Just when I'm thinking all is working okay... I'm having another meridian flip issue!

Everything works fine until the flip.  Then it makes the MF successfully, then sometimes aligns okay (sometimes not), then nothing... no guiding, no capture.  The mount continues to track until the altitude limit hits, then it parks.

I've attached a log from two nights ago.  For some reason, I got a parking error on this run.

I would be grateful if someone can decipher the issue.

Thanks,

Ron

Just quick question. Do you use scheduler? When I was using just sequencer I had similiar issues.

Yes, I always use the scheduler. In the past, it has work fairly reliably... but since my last upgrade it has given me fits.

Ron

Can someone review the log? Apparently EKOS is waiting for PHD2 to settle, but I'm not sure what is happening to cause this.

Ron

Yes, settling never times out apparently? Anyone with more PHD2 knowledge can figure out from the logs what's going on?

It's not a PHD issue, it has it's origin in a weird behavior of the mount I haven't seen before:

1. The meridian flip starts as expects, but it terminates with the wrong pier side result at 23:44:26
2. Alignment starts but surprisingly in between the alignment, a second meridian flip at 23:44:49. This time guiding is not running since the post-flip-calibration wasn't finished yet
3. Flip finishes, but fails again.
4. This time, after alignment finished successfully, guiding is not restarted since before the second flip it wasn't running
5. Unfortunately, the guide deviation before capturing setting is checked, i.e. start of capturing is postponed until guider is running, but the capture module won't do it since it wasn't running  before the second flip.

The core problem we need to investigate deeper: why did the the flip start for a second time and did not wait for at least 4 minutes.

@Ron: The problem started when KStars initiated a flip while the mount hardware had a different opinion. It remained on the same pier side and did not switch to the other one as expected. As a first fix I would recommend increasing the flip delay. Nevertheless I would recommend checking whether EKOS and mount hardware have either different time setup or different location setup which would explain why the pier side did not change. If both match, then the only solution to avoid this increasing the flip delay.

HTH
Wolfgang

Not sure is settling time, if I read logs correctly PHD2 never asked to start again

[2022-02-19T23:44:28.233 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: event: "{\"Event\":\"GuidingStopped\",\"Timestamp\":1645332268.069,\"Host\":\"stellarmate\",\"Inst\":1}\r\n"
[2022-02-19T23:44:28.588 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: event: "{\"Event\":\"LoopingExposuresStopped\",\"Timestamp\":1645332268.524,\"Host\":\"stellarmate\",\"Inst\":1}\r\n"
[2022-02-19T23:44:29.032 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: response: "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"result\":true,\"id\":4068}\r\n"
[2022-02-19T23:44:29.033 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: request: "{\"id\":4069,\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"method\":\"get_app_state\"}"
[2022-02-19T23:44:29.034 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: response: "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"result\":\"Stopped\",\"id\":4069}\r\n"
Then
[2022-02-19T23:44:49.922 EST INFO ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.mount] - "Meridian flip slew started..."
[2022-02-19T23:44:49.923 EST DEBG ][           org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] dispatch_command: \":f1\", 4 bytes written "

Then
[2022-02-19T23:45:15.868 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: defer call "get_app_state"
[2022-02-19T23:45:15.952 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: response: "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"result\":true,\"id\":4100}\r\n"
[2022-02-19T23:45:15.952 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: request: "{\"id\":4101,\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"method\":\"get_app_state\"}"
[2022-02-19T23:45:15.955 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: response: "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"result\":\"Stopped\",\"id\":4101}\r\n"


[2022-02-19T23:45:18.374 EST DEBG ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - Align State changed from "In Progress" to "Complete"
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.375 EST INFO ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - "Post flip re-alignment completed successfully."
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.375 EST DEBG ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - setMeridianFlipStage:  "MF_NONE"

Then
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.868 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: request: "{\"id\":4102,\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"method\":\"get_connected\"}"
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.868 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: defer call "get_app_state"
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.871 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: response: "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"result\":true,\"id\":4102}\r\n"
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.871 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: request: "{\"id\":4103,\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"method\":\"get_app_state\"}"
[2022-02-19T23:45:18.874 EST DEBG ][     org.kde.kstars.ekos.guide] - PHD2: response: "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"result\":\"Stopped\",\"id\":4103}\r\n"


THen
[2022-02-19T23:45:20.557 EST DEBG ][   org.kde.kstars.ekos.capture] - Waiting for the guider to settle.
[2022-02-19T23:45:20.557 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.ekos.scheduler] - Capture State "Capturing"
 

Wolfgang,

Hmmm... good analysis! Then this is really the same problem that I had prior to upgrading... which I thought was solved. In prior instances (as I was watching), EKOS would tell the mount to flip... but would fail. It would then say that it would wait for a later time (like reset to a 20 minute countdown), but would then try (and succeed) about 4 minutes later. Then it would not restart guiding or capturing.

I'm not sure how to check the mount (EQ6-R) for the same location/time as EKOS, but I have checked the EKOS settings and verified it sets/updates the location and time on the mount. I think I may be able to plug in the handset and check for proper synchronization.

In the mean time, I will delay the flip for a longer period.

Thanks for looking at the log... really helps!

Ron

Gene,

Thanks! I'm not sure what exactly is happening, but (per the above) it appears that EKOS and the mount are not in sync. I'm going to try some experiments to see if I can figure out what's going on.

Ron

This issue is typical of a wrong mount starting position at power on. I find that mount with Eqmod are very sensitive to that.
If it is not exactly counterweight down at power on this make an offset with the mount physical pseudo-encoder position that is not changed by subsequent Sync.
Because of this offset the mount can think it must still slew with Pier West when it is really past the meridian.

A solution is to set a delay before flip that is larger than this position error.
The solution I implement in CCDciel is to check Pier Side after the slew for the flip, if it is still West the program stop the tracking and wait 5 minutes before to retry up to 5 time.

I was pondering setting a minimum to the meridian flip hour angle threshold in Ekos. Right now you can set it to zero. Would making the minimum 3 or even 5 degrees help with this?

What if you start (from park) with the counter weights horizontally? Do you then need to go 90 degree past the meridian to make it flip?