AWR/ASCOM drive woes 2.

 *

My immediate option seems to be an ASCOM Diagnostics & Conform scan for errors. It is cloudy and blowing a gale today so no chance to do any real astronomy. So I might as well sit in the closed dome and see if I can discover anything for myself. In fact I rotated the dome to the west out of the wind. It was bit noisy during fiercer gusts but better than sitting in the dark.

Rather weirdly the Wifi internet returned yesterday when I turned the laptop by 90°. Previously this orientation was very poor. I had been placing the laptop on various boxes. Now the Wifi works perfectly with the laptop lying on the desk top.

Well, I ran ASCOM Diagnostics and Conform. Both showed a clean bill of health. There was a warning on Conform that the telescope would move to many positions during the test. It didn't do anything physical so the test must be a simulation. C-Du-C [Skycharts] behaved itself this morning.

I had been running the serial cable through a USB3 hub until today. I plugged it directly into the laptop to reduce the risk of failure by one more potential step. There was no run-on of the Declination motor either after a slew to the sun. I left the shutters almost closed to avoid the SE wind getting in. It overshot in RA as usual.

Meanwhile I discovered that the telescopes' positions affects the Wifi signal strength as they slew. Makes sense. Reversing the laptop on the desk retrieved the signal. Nuts! Now I need to make a driven turntable for the laptop? Perhaps I can get ASCOM to remotely rotate it to maximise signal strength? Or perhaps not.

Newsflash! With Skycharts turned off AWR sent the telescopes nose down to the SE. Only pulling the power plug stopped it at -30° altitude! The AWR IH2 completely ignored my button pressing. So I sent the telescopes back to the sun and Home again using coordinate inputs to the IH2 and all went well this time.

AWR: Dec drive Direction is still "fragile." I have to reverse it manually via the IH2 at least once a week!

*