Troubleshooting

Problem

Solution

Cannot Connect to the Telescope

If you are using ASCOM:

1.Make sure you have installed the latest ASCOM platform installed (https://www.ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm).

2.Make sure you have installed any updated drivers. PEMPro should warn you if they are needed, but it does not hurt to check. (https://www.ascom-standards.org/downloads.html)

3.If you need to update a driver that does not have an installer, then do not rename the old driver. Copy the new driver directly on top of the existing driver.

4.Run the telescope's setup dialog (in PEMPro you can click Setup | Edit ASCOM Driver Settings...). Make sure that the COM port is set correctly and adjust any other settings that may apply to your specific setup or location.

When I launch the telescope connection, I have a message which said "Connect Failed: Type Mismatch".

This message is coming from the ASCOM driver. Unfortunately the ASCOM driver is probably getting confused by the difference in the way numbers are written (use of "," instead of "." for the decimal point)in regions outside the United States.

To fix this you will need to go into Windows Control Panel and click the Customize button. Then selected "." as the Decimal symbol and "," as the grouping symbol. If that does not work try switching the region to "Engish (United States)" in both the regional and Advanced tabs.

Cannot Connect to the Camera

If you are using Maxim:

1.Check that you have the latest version of software available. If you do not, download the latest version from https://www.cyanogen.com

2.Check that you can connect to your camera manually.

If you are using CCDSoft

1.Check that you have version 5.00.175 or later installed. You can get the latest hot fix from here: https://www.bisque.com/hotfixes

2.Check that you can connect to your camera manually.

If you are using AstroArt:

1.Make sure you have AstroArt V3 Service Pack 3 or AstroArt V4 installed (https://www.msb-astroart.com/down_en.htm)

2.Make sure you have the latest driver for your CCD camera installed (https://www.msb-astroart.com/ccd_en.htm)

3.Make sure you have the latest CCD User Interface installed (https://www.msb-astroart.com/ccd_en.htm)

4.Check that you can connect to your camera manually.

Periodic error is doubled instead of being reduced.

PEMPro has the correction direction backwards. If you are playing back to the mount do NOT move the mount. Click menu Settings | Settings Summary and invert the value in the Movement Direction setting.

Or, if PEMPro has the ability to write a curve directly to your mount, then you try downloading the curve, Inverting it in PEMPro, then uploading it back to the mount. Be sure to check that this fixed the problem (PE should be reduced).

Periodic error is not changed despite being programmed into the mount.

1.Make sure to run the Calibration Wizard before doing an Acquire Data. Any setting that is incorrect, especially image scale, will result in an inaccurate correction.

2.If playing back to th emount make sure you have the correct axis selected. Most often RA is the X-axis.

3.Make sure PEC is enabled on the mount.

In the Calibration Wizard PEMPro correctly identified the Y-axis as RA but the main graph shows a flat curve for Y and what looks like periodic data in the X graph.

If Settings | De-rotate data is checked and you ran the calibration wizard, PEMPro will derotate the data so RA is always displayed on the X-graph.

Curves don't line up on the main graph.

1.The mount has a non-integer harmonic that is not correctable by PEC because it is not repeat at the start of each worm cycle. This *might* be something in the gearbox that can be replaced. Also, this kind of error can come from a loose gear or coupler somewhere in the gearbox.

2.The time is being altered on the system. Some CCD Cameras (mostly parallel port cameras) will stop the clock because they are in kernel level. This would cause the worm period to appear shorter than it should.

3.The worm period is not set correctly.

4.If there the features of the curve creep forward or backward between cycles then the mount is not tracking at sidereal rate. Check your user manual for a way to adjust serial rate. If the shifting is to the right then the mount is tracking too slowly.

The mount seems to have a lot of drift.

1.Improve polar alignment.

2.Could be from refraction or mount flexure.

The curve in Create PEC dialog does not match my curve very well.

1.Increase the Drift Fitting level

2.Look at the Frequency Spectrum to see if all of the fundamentals are accounted for.

3.If there are non-integral fundamentals in the Frequency Spectrum they cannot be modeled and corrected by PEMPro (or by any other method).

Unhandled exception occurs.

Hopefully this won't happen but if it does try to do a screen capture or carefully write down the message and post to the CCDWare PEMPro forum (accessed through the Help menu in PEMPro).