I have seen several posts from folks having problems with the dome software slaving to the telescope. While there are a number of posts, there are no 'solutions'. My personal favorite was one poster that said words to the effect of 'It is fixed now and wasn't intuitive', yet mentioned neither what fixed it nor what non-intuitive steps he took.
So here is the issue:
At the start of the night I start up CPWI for my celestron mount, then fire up ASCOM and connect the mount, the dome and the focuser. My dome sits a 'home' (180 degrees) as the motor is on the North and the Home Sensor is on the South.
Then I hit 'slave to telescope' and the dome rotates to the North, coming close to matching up to the telescope. I have a add 14 degrees of correction in the Ascom tab for the dome and it lines up perfectly.
Then I slew to a target about 15 degrees from the telescope 'home' (NCP) and plate solve to orient the telescope. Leaving it there, the dome moves a little every few min once or twice, like it is tracking in FA.
Then I go to an actual target- the telescope moves fine, the dome sits there and does nothing. Restarting Ascom, reconnecting everything and slaving to the dome, still no rotation. I disconnect the dome, disconnect both beaver programs (Advance Settings/Testing and the Status Window), Restart the Beaver Settings/Testing program and connect to dome, then connect via Ascom. The result is hit and miss, sometimes it rotates to the telescope, sometimes not. Clockwise/Counterclockwise rotation sometimes works. Find Home works. In fact when it 'loses connection' hitting 'Find Home' can sometimes make it connect to the telescope, sometimes not.
What confuses me is that I can control it from ascom (most of the time) but it doesn't read the position of the telescope. Ascom sees the telescope, and the dome, and the two values don't seem to see each other- dome/telescope at N, rotate telescope to East, Ascom says the dome is N and the Telescope is E, but even though slave is check, the dome doesn't move. I can use both the switch on the box and Ascom to rotate the dome to the E, and it recognizes it is E, but moving the telescope does nothing, the dome just sits there.
I get ONE accurate rotation each time I set up Ascom and connect/slave the dome, then they don't know each other again.
Contacting Beaver results in helpful advice- 'it has NEVER happened before so it isn't our divers. Check everything USB'. I pointed out how useless that was, and they said contact Nexdome. A quick read here shows a number of threads about the same issue, the one that has NEVER happened, but no corrective actions.
Any suggestions? Shutter works fine, motor box works fine, dome rotates fine, both the azimuth of the dome and the telescope are reported to asom, but no tracking or connection between the dome and the telescope.
Bob
