. 

In your Device manager look for the Universal Serial Bus Controllers and go to the Power management tab and make sure that box is unchecked.

Mike
Terry Martin
 

Thank you all for your replies.

Let me clarify some things.  When I said above that I shut the computer down, what I should have said is I shut Windows down; the power to the computer was still on, as was power to the mount.

I have windows set up to never go to sleep; that includes all the USB settings in Power Management.

The mount was not heading Home; I don’t know where it was going, but it surely was not Home.  The counterweights were up and the scope was pointed down.

The procedure I mentioned above is the same one I have always used.  In the morning the mount is parked.  I check the computer to see that the images that were supposed to have been taken are on the computer.  I then download the images onto another drive.   Once that is done, I disconnect all the equipment, one device at a time, from NINA, then close down NINA.  Once NINA is shut down, I then shut down APPC.  Once APPC is shut down, I then shut down Windows.  I then go outside, turn the power off to the computer and mount, and then cover the scope and mount.

~Terry
Roland Christen
 

What safety setting do you have in APCC?

Roland

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Martin <terry@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Mon, Feb 6, 2023 2:13 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Strange Mount Behaviour

Thank you all for your replies.

Let me clarify some things.  When I said above that I shut the computer down, what I should have said is I shut Windows down; the power to the computer was still on, as was power to the mount.

I have windows set up to never go to sleep; that includes all the USB settings in Power Management.

The mount was not heading Home; I don’t know where it was going, but it surely was not Home.  The counterweights were up and the scope was pointed down.

The procedure I mentioned above is the same one I have always used.  In the morning the mount is parked.  I check the computer to see that the images that were supposed to have been taken are on the computer.  I then download the images onto another drive.   Once that is done, I disconnect all the equipment, one device at a time, from NINA, then close down NINA.  Once NINA is shut down, I then shut down APPC.  Once APPC is shut down, I then shut down Windows.  I then go outside, turn the power off to the computer and mount, and then cover the scope and mount.

~Terry

--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics
Terry Martin
 

One minute:  Home Position
Brian Valente
 

Hi Terry

>>>The mount was not heading Home;

Did you previously configure Home? And if you did, have you loosened the clutches/reoriented that mount at all in the time since?

 

On Mon, Feb 6, 2023 at 12:13 PM Terry Martin <terry@...> wrote:
Thank you all for your replies.

Let me clarify some things.  When I said above that I shut the computer down, what I should have said is I shut Windows down; the power to the computer was still on, as was power to the mount.

I have windows set up to never go to sleep; that includes all the USB settings in Power Management.

The mount was not heading Home; I don’t know where it was going, but it surely was not Home.  The counterweights were up and the scope was pointed down.

The procedure I mentioned above is the same one I have always used.  In the morning the mount is parked.  I check the computer to see that the images that were supposed to have been taken are on the computer.  I then download the images onto another drive.   Once that is done, I disconnect all the equipment, one device at a time, from NINA, then close down NINA.  Once NINA is shut down, I then shut down APPC.  Once APPC is shut down, I then shut down Windows.  I then go outside, turn the power off to the computer and mount, and then cover the scope and mount.

~Terry



--

Bill Long
 

Loosening the clutches on the Mach 2 has no effect on its ability to know where it is, unlike it's other AP Encoder mount brothers.


From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> on behalf of Brian Valente <bvalente@...>
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2023 7:33 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Strange Mount Behaviour
 
Hi Terry

>>>The mount was not heading Home;

Did you previously configure Home? And if you did, have you loosened the clutches/reoriented that mount at all in the time since?

 

On Mon, Feb 6, 2023 at 12:13 PM Terry Martin <terry@...> wrote:
Thank you all for your replies.

Let me clarify some things.  When I said above that I shut the computer down, what I should have said is I shut Windows down; the power to the computer was still on, as was power to the mount.

I have windows set up to never go to sleep; that includes all the USB settings in Power Management.

The mount was not heading Home; I don’t know where it was going, but it surely was not Home.  The counterweights were up and the scope was pointed down.

The procedure I mentioned above is the same one I have always used.  In the morning the mount is parked.  I check the computer to see that the images that were supposed to have been taken are on the computer.  I then download the images onto another drive.   Once that is done, I disconnect all the equipment, one device at a time, from NINA, then close down NINA.  Once NINA is shut down, I then shut down APPC.  Once APPC is shut down, I then shut down Windows.  I then go outside, turn the power off to the computer and mount, and then cover the scope and mount.

~Terry



--

Terry Martin
 

Hi Brian,

The Home position works fine.  In my initial post I said after reconnecting to the mount I parked the mount, which I did.  But before parking the mount I gave it the command to go Home in APPC.  The mount went Home perfectly, then I parked the mount.

Yesterday the mount worked perfectly with no strange behaviour.

~Terry
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